Let’s play a game! It’s a game designed to create awareness about our current level of saintliness. You get a score and a grade at the end of each day, and a weekly summary. We call it Saintball since it rhymes with paintball. Admittedly not that original but we will be battling demons, including ourselves so it seems appropriate.
You can start today! No need to read the sAint Me book which contains a more advanced version.
Let’s start by tracking two things, (1) how we are using our time, and (2) how we are behaving, simple. This will be subjective but it’s a good start in understanding ourselves.
The game requires three steps:
- Set a goal for how many hours a day you would like to invest in valuable activities, from a “make the world a better place” perspective. Maybe use a percentage of your waking hours. Something like 24 hours a day less 8 hours for sleep equals 16 waking hours. 80 percent of that is about 13 hours, seems high. 50 percent is 8 hours, seem low. Choose a number between 8 and 13.
- Throughout each day determine if what you are doing is a valuable use of your time and count the hours. It might be easier in the beginning to count your wasted hours and subtract that number from your waking hours. Something like, subtract from my 16 waking hours the waste of binge watching a show (3 hours), playing games on my phone (2 hours), and traveling down the facebook rabbit hole for (2 hours), resulting in 9 valuable hours. Got it?
- Keep track of your good and bad behavior. It’s best to think of this in terms of what you instinctively know to be right and wrong ways of thinking, speaking and acting. Without making the excuses we have learned to justify our bad behavior over our lifetimes. We found it best in the beginning to set an hourly alarm. Think about the past hour and give yourself 1 positive point for each good thing you thought, said or did, and 1 negative point for each bad. Carry a notecard to keep track. It takes very little time to do. And will have you making any needed improvements quickly. Really! Try it.
At the end of each day fill out the Saintball Scorecard. Use either the Beginner Manual or Auto (spreadsheet) version on the right side of this page. Then follow the instructions to compute your score and grade each day, and summary for the week. Godspeed.
By the way, it’s not easy to become a saint which the scoring system reflects. We admit to averaging a “C” so far this year (2017). Hey, the book has Aint Me in the title:-)
If you have read the book, use the Advanced worksheet versions. This advanced version is designed for those of you who have developed your Life Plan. It’s a little more complex. If any of you knows how to make an inexpensive app to replace these worksheets please let us know.
The Saint Builder Foundation 