So I tend to go through phases of what I will listen to in my car while driving. I usually fluctuate between either a podcast, a sermon or a book on tape... but every once in a while I just need some good old fashion music and will flip on Klove radio (for those who are local that's 106.9fm). Anyway, several months ago now I happened to turn on Klove at the exact moment that this clip was shared of Levi Lusko preaching. Now considering sermons are pretty much right up my alley, I immediately went home and looked up this guy to see what else I could find by him and ended up downloading his sermons onto my castbox app. Over the past several weeks I have listened to many of his sermon series and have gained so much from what he has shared (not surprising considering I felt the same way from reading 2 of his books in the past month).
Anyway, in the most recent series I have been listening to ("You in five years"), in one of the sermons ("Too Small to Fail") he talks about making stupidly small goals for yourself....like for example just making a goal to do 1 pushup... in order to help you actually get started and keep going on your goals. Honestly, as I listened to what he was saying I was laughing along with the audience...and thinking how ridiculous it would be to actually do...but then as I ruminated on it, I realized that what he was saying actually made a lot of sense. In fact, it made so much sense that I decided to apply it to one of the most needy areas of my life right now....exercise (Not the point of the sermon, but helpful none the less).
I don't know about you, but I have such a love/hate relationship with exercise. When I am into it, I am really into it....but when I fall of track, it's not just like one wheel has come off. Instead, when I fall off the exercise bandwagon, it's like I've jumped the track, sped down a step hill and crashed into a ocean of water where I have immediately sunk to the bottom...and it doesn't seem like there is a way back. This has been my life for the past several months.
I started this year with such grand hopes. I not only wanted to exercise, but eat healthier and reach some of my health goals. But, then life happened... I left one job to take another, got caught up in school, and began eating chips like I was training for a man vs. food competition, and before I knew it not only had I started eating crap again, but I couldn't even bring myself to workout at my house, never mind head to the gym. Night after night, day after day I've gotten lazier and lazier and in many ways I have felt hopeless about it.
Yet, when I heard Levi's sermon and began to consider the implications of making such small goals that it would be impossible to fail, I realized that I didn't have to change everything about this journey over night. I know that sounds like a "Duh!" comment, but if you know me, you know I tend to be an all or nothing kind of person... so when it came to figuring out how to get back on track with my health goals I felt all this pressure to change everything all at once...and to do it perfectly. But, in my mind I already knew that while wanting to hit the gym 6 days a week for an hour or more and eat nothing but clean food sounded good, it wasn't really going to happen.... and so I expected to fail every time I tried. And since I expected to fail, I pretty much half-assed every bit of effort I have put in these past few month...and ultimately have gotten nowhere. I have failed.
Yet this week was different. On Saturday, I decided to take Lusko's advice and make one stupidly small health goal to strive for during the coming week...I simply decided to do some sort of exercise for at least 10 minutes every day (I didn't even name a specific type of exercise because I wanted to make it easy on myself by making any concerted effort count). And guess what....for the last 4 days I have worked out anywhere from 20-45 minutes (well actually Saturday I walked 12 miles at the Relay for life, which took all day, but for the most part I have been in this time range)! I know that seems so small/little....but in reality I have exceeded my goal and honestly I am proud of myself because this is most consistently I have exercised since probably January! What's even more exciting is that I actually find myself not dreading having to get my workout in (all because I know I can reach... and most likely will exceed... my goal)! Now for the first time in a while I actually feel like maybe my "train" is coming out of the water and I could possibly get back on track! Plus the whole process has make me wonder what other areas of my life I can make stupidly small goals for! So even though this may not have been the direction you wanted you sermon to go, thanks Levi Lusko for giving me some much needed encouragement!
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