Lent - The disciplinary tradition

The origin of lent represents the 40 days of fasting that Jesus toughed his way through as a destroyer of sin, devourer of nothing. If you care to know more about the reasoning behind it, check this out. Personally, I don’t really care for the reasoning but it has become something of a tradition for me and a few friends who aren’t necessarily avid church goers. Our version of it basically works out to be either giving up a bad habit/personal pleasure or take on something beneficial to yourself or others. Here’s a brief list of what myself and friends have givin up in the past and their relative difficulties.

· Video Games - was surpisingly easy, just read a bit more than usual, I wasn't as in tune with the new releases as I am now

· Salt and Pepper - I used to use it in excess, it was a very simple one to give up but it’s also one that really stuck as I rarely use it even today

· Music – This was, by far, the most difficult and depressing. I really love music and while I allowed others to listen around me I could not listen on my own initiative. This one made my GPA drop.

· Coffee – I didn’t do this personally, some of my friends have; it’s a popular one but makes for a rough first week depending on the level of dependency.

· Pizza –A friend took this one on, I made sure to enjoy more pizza around him for the month that followed (#goodfriend)

· Sarcasm – Surprisingly tough but not a bad way to go. A few ladies I knew did this one, they thought it was sooooooo fuuuuun.

· Alcohol – Probably one of the better ones, you can be the DD for 40 days!

Of course, the list goes on for as long as you can think on the subject. Those were all examples of things to give up so here a few ones one can take on:

· Walk 3km a day - not tough to do and good for you

· Jog x kilometers a month - same idea as above

· Eat more healthily - very general but a good idea to start with

· Read/write x pages a day/week - Most Christians would do this with regard to the bible as it's a time of discipline and reading the bible requires it.

· Write a blog entry everyday – this is what I want to take on this year, there should be 40+ articles on my blog by lent’s end.

So, why am I taking the time to write in detail about such a tradition? Regardless of what you believe, lent (or the 40 days of whatever) can be a good time to make a positive change. I think the most significant idea that occurred to me was that 40 days is the perfect time to form a habit, not quite 66.  Actually, that article talks about people who have a resistance to forming habits which would explain some things.  
Now, when we think of taking up jogging a few times a week we usually think, “Oh man, I really don’t like jogging, and doing it for the rest of my life is not gonna happen so what’s the point of picking it up at all?” This is a common attitude (one that I’ve shared from time to time) and is self-defeating. But when you say to yourself, “let’s take up jogging for 1 month, if I don’t like it by the end I’ll give it up knowing I gave it a fair chance.” So you’ve gone from loathing the idea of how long you can sustain the jogging to knowing you only have a short time period (40 days is nothing) to commit to. 
Finally, we can use the tradition to make it something of a group activity.  If everyone is doing it, it motivates us to try harder.  Going in with that positive mentality, maybe you’ll find you get hooked to whatever habit you've been forming and that positive change sticks. I think that would be the greatest result of taking up something for lent. 

~Good luck~