Arnold Schwarzenegger forged a career from body builder to actor to “governator” of California. Preaching fitness for everyone has been a consistent concern throughout his life.
Writing this week in his daily newsletter Pump Club, he discusses how so many of us plan to do things but then never get around to actually doing.
In more than 50 years of my fitness crusade, I cannot count how many times I’ve heard people say they are planning on starting to train or planning on starting a diet. It is always a plan to start on Monday, or the first of the month, or next year. It is never a plan to start now. I see it in the comments of the Pump Club app, in the replies to our daily emails here, and I even hear it from people in the gym. Always planning. Everybody who plans has good intentions, but let’s be honest about what it really is. Planning means you’re not taking action. You’re choosing to avoid getting started. Doing takes effort. Choosing to work on yourself is hard. You know it will be uncomfortable. Changing the status quo is never easy. So you plan. You research. You spin your wheels until you say you wish you could be healthy. And then you start all over, planning and wishing. You wait and wait.
This sounds so familiar. The change you wish may be to lose weight. Or maybe start getting physically fit. Or maybe spiritually fit—I will start studying the Bible Monday or I will have a prayer and meditation session every early morning some day.
Back to Arnold:
I spoke to the annual convention of thoracic surgeons last month. When I sat down to talk to some of my cardiologist friends for coffee after my fireside chat, it was clear most people wait until the choice is made for them — or until it’s too late to make any choices at all.
Will it take a crisis of soul to divert us from the easy path to a life of intentional spiritual practices? Don’t wait for next Monday. Begin today. Right now.
Faith Venture 
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