The Gift that is Discipline

I didn’t jump out of bed to put on my walking shoes this morning. 

I’d been lying in bed listening to the sound of rain hitting the roof of our trailer. But, I wasn’t hearing it anymore. 

You see, normally, I skip my daily walk on rainy days. 

But it didn’t seem to be raining any longer. Or at least not so hard that it would make walking miserable. 

I checked the weather app on my phone. It showed the storms had moved past us with nothing on the radar to indicate more rain was imminent.

Le sigh…

I got dressed, put on my walking shoes, and opened the door to head outside. 

I could see a soft, misty rain falling.

I looked up the short hall to where my husband and dog were still sprawled out on the bed.

Le sigh… 

I would have kicked off my shoes and crawled back into bed except for one thing.

Tomorrow, Earl has an 8 a.m. dental appointment. That means I won’t get my usual 5-mile walk in.

So I stepped out the door, started my walking app, and headed across the field to the driveway. 

As I walked up the gravel driveway and noticed the drizzle had pretty much stopped, I thought about discipline.

Discipline often gets a bad reputation. We associate it with punishment, deprivation, or forcing ourselves to do things we don't want to do.

But what if discipline is simply the practice of staying in integrity with ourselves?

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal to walk 1,000 miles.

To help make that happen, I created a smaller goal of 100 miles each month. Technically, that would put me on pace for 1,200 miles by year's end, but I know there will be travel months when long daily walks are harder to achieve.

Planning gives me room for real life adjustments.

As of today, I've walked 110 miles this month, with a week still to go, and 656 miles this year.

Those miles weren't earned through motivation.

They were earned through lots of ordinary decisions.

Walk today.

Walk when it's convenient.

Walk when it's inconvenient.

Walk when I feel like it.

Walk when I don't.

Most meaningful goals are achieved the same way.

Not through dramatic bursts of effort, but through small actions repeated often enough that they become part of who we are.

The real reward isn't the number on the tracker.

It's the quiet satisfaction that comes from knowing you can trust yourself to do what you commit to doing.

One step.

One walk.

One promise kept.

What promise are you keeping to yourself by taking small daily steps to honor it? Or, what small daily steps could you start doing today to satisfy that intention?

Until next time,