Healthy Disciplines by Steph Beth Nickel

I participate in A Round of Words in 80 Days four times a year. Although it is a challenge for writers, many of us share not only our writing goals but also other goals as well.

I would encourage you to create your own list of goals. Recently I gave my list the title “Do It Already.” Hopefully, this motivates me to get things done—and serves as an encouragement for you to do the same.

In order to be truly healthy, we must live balanced lives. I’ve included two of my ROW80 goals in each category and one additional goal from my DIA list in purple.

Spiritual Disciplines

~ begin & end each day with prayer; prayer journal 3-5x/week

~ study the Scriptures 5x/week (continue working my way through the book of Romans)

~ work through Ted Dekker’s The Forgotten Way

Physical Disciplines

~ exercise to a workout video 2-3x/week

~ create a meal plan each week (When I plan ahead, I prepare much healthier meals.)

~ get seven hours of sleep each night

Mental Health Disciplines

~ spend time with my hubby each day

~ read for pleasure 15-30 minutes/day

~ get out for regular photo walks

Professional Disciplines

~ review changes Client #1 made to her manuscript

~ work on Client #2’s manuscript 5x/week (This will get more attention now that Client #1’s project is off my desk.)

~ work on Deb’s book 3+ hours/week (We have begun work on a follow-up book to her memoir, Living Beyond My Circumstances. We have tentatively titled it Still Living Beyond My Circumstances.)

Other Writing-Related Disciplines

~ write & upload 5 devotionals for HopeStreamRadio every week from now until the end of August

~ begin to post 2 additional posts on my blog and 1 on my website each week

~ create a blogging schedule

Hometending Disciplines

~ clean, organize, & declutter 4+ hours/week

~ keep the kitchen reasonable

Your goals will obviously not be the same as mine, but the majority of these disciplines apply to all of us. We must tend to our spiritual and physical wellbeing as well as our emotional health. Many of us work either outside the home or from our home office—or both. We have interests and hobbies we want to pursue as well as household responsibilities. (I borrowed the term “hometending” from one of the other participants in A Round of Words.)

While I set goals in all of these areas, I realize I won’t accomplish them all in any given week—and that’s okay.

You may want to set one goal in each area and work toward it over the next month or so. As an alternative, you may want to choose the area in which you feel you most need to make progress and focus on that discipline until you’re ready to add a second, then a third, and so on.

However, you choose to tend to these disciplines, I would encourage you to be kind to yourself and to prayerfully consider what God has for you in the days ahead.

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We must tend to our spiritual and physical wellbeing as well as our emotional health. (tweet this)

Steph Beth Nickel is an author, a freelance editor and writer, a labour doula, and a former personal trainer. She’d love to connect with you on Facebook or Twitter, on her website or blog.