START SMALL

“Sixteen attentive rounds are most important.”

We can improve our spiritual life by starting from where we are now and then going forward, step-by-step. Improvements may be small, but constant. If we just give attention to what really matters in our practice of bhakti-yoga, we will make advancement. We can improve our sadhana. We can make a plan to rise early. Take steps to make sure it happens: have a reliable alarm clock, or someone who is regulated and is willing to wake us up. Most important is to go early to bed.

We can improve our japa, for example, by keeping a Japa Quality Journal. Write down every day how we did in the morning. Assess ourselves. Give it attention. Sixteen attentive rounds are most important. Chanting along with Srila Prabhupada’s japa tape might help.

We may read every day, at least a verse and a purport; write down a main point; write what we can apply tomorrow from the text we've read. In this way we can renew our enthusiasm and spiritual strength every day and have strength to start developing nice devotional relationships with authorities and other devotees. And then we can cooperate nicely in the mission of spreading Krishna consciousness all over the world.