The 10-Minute Miracle
The 10-Minute Miracle: Change Your Life 10 Minutes At A Time
Have you ever looked at someone who is really successful and thought to yourself, “I could never do that…I’m too lazy/dumb/unmotivated/unqualified”, or “What’s their secret?”, or “They’re so lucky!”?
It’s really easy to think that success comes easily. From the outside, we only see someone with the perfect job, house, car, or body. But, most often, we’re looking at the end result of months, years, or decades of hard work. We rarely get to see the daily struggles of those who are truly successful.
Whether you’re trying to reach a fitness goal, start a business, or just get the laundry done, it’s easy to begin thinking that you’re just not made for success, or that successful people are “built that way” or are just lucky.
None of that is true! That’s just a story you tell yourself…and it’s one you can change! Most successful people are not inherently self-motivated or necessarily even talented! You can be successful too! You just have to believe it…and you have to do what successful people do.
So what is that? There are many traits and habits that come together to make a person successful in whatever they put their mind to. I consider myself a pretty lazy person. I’m frequently disorganized and I’m a master procrastinator. One thing that has worked for me: the 10-Minute Miracle – and no, I’m not talking about the leave-in hair care product!
My 10-Minute Miracle
If you’ve followed my blog, you know that I’m all about intuitive eating, intuitive exercise, and intuitive living. But if I let my emotions and intuition guide my actions all the time, I’d never get anything done! The fact is, we all have to do things we don’t want to do.
There are lots of things I don’t like to do, but that are important to my body, business, family, or long-term goals:
When I first started exercising, I hated it.
Handing a sizeable percentage of my income to my investment guru every month is painful.
I don’t like doing laundry or dishes.
I despise opening my mail (which is mostly bills).
Answering emails, texts, and private messages is tedious.
I hate budgeting.
Planning meals is the pits.
And I’d rather be enclosed in a box with spiders and scorpions than balance my checkbook.
Whether I like doing them or not, these tasks are important to maintaining my current lifestyle and reaching new goals! But as I mentioned before, I’m not special. I’m not any more motivated, smart, or talented than you! But I have figured out a few things.
One of my biggest epiphanies was the realization that it’s usually not the actual task that’s difficult. It’s the getting started that really throws me off.
That’s where the 10-Minute Miracle “rule” has helped me tremendously. I find that I can commit to doing 10 minutes of just about anything. (Except maybe burpees. 10 minutes of burpees would be dumb.)
I’ve gotten into the habit of saying to myself, “I can do this for 10 minutes. Just 10 minutes and then I can stop if I want to.”
I can answer emails and make important phone calls and contacts for 10 minutes.
Exercising for 10 minutes really isn’t too much the ask (the dog probably needs to poop anyway).
I can commit to folding laundry or putting away dishes for 10 minutes.
Sitting down to plan meals for 10 minutes really isn’t that bad.
I can muster the strength to balance my bank accounts and pay bills for just 10 minutes.
I can actually accomplish a lot in 10 minutes. Nine times out of ten, I keep going beyond the 10 minutes and accomplish more than I had intended. This is great because I wipe mentally draining tasks off my list, and I also get a confidence boost knowing that I really can do what I put my mind to!
Make The 10-Minute Miracle Work For You!
Think about what you really want. What are the top goals that you want to achieve this year, next year, or in 5 years? Are you doing the things – the actual tasks, the real leg work – that will get you there?
It’s great to have big goals, but here’s the thing: those big goals can be really overwhelming! If you have 50 pounds to lose, it can be really hard to look at the big picture and realize you need to work out for 350 hours to lose it! That’s about an hour of exercise per day for the next year! Most people have trouble committing to even a half hour of exercise just a few times per week! And I get it! Exercise is uncomfortable…sometimes even painful! But exercise is important if your goal is weight loss!
That’s where the 10-minute miracle comes in. Commit to just 10 minutes. If you get to the end and still want to stop, you can. True, 10 minutes won’t help you reach your goals overnight. But doing something for 10 minutes is better than getting overwhelmed and doing nothing at all!
Short commitments are emotionally manageable, get us moving in the right direction, and create small wins that we can build on. So try using the 10-Minute Miracle on your toughest tasks and see if you don’t become just a bit more productive!
I hope you enjoyed this post and thank you for reading!
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Blog Author: Kelly Bailey, IIN certified holistic nutrition coach, and NPTI certified personal trainer
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