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.
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
