While there are many things that can be life changing in 10 minutes or less, I’m talking about starting up good habits that just take 10 minutes a day. Change is notoriously difficult. We tend to also rely on habits to get through our days easily. You only have so much mental and physical energy per day, and your body conserves energy by doing things habitually. For example, we keep our toothbrush and toothpaste in the same spot, so it is easy to just grab it and brush your teeth. It would require more energy to hunt them both down each morning and we’d likely not brush our teeth as often.
So, how can you harness the power of habit to improve your life? You can take 10 minutes now and just brainstorm all the things you wished you were doing (exercising, cleaning house, eating better, etc). After you have your list, pick one thing to start working on making a habit.
Let’s say you pick “exercise”. There are many exercise videos you can do that last only 10 minutes. You could also go for a 10 minute walk outside. You can even just do stretches, sit-ups, etc. for 10 minutes. Set your timer before you start! When to do the 10 minutes is the part that will make or break your habit. Try to pick something else you do during the day everyday already. Are you more of a morning person or night owl? Fit it in to that part of the day.
You can do your 10 minutes either before you get to do something you enjoy, or after you already do something that is an ingrained habit. For example, if you are a morning person and like to drink a cup of coffee, you can do your 10 minutes before your coffee. You could also do it between the first and second cup. Or do it before you take your morning shower. You can easily get up 10 minutes earlier if you need to fit it in to your day.
Since we picked exercise, if you can make that 10 minutes occur 3 times a day, you are all set with the minimum you need daily. Easy, right?
Of course, as you get better at this, you can add other habits or make the habit more than 10 minutes time. Once it is a habit, it will take less mental energy to do things that you don’t like to do, so you can spend time on things you do enjoy! Let us know at Whole Family Medical Care, if we can help you learn some new habits.