30 Minutes That Will Change Your Life
If you haven’t read my blog “infinite potential” yet, I highly recommend that you stop right here and go back to read it. I’ll wait. Great, now that you’re up to speed, let me start by saying, habit change is a massive challenge for me. Clearly, it's a huge problem for a lot of people. Just type “habit change” into google and see what happens. I have read books, listened to numerous podcasts, and watched documentaries galore on habit change. I have two planners every year, and I write almost everything down. I must say I've come a long way! But to be my ideal version of myself, I feel like I have so much farther to go. However, for the most part, I have been able to get the one thing to stick.
You'll recall that I said in “infinite potential” that the first thing I used as my 1% shift was incorporating intentional movement into my life every day. I haven't yet gotten to my personal goal of working out at 7 am every day, rain or shine. I'm getting there. Right now I am still a shine only kind of girl. Regardless of the weather though, I make an effort to move for at least 30 minutes at some point every day. The way I do this was by applying a 30-minute rule. Every day, I do something that moves my body. Whether it’s a walk outside, a jog on the treadmill, a quick sweat on the elliptical, or a full-body stretch routine. 30 minutes is my time box. If I’m having a hard time getting moving, I add the 10 minute rule. The 10-minute rule is when I say to myself, “I’m going to work out for 10 minutes, and if I feel like I want to stop, I’ll stop. If not, I will proceed with my 30 minutes.” I got this rule from my sister, but it works. Most of the time, I end up going for an hour! Usually, once my body gets moving and my endorphins kick in I'm all in. I know that not everyone is like that and that’s why the 30-minute time block is perfect. If you have a hard time exercising, try it, and let me know what you think about it.
At the end of the day, it's the little things like this that make such a big difference in your daily routine and overall life. Let's talk numbers for a minute. 30 minutes is 2% of your day, actually, 28.8 minutes is 2% of your 24 hour day. We never think of it like that. An average workday is 33% of your day, but let’s be honest most of us work more than an “average” workday. If you give 33% of your precious time to others, couldn't you… shouldn't you spend at least 2% on yourself? Just think, if you gave that 30 minutes of movement everything you’ve got, what changes you would see in your body and mind and overall well-being over a period of 30 days? The bonus is that research has shown that one good habit leads to another. It's the ultimate butterfly effect. We are not as busy as we think we are, we are distracted. Always looking outward. Conditioned to make ourselves our last priority. I challenge you to look inward and intentionally spend 30 minutes on yourself every day. I promise you, it will change your life!