He who is outside his door already has a hard part of his journey behind him.
- DUTCH PROVERB
It’s Monday morning. So I roll out of bed into running shoes. I put on music. I do my workout.
It’s been my Mon/Wed/Fri routine for years.
Yet I still fight it every time. Do it today or skip it?
But the key to yes or no is simple:
Whether or not I put on the shoes.
If I’ll just put them on, the body will take over from there and I’ll do the workout automatically.
That’s the way habits work.
Force the first step and the next one follows.
I never look forward to the workout, but I never regret having done it.
The same applies for me with Bible memorization. I don’t look forward to the discipline of it, but I never regret having done it.
The hardest part?
Pulling out my sheet of verses.
But once it’s in my hands, I’m good to go.
That doesn’t mean it’s then easy or even necessarily productive or profitable every time (far from it!). But if I don’t open it at all, I know it won’t be good.
Some days my physical workouts stink too. I’m barely moving, barely breathing hard. But . . . it’s still better than doing nothing at all.
Just showing up can be the hardest part. But just showing up, making a move, taking some initiative, may make the difference between working out or going back to bed.
So go put your shoes on. Or pull out your page of memory verses. Or whatever is your key to yes.
Do the first thing.
* * *
What’s the first small step in one of your hard disciplines?
REVISED FROM THE ARCHIVES
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