Press On

My life seems to have more than the average scattering of good intentions and failed attempts. For all the things I've started and stopped, started and dropped, tried and failed, tried again and failed again, there is one thing I've managed to learn really well. And it's not that I'm a failure, despite the lies that regularly want to convince me that all my repeated attempts and subsequent failures to create this new habit or that, mean that I'm a screw-up who will never get it right.
Nope. What I've learned is that it's always worth trying again. No matter how many times I slip back into skipping my prayer time, not keeping up an exercise routine, late nights, or days filled with tv instead of books and outdoors, no matter how many times my patience abruptly lets go, or how many times some new practice I started was forgotten after a couple of days, or how many times that that project/cleaning/letter I meant to do still hasn't been done - none of it means I am a failure, or that I should stop trying to do those good things.
I think many of us have these moments where we're so discouraged by our track record that it feels like there is no point - we might as well give in to the inertia and stop attempting the better habits and practices. Why keep repeating the same pattern over and over again; why try when you know that sooner or later you'll fall off the bandwagon and be back to the old habits?
"Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil 3:13-14) Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. Those failures? They're yesterday's failures. Forget them. Strain toward what is ahead. Yes, you might fail again, but guess what? In a short moment, that will be yesterday's failures, too. There is always a fresh start before you. Always. 
And in the meantime, every month, week, or even day, that you manged to do whatever you're struggling to change - that's one month, week, day, that you did a good thing. You ate healthy, went for a walk, read a book to your children, and all those "try again's"? They add up. You are still making a difference, one drop at a time.
"Press on toward the goal to win the prize." Press on, friends, press on.