The title of this blog site, Power Walking with Jonna, refers to spiritual exercise rather than physical, but I chose the name because most of my inspiration comes to me while I’m out walking for my health.

When I first began my walking regimen I was surprised to find that streets and roads that seemed flat and level when driving over them became a mini-mountain range when scaling them on foot.  And some of them were uphill in both directions!

In the beginning I struggled with these inclines and occasionally planned my route to avoid the steepest paths. Gradually, as I became more physically fit, I began to take pride in beginning to feel the road leveling out under my feet.  My personal  Mt. Everests still had me sore and panting before reaching their peaks, though.

A tip I read about walking or running uphill made all the difference.   The writer advised exercisers to shorten their stride as the grade increases. My instinct had been to try to take slower, longer strides to slog up the hills, but now I learned that quicker, shorter steps could have me over the top and sailing down the other side faster and  with less effort.  It works for me, so I’m happy to pass the tip on.

As with most good advice, this bit of wisdom can apply to other areas of life as well as power walking.

Whenever I am faced with an uphill battle, something that appears to be monumental or difficult to overcome, I try to remember to shorten my stride and take many small steps rather than trying to get over the problem in leaps and bounds.

Sometimes when you accept making less forward progress with each step you find that the hill isn’t as steep as you first thought. And if it is still a challenge you have more energy to keep working away at it, a little at a time, until you can see your way over the top and down the other side.

The Bible says that a tiny bit of faith can move a mountain. It does not say, “at once”.