Had a coaching call with a woman on my business team recently
who was feeling overwhelmed with all the things she wanted to
address in her life–her health & fitness, her business, her
personal growth & spirituality, and ongoing demands at work.
She wanted to give everything “100%” and felt like there wasn’t
enough of her to go around.
Here’s a couple thoughts that helped her, and have also been
key for me and for others I’ve coached, and I thought I’d
share them with you here (as my daughter’s playing by my chair
and 2 of my boys are attacking each other 🙂 ).
The first is, lay “tracks” for your brain & body to run on.
If you have several areas in your life or business you’re
wanting to address, rather than trying to completely “overhaul”
them all at the same time, start by creating a “space” or
“category”, or “track” for your brain & body to run on.
What does that mean?
Let’s say you realize you want to have some time for personal
reflection or prayer or meditation each day. Â
And let’s say your goal is 20-30 minutes, but right now with
all the demands on you, that seems out of reach.
How about starting with 3-5 minutes?
Think that’s too little to “do anything”?
Here’s the key:
Even a little bit in each area you’re wanting to address begins
to create a space, or lay a track & open a channel, for that
area to grow in your life.
Taking that 3-5 minutes begins to tell your brain, “We’re doing
this now.” And “we’re now creating a space in our life for this
to be significant.”
The neat thing is as you do this consistently, a new track, or
pattern, gets laid in your brain and in your body that makes it
easier and easier to do the next time.
Plus, there’s two more key things to realize about this process…
whether you’re starting with a few minutes of personal time like
above, writing one line in a journal, or taking a few minutes to
stand up and move or go for a quick walk:
The effect of any little bit you do can be magnified & multiplied…
in other words, 100 x 0 is still 0…but as long as there’s more
than zero, it can be multiplied…
Second, what you do in those few minutes can become a catalyst
that continues beyond the actual time you spent on the activity,
and has an impact on you the rest of your day, because the track
has been laid.
And if you choose to, at some point you can expand the time you
give to that activity, but realize there’s already value even in
the few minutes you’ve started with, because you’re laying a new
track that continues to have an effect even when you’re doing
other things.
So how about it?
How about picking an area you want to lay a new track for—-
whether it’s eating a piece of fruit or vegetable for a snack,
taking 10 minutes to walk, bike, or move today, or a few minutes
to journal at the end of your day—-and celebrating the new channel
you’re opening up for good to come to you.
Enjoy! And let me know your own experiences in the comments below…
Dr. Ben
Ben, I just read your “Laying New Tracks” and want you to know that what you said is exactly what I needed to hear. My life is so hectic right now that I was all over the place and getting no where. You gave me the floor plan–I thank you.
Yes, this has been a powerful concept for me and for others–so glad you benefited from reading it. Thanks for the feedback, Barbara!
I have been retired for over 5 years. I had always thought that I wanted time to relax and live life causually. I found myself accomplishing less and less and the list of things to do grew while I just relaxed all my time away.
I have been working in the last few months, to attack one thing at a time and try to keep in motion. By that I mean that if I am not doing anything intentionall including relaxing or meditating then I need to stop and do something intentional. They say that a shark will die if it stops moving, well that’s true for people.
I have finally gotten a couple of years of filing completed. I have my daily chores in check. I spend at least ten minutes contemplating my actions and making to do lists.
Most importantly I spend my time on things I need to do and no longer on things I haven’t done.
Love your focus on being intentional, Pat! Very key!
Thanks Ben, this is, as usual, exactly what I needed to hear today. I seem to need to keep reminding myself that it is ok not to be perfect in everything I do. It is a process, and even a little is ok as it gets me that much closer to what I want to accomplish.
This approach works so well that it should be intuitive. The first night I rode my bicycle around our neighborhood, two laps (about two miles) seemed to be a strain on my time. Now, on a “short” night I do at least 5 laps.