Practice. Practice. Practice.

Do you have any good habits?

With the pain in my left knee starting to intensify while out on a run this morning the thought crossed my mind to cut my workout short. That is when I heard the words of one of my first bosses,

"Successful people form the habit of doing those things unsuccessful people are unwilling to do."

Where did this come from?

It was the summer between my junior and senior year in college. I worked for a large insurance company. I was determined that I would do in three months what most folks took three years to accomplish. I quickly learned that belief must be married to consistent and persistent action over the long haul and that short bursts of inspiration without action are often just that, short bursts.

I possessed the right beliefs but did not possess the right actions.

Some years later while working in media, a "renowned" sales and marketing guru made his way to our lovely city for a conference. My company offered to pay for and send any employee who wished to attend. When my supervisor asked if I planned to attend I said, "No."

You may wonder why I said no so easily.

The reason I said no is that I did not need more information. I needed to put into practice what I already knew. I just needed to form the habit of doing the things that I already knew to do.

Face it, most of us know what we need to do in order to get to where we want to be, we are just unwilling to form the habit of doing what we know to do.

Do you think these habits hold true in one's spiritual life?

Whether it is prayer, practicing hospitality, taking a weekly Sabbath, or acts of justice sometimes I just need to do what I know whether I feel like or not. I am not talking about some legalistic, fear-based idea of spirituality, nor I am equating business or sports with spirituality, or some hyped form of super "ra-ra" spirituality. I think there is way too much "performance policies " in folks lives.

I am talking about the simplicity of healthy discipline.

I wonder if there were days when Jesus did not "feel" like praying? I imagine that there were times he didn’t "feel" like he needed to rest. I suspect that being fully human there were days that the folks at the local synagogue grated on his nerves.

Like in sports or business, I need discipline in my spiritual life. Usually when I discipline myself to go the extra mile I ultimately feel better. The same can be said for my spiritual life. I seem to always feel better after I pray regardless of how I felt about prior.

"To know the mechanics does not mean that we are practicing the Disciplines. The Spiritual Disciplines are an inward and spiritual reality, and the inner attitude of the heart is far more crucial than the mechanics for coming into the reality of the spiritual life."
--Richard Foster, Celebration Of Discipline.

It is one thing to know what to do; it is something else to practice what I know.