I am convinced that doing anything for five minutes a day
will garner great results. I’ve managed
a thesis, a novel, a series of short stories and countless blogs using this
very manageable commitment.
That being said, I’ve been off my game for the better part
of a year, pretty much ever since the job hunt began in earnest and then the
move got underway and the settling in began. No, we haven’t entirely settled yet, but I’ve decided that I’ve delayed
long enough. After all, who can’t commit
to five minutes a day? Heck, I can do
that in my sleep!
So, here I sit, my children beside me, sipping Swiss Miss watered-down
hot chocolate instead of the yummy concoction my own Mommy used to
make from scratch because I am, after all, a working mother. No, I am not fully
engrossed in my writing because an eight and a ten-year-old girl, both on the
chatty side who love to stir and stir and then spill their hot chocolate, does
not lend itself to inspired writing. That being said, I am writing, and that’s all I am trying to do write
now. I’m not churning diamonds out of my
ass, just getting something down on the screen.
The question is, in five minutes a day how am I going to write my educational blog, my lifestyle blog and carry on with my puberty
memoir? Oh, and there’s that damn novel
I started during my surgery recovery nearly two years ago. As I recall, it’s pretty damn good, but I can
barely remember what it’s about anymore.
For now, I’m just going to say five minutes of writing. Any writing. Anything could happen, though. If
it turned into 20 minutes, I might become a prolific publisher. What really matters is that writing makes me feel connected with myself; publishing helps me connect with others. I yearn for both of those things in my life.
I’ve not been timing myself, but I know I’m well past my five
minute deadline. That’s the great
news. I almost always end up going overtime,
and that pays off big dividends. Just
getting started and saying you’ll do five minutes of anything will get you a
lot of results. The fact is, whatever
you have started, you’ll usually end up doing a whole lot more than five
minutes. It’s a little bit like stock
dividends: you don’t realize how much you’re gaining with those extra chunks of time.
Set a small goal. Stay committed. See what happens.