Hopefully you are feeling some sort of freshness from the new year now that January is about over! I know it took me awhile to settle in and maybe you’re the same.
When I had a chance to put goals and dreams in ordered sense for the year, my initial thought was this is going to be easy! At a glance some of the habits I wanted to conquer seemed so natural to take on.
Keep the morning ritual — quite time, reading, and journaling
Write daily
Surrender social media
Slow down to be all present in the moment
Say no more often
Get to the gym
And diet — eat clean
Easy breezy!
I just knew that out of all my habit goals these seven would be without hesitation accomplished daily. It was a no-brainer because they were so doable and well . . . just plain easy.
My daughter who recently spent close to three months in Africa had a saying while she was there — I can do hard things! She ministered and served as a nurse in the slums. She taught Bible studies. She climbed mountains and conquered waterfalls. She did hard things!
I love that saying so much. I long to do hard things. Big things! So naturally I was excited when she gave me a mug for Christmas with that saying on it, because that’s what I want to do.
I want to live doing hard things.
I want to push myself to conquer. To do big things. To stretch and know I’ve done something I didn’t think I could. Who doesn’t want to do hard things? I think it’s part of our adventurous nature.
But as the new month settled in and I began to see that some of my “easy” goals were let’s just say NOT SO EASY, I found myself repeating in my head “I can do hard things.”
Waking up before the crack of dawn — I can do hard things.
Sitting down to write when I feel like there are no words to spill forth — I can do hard things.
Not letting others social media and blog sites influence what I’m suppose to do — I can do hard things.
Saying no to a friend’s request — I can do hard things.
Put my gym clothes on and go — I can do hard things.
Skip Starbucks — I can do really hard things!
And what I’ve noticed is that I’d truly much rather conquer hard things than worry about these little things. Who wants to spend precious time counting words or calories? Who wants to sweat at the gym or tell a friend no? Not me! I’d so much rather be thinking on and scheduling hard things and adventures.
But in the pit of my soul I know, it is in conquering our little things that allow for us to accomplish our big things.
Conquering the easy things.
If our little things aren’t in order or in shape, how will we be ready to tackle the hard things? As I climb on the treadmill almost daily and crank up the incline, I remind myself that I have to conquer this thing. I have to build myself, my muscle, my stamina. I have to because in April I get to do what I love to do — hard things!
I’ll be joining Leading and Loving It and World Help in Operation Baby Rescue in Guatemala. My heart pounds with excitement just waiting for those days to be here. But if my little things aren’t in order, I will not be my best for that emotionally and physically hard trip.
So friends, that’s why I’m conquering easy things.
Oh dear easy things of life, why do you seem so hard?
What hard things are you conquering this new year?