One Thing at a Time

Are you as impatient as I am to accomplish goals?  Do you want to have all of your New Year's Resolutions achieved now?  We've all learned (the hard way) that focusing on one or two at a time accomplishes them faster, in the long-run.  Scripture teaches us that, too.  Today's excerpt from my book Go Forward: 28 Days to Eat, Move, and Enjoy Life God's Way introduces how to make changes that last.

If you would like to read the full chapter, just follow this link to purchase Go Forward.  2016 will be a strong and healthy year for you!

Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.  1 Timothy 4:15(NKJV)

“Meditate on these things.”  In order to successfully move forward on your health journey, you will need to remove different obstacles.  One hindrance is unhelpful thoughts such as, “I don’t know if I can do this.”  Rather than thinking negative thoughts, meditate on what the Bible says, particularly in regard to your health. 

Another hindrance is that we all live our current patterns by reflex and without thought.  To change to a new manner of living, you must consciously choose your actions each moment, until the new way of living is automatic.  How do you break an engrained pattern and start a new one?  Think constantly on the new habit you want to form or the lifestyle you want to live.  (For "how to" ideas, refer to the list in Go Forward.)

“Give yourself entirely to them.”  Decrease or eliminate what distracts you from your goal.   Do not have so many new goals that they distract from each other.  Choose one or two new habits that reinforce each other to focus on at a time.  For example: I will drink two cups of water after my mid-day walk.  “Entirely” means one hundred percent.  If you try to form several new healthy habits at once, you will not be able to give all of your attention to each.  After a week (or a month) of practicing one habit, add another.  What if you have a setback?  No worries.  Turn lapses into lessons.  Do not judge yourself, but learn from your experiences.  This time next year the “new habits” will be a lifestyle.