RedAsh's Blog

“Give a little bit / Give a little bit of your time to me” – Supertramp, Give a Little Bit

It’s been a gritty, no-hold-barred set of posts on Rock Your Day lately. I’ve asked you whether you’ll regret where your goals take you, and made you come to terms with the reality that you won’t get a second chance to make up for lost time. The time to balance your life is now, not some magical time later that you’ve been telling yourself is just around the corner for months/years/ohmygodhasitbeenthatlong.

But the challenge most of us face is that we feel like we’re already too damned busy to get balanced. What are we supposed to do? Don’t worry – I’ll give you the goods after the opening act. :-)


Getting Balanced Happens One Step At A Time

The trick to getting balanced is to take the pressure off. We tend to resist taking action to balance our life because the idea of getting balanced seems overwhelming, like climbing Mt. Everest in one hella-big jump. Even the phrase “getting balanced” carries the connotation that we’ve arrived, that everything is in order, and fundamentally we know that life just ain’t so. So why even bother to try conquering the mountain in one jump?

The simple answer is this: don’t try. Don’t saddle yourself with the tension that comes when you try to set too many goals at once, when you try to mold yourself into the perfect Superman/woman we know no one can never be (yet somehow still tell ourselves is a reasonable goal). Instead, focus on today. Right now. Specifically, a slice of time from 5 to 15 minutes.

You may not have time to balance your life today, but you cannot tell me that you can’t carve out 5 minutes to work on something. You can try, but you know that you’d just be bull$hitting yourself. I say that from a position of authority, because I’ve been doing it myself, telling myself that I’ll “get around” to a few things I’ve been slacking on but have resisted because I have so much on my plate. So for a moment I’ll have to stop kicking Brett’s a$$ and start kicking my own again.
15 Minutes = 3 Areas Of Increasing Balance

Here’s an example of what I mean by taking balance one step at a time. On a physical level, I know I need to get back into yoga (or my sister won’t stop bugging me). On an emotional level, I know I need to get back into focusing on gratitude daily. And on a spiritual level, I know that I’m not spending the time that I used to looking inward and asking the tough questions.

So here’s what I’m going to do over the next 7 days – I’m going to carve out 5 minutes for each of these things – no damned excuses allowed – everyday for the next week. Sure, 5 minutes of yoga a day doesn’t sound like much, but think about it – I can develop a mini-routine of a few nice stretches. 5 minutes of journaling what I’m grateful for? I know that will make a difference. And 5 minutes of introspection? It won’t necessarily change my life, but it will make me more conscious of what I’m doing and thinking … and that’s where momentum gets built.

5 minutes seems like too small a slice to be worthwhile, but from experience I know it’s incredibly worthwhile, for two reasons.

* First, it’s like tracking what you spend or what you eat – the very act of awareness begins to change your attitudes and habits automatically.

* Second, once you taste a little bit of balance, you crave more. You start getting more motivated to find more time, and 5 minutes turns to 10, then 20 … and an upward spiral begins.

It’s easy – so easy that you’ll be tempted to not try it yourself. But I challenge you not to shrug this off.
Dave’s 7-Day Challenge To You (Don’t Pass It Up!)

I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I didn’t try to kick your a$$ a bit too. You know the 3 things I’ll be spending 5 minutes each on for the next 7 days … what are yours? Tell me in the comments area below. Don’t be shy or make excuses – just pick 3 areas of your life that you want to get more balanced and “give a little bit of your time” to it.

You have 15 minutes. You know you do. Use it to change your life.