So you are fourteen days into the New Year. Have you already crashed your Resolutions? Do you, like I and most others, set high lofty goals and then give up rather quickly? The greatest reason for failure of any resolution or goal is simply that we bite off more than we can chew. We feel like a failure because we only worked out 3 times this week instead of 5, because we can not achieve perfection we quit altogether.
I have realized in every goal baby steps is the key. Setting short, small goals and accomplishing them will make you feel more confident and able to take on a little more. No baby starts out running across an open floor space, and no child ever walks without falling down a few times. Yes, it is time for you to take a lesson from the baby! 🙂
If you already feel you have lost control of your resolution, then don’t let one tumble make you not ever walk again. Get up and try again. Remember Baby Steps are the Key! Here is one Baby Step to help you get on and stay on track.
Baby Step #1 – Five minutes is all it takes.
No matter what your long term goal is break it down into five minute intervals, no more than fifteen, so that you do not begin to feel overwhelmed by the task at hand. Five to fifteen minutes a day is all it takes to accomplish any goal. Here are a few examples in my own life of short time intervals making a difference.
Goal 1: To get my finances in order. Spend Fifteen minutes every day balancing the checking account, and paying out bills. Stop after fifteen minutes so that you do not begin feeling panicky and overwhelmed. Tomorrow you will have another 15 minutes. You will find that within a few weeks or so you may actually only have to spend five minutes a day, because you will have it all ordered and the small bites are a lot easier to chew. 🙂
Goal 2: Clean out the junk closet/room. I have a rather large bedroom closet. It easily becomes a storage room, because we can close it off, if we are not careful. (It may be a different closet or room in your house but we all have one.) So I have committed to spend 5 – 10 minutes a day in my closet organizing it and getting rid of things until it is done. Once on top of a space like this you can spend 5-10 minutes a week maintaining it instead of 5-10 minutes a day. The same also applies to keeping your desk cleaned off, or any “catch-all” spot in your home. Spend 5-10 minutes dejunking and organizing that pile everyday, then keep it maintained by only doing it once every few days to once a week.
Goal 3: Loose weight How does 15 minutes a day help you loose weight? Easy. You do not have to commit to working out 45 minutes 3 times a week when you have not ever exercised at all, you are setting yourself up for failure. Fifteen minutes a day of walking, or even just stretching, will increase your health and help you loose weight. The thing is, and this has been a hard lesson for me to learn, fifteen minutes of exercise every day (or on a consistent basis) is better for weight loss and over all health than one hour of intense exercise once every two weeks. The most healthy women I know that are even in their fifties and older, I have seen they get on the floor while they are watching t.v. and stretch and do stomach crunches. It is built into their day, making it doable everyday.
Goal 4: A cleaner bathroom. I am pretty good at keeping a clean house. Not perfect, but I maintain pretty well. My most dreaded task however is the bathrooms. There is no logical explanation for this, it does not take that long once I do it, but for some reason I hate it. My bedroom bathroom, where no one goes but me and my hubby, can actually get pretty funky for that reason. So my goal was to break down even cleaning the bathroom into intervals. I have to say, it has worked like a charm. Flylady calls cleaning the bathroom the swish and swipe. Every morning as you are getting ready throw a little cleaner in your toilet and swish it around. (Be sure to keep you a toilet brush and cleaner by the toilet.) Then when you are finished getting ready swipe your counter and toilet seat with a clorox wipe, and toss. If you do this everyday you have maintained your bathroom. Then once a week I spray my tub with cleaner right before I get in the shower, while I am stripped down to take a shower I wipe it out, and rinse. Five minutes or less, guaranteed. Sweep the floor, two minutes. None of these things have to be done at the same time. Therefore it is not the dreaded task you put off until there are things growing. 🙂
You can see how 5 -15 minutes can help you accomplish any goal you set out to achieve. Crawl before walking, babysteps before running. You can do it, and feel accomplished, not overwhelmed!
Extra tip: Set your timer for 5, 10, or 15 minutes and STOP when it goes off. I know we strive for perfection and want to keep going, but perfection will come with the consistency.