Words don’t really mean much until you act on them. If you’re like me, you’ve probably said hundreds of things you want to do, but only actually do a handful of them at most (I need more hands than I have to count the New Year’s resolutions I’ve made and not kept…).

A few years ago, I got tired of talking about all these cool things that I wanted to do and decided to make a conscious effort to be more intentional with my words. I wanted to only say things I had an intention to do. It didn’t have to be right away. But when I said I wanted to hike a local trail from Lansdale to Philly, I decided to write it down. I’ve found that there is something inherently powerful about writing an idea down. Just the act of putting pen to paper can bring more resolve to your idea.

But still, words don’t really mean much until you turn them into actions. Keeping a list was my first step to taking action.  Sometimes it takes a while to make things happen, and that’s okay.

I’ve wanted to hike this trail for probably about two years. I’ve hiked parts of it before, but the whole thing always seemed a little intimidating: the whole thing is about 22 miles. Not exactly a quick afternoon hike.

But when I say I want to do something, I try my best to stick to it.  I try to make my word mean something and do what I say I am going to. So I enlisted a friend to hike the Green Ribbon Trail.

In hindsight, maybe we should have done a couple practice hikes to work up to 22 miles. I wanted to give up pretty quickly — about mile 2 my knees were already killing me. We got lost at least once, and I was slightly worried we might get run over by a train. I started getting blisters around mile 15. We started out at a good pace but gradually slowed and took breaks closer together. By the end, I think my friend and I may have been a little delusional… who knew walking could be so much work.

But we made it! It was a gorgeous day — we walked from Lansdale to Philly, saw a new side of our town, and had endless conversations about serious and equally not serious stuff. And praise Jesus, a wonderful friend responded to a last minute text to come save us in Philly and take us home (with a brief stop at McDonalds on the way..) — you know who you are 😉

I may not have been able to walk when I got up the morning the next day, but it was worth it. One more thing I got to check off my list! I always said I was going to hike the whole thing one day, and I got the sore muscles and blisters to prove it.

When you say you want to do something, do it.

Don’t let your words just be words.