Fighting Through

I am lucky enough currently to be within walking distance of where I am working. (I suppose that technically, even when I was at ABC, it was walking distance--just a very long walk!)
 
Most days, I do walk, almost on auto-pilot. It is exercise, it saves the money of bus fare, and it gives me time to process things--home issues on my way to work, work issues on my way home, the quirks of people on the street at any time.
 
There are days, however, when even the short walk feels as though it will be exhausting. On those days, I find myself drifting toward a bus stop. While the bus won't get me all the way, it will do most of the hard work, and that is tempting. Sometimes, I do take the assist. But most days, I find myself walking past the bus stop--fighting through whatever foot pain or tiredness got me there in the first place. And I get to work, just the same, a bit of exercise under my belt, and a feeling of accomplishment along the way.
 
Now, walking fifteen minutes to work is not a huge accomplishment. I am not infirm, and many days, that is all the exercise I get (unless you count cleaning up after kids and boiling water for dinner). The accomplishment, as I see it, is the fighting through on those days when I really don't think I'll survive the fifteen minute walk. Fighting through that is generally just the beginning of the fighting through that I (and we all) do all day. Days are full of things we don't want to do, or don't think we can do. How we handle those things is what really determines our days. Do we look for the easy out--like the bus? Or do we fight through situations and find out that we really can handle them without any assist at all? Tests of our fight-through ability happen every day--how often do we find that when we do fight through, we actually reach our goals and feel better for it? 

I can't say that I will never take advantage of public transportation on the days when I just don't have it in me to fight through. But most days, I'll keep fighting. I know from experience that it makes me feel better--and stronger--at the end of my path.