Be Strong and Courageous Today

There is a connection between strength, courage, and today. In the Bible you will find several passages that say "be strong and courageous." You will also find passages such as "as long as it is called today encourage one another."

In the gym we know that strength is not long lasting. If you don't lift heavier weights fairly regularly then your strength will leave you fairly quickly. The same is true of courage. If you find yourself discouraged or afraid to step out and do the things you know you need to do then courage will leave you very quickly. The reason is that both strength and courage are today things. They need to be renewed every day.

What does this have to do with health and fitness? One of the things I have seen through the years is that a lack of courage or being discouraged can be a limiting factor for transforming your body. It takes courage to go to the gym, to try something new, to lift heavy weights, and to start eating better. It also takes courage to take measurements when you know you have been off track and to take before and after pictures. Most of all it takes courage to really commit to making a change.

All of these things take courage. When you are working to improve your health it can also become easy to become discouraged. It is important to encourage yourself daily but to also surround yourself with coaches, workout partners, or friends who will encourage you when you are tempted to become discouraged. Remember that the words encourage and discourage both contain courage in them. You must find ways to renew your strength and courage every day. So how do you do this?

The key to building both strength and courage are both found in the word today. As you work on them daily (remember as long is it called today) you will build momentum and your results will begin to gain compound interest. The good news is that you don't have to do anything really big on a given day. Small easy steps every day will build momentum over time. A couple of questions to ask yourself on a daily basis:

What did I do to get stronger physically today?
Is there anything I have been putting off because of fear?