Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Did you make a New Year’s resolution? If so, how’s it going? If you haven’t kept it, you won’t get any judgment from me. I didn’t even make one.

A study by the University of Scranton reports that only eight percent of those who make New Year’s resolutions keep them. Now here’s the good news – Jan. 1 was only one day in this whole year. Every day is a new opportunity to make a resolution, begin a new habit or, as I was recently challenged by a pastor’s message, to drop a bad habit.

As soon as the pastor mentioned bad habits two came to mind. First is my habit of hitting the snooze button on my phone when the alarm sounds. Second is my habit of checking social media in the mornings when there are so many other things that I should do. But the pastor stressed that we should focus on only one habit, and as I sat there going back and forth over which to attempt to eliminate, I decided to stop hitting snooze.

As I’ve gone through the week attempting to break this habit, I’ve realized how many other areas I could apply my “Don’t Hit Snooze” decision. When someone I’d been praying for crossed my mind, I sent a quick text instead of ‘hitting snooze’ on the thought and hoping I’d remember to do it later. When I noticed a Christmas decoration I had somehow overlooked, I took it off wall and packed it away. I wrote Thank You notes that were long overdue, cleared out email, and even started a book I’d been wanting to read. Whenever I thought of something that needed to be done, I told myself, “Don’t Hit Snooze” and I got up and did it.

I have high hopes of completely breaking my bad habit and finally putting an end to procrastination, but I’m taking it one task at a time. Who knows? Maybe next year the only thought I’ll snooze is the one to check social media as soon as I wake up.

Ronny Michel can be reached at rmichel@rtconline.com.