Experimental Victory

Seems I’ve been too busy to blog lately, and I’ve missed it. After a friend called me on it Thursday night, I decided I had to make the time to write an update. After all, it’s not every day that we get to celebrate big victories. And this has been huge.

For those of you who’ve been following along, in late January, I felt the Lord challenging me to a 90-day basic training program. As a brief recap, it involved practicing purposeful thanksgiving, starting each day in God’s word, taking on some kind of organizational project, and getting in a little movement (exercise) each day. The goal was not to be perfect or to accomplish a certain amount (or devote a specified quantity of time) each day; the goal was to be consistent and persistent. As it says in Proverbs, “Committed and persistent work pays off."

What seemed at first to be nearly impossible (i.e., fit additional to-dos into a schedule already bursting at the seams), actually made daily life so much more manageable. At the end of the 90 days (on April 18), I looked back and marveled at all that had been accomplished!

Take, for example, the organizational projects in my house. I got more done in those 90 days than I had in all of 2009. Why? Because I tackled projects little bits at a time, and all those little bits added up into big successes.

The Bible speaks to this notion too. When the Israelites were so anxious to see the Temple rebuilt, the angel of the Lord spoke to Zechariah about having patience in the process. As he said, “The people should not think that small beginnings are unimportant. They will be happy when they see Zerubbabel with tools, building the Temple” (Zechariah 4:10, NCV).

The best thing to come out of this experiment for me was the realization that I didn’t need to have hours of extra available time on any given day in order to get things done.


So What Was Accomplished?

Lots. For one thing, I did more sit-ups, aerobics workouts, and walked more miles than I had in ages. I had a consistently better attitude and spent less time worrying and more time praising. And in terms of organization, over those 90 days, I managed to clean out and organize the garage, my office, my master bedroom closet and vanity, the entry way, the pantry, the fridge, and both medicine cabinets among other smaller projects! I also installed a light fixture that had been stored in my garage for the past year because I was waiting to hire a handy man to do it. Budgets are tight right now, and all of the success I was realizing on these other seemingly overwhelming tasks spurred me on to complete the installation myself.

This momentum has carried over since the end of the official 90 days. I’ve changed out the bathroom mirror, finished glazing over the paint in the kitchen, and have purchased the paint supplies for the bathroom remodel.


The Next 90

I don’t know what areas God’s going to have me tackle next. I do know this: “His yoke is easy, and his burden is light.” I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.

So what areas in your life have you been avoiding? Which tasks or goals just seem overwhelming? I would encourage you to try this approach of taking small, consistent, persistent steps, and see where you get 90 days down the road. One more tip: Print out and keep a simple chart to track your progress each day. This added accountability step only adds a couple of minutes to the process but is a huge help to maintain that forward momentum.

Remember: You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you! As a believer, the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is at work in you. I bet there's not a project on your list that's tougher than that!