One Step at a Time

Yesterday, I looked at the goals for this week.

13,000 steps per day.

A sustained walk every day.

A planned Saturday long walk of 11 miles.

Then I looked at everything else.

Work.

Evening and weekend law work.

Household responsibilities.

Family responsibilities.

The Dave Ramsey financial plan, which I know is leading toward freedom later, but right now brings its own kind of pressure.

For a moment, life felt like its own mountain.

Not a scenic one.

A tall, ugly, mean one.

The kind of mountain that does not care how tired you are. The kind that just stands there and waits for you to climb it.

And honestly, looking at the whole thing at once felt heavy.

Too heavy.

But then I had to remind myself of something simple.

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

How do you climb a huge mountain?

One step at a time.

So I stopped looking at everything that needed to be done.

I stopped trying to carry the whole week in my head at once.

I stopped staring at the mountain.

I focused on the next step.

Then the next.

Then the next.

That is really what this whole project keeps teaching me.

The Appalachian Trail will not be walked all at once.

Recovery does not happen all at once.

Debt freedom does not happen all at once.

Faithfulness does not happen all at once.

A hard week does not have to be conquered in one heroic moment.

It just has to be faced one honest step at a time.

Today, that means doing the next right thing.

Take the walk.

Do the work.

Honor the responsibilities.

Trust God with the weight of the whole mountain.

Then take another step.

Forward still counts.

One step at a time.