What’s your approach to how you spend your time to accomplish things? All or nothing? Go big or go home? Or is it about the short moments?
Lessons from the kitchen
Before becoming a mom, I preferred to complete all my tasks at once. Let me explain. If I was going to work out it was either for the allotted time I planned or not at all. It had to be done in one sitting, vs. breaking it up into shorter mini workouts. I basically had an all or nothing, go big or go home type of mindset.
While I still prefer to do most things like this, my perspective on time has drastically changed, and a recent household chore reminded me of this. Some dishes were piling up in our kitchen, #reallife, and I didn’t have enough time do all of them. Normally, I would’ve waited to wash them when I had enough time to do them all. This time, I decided to do a few and finish the rest later. I broke the task into small chunks to at least get some done and ultimately, made it a bit more manageable.
While I didn’t get all the dishes done, and would have to finish the rest later, I felt accomplished and proud for what I did get done.
It affects encouragement
Maybe you’re like me and have a strict go big or go home mentality, which mind you, can and does serve a purpose for certain situations. But often times, it can leave you feeling like a failure, guilty or struggling to follow through, because the time and energy it requires to go big, every time, isn’t there.
This can often happen when it comes to encouragement.
- I don’t have an entire evening to donate my time to volunteer
- I’m in a rush and can’t spare an extra minute to hold the door open for someone
- I’m so busy I don’t have time to check in with family and friends
I get it. We all have many demands for our time and attention. It can be hard to give adequate energy to things because we’re exhausted. All the more reason to apply this strategy or time hack if you will, to your life.
So, what if for one day, you tried breaking things down into short intervals. Whether it’s a task or encouragement, I guarantee you’ll begin to see that the simple, quick actions add up and you’re able to share encouragement every day!
- A smile
- A short text saying, “Thinking of You”
- A hug
- A silent prayer as you’re walking to your next meeting
- A large tip with your meal order
- Sharing words of encouragement on someone’s social media feed
Using the short moments
The simple things add up and you know what they do? They encourage you to keep going because you now have proof of what can be done with the short moments throughout your day. This mindset requires us to be a bit more flexible with the approach we take on how we spend our time, but just remember, do what you can with the little moments or breaks you have throughout your day.
My hope for you with this message is that encouragement can happen, even thrive in the small moments – the short amounts of time, the simple gestures or minimal words. Sure, grand displays of encouragement are awesome, too. But if we become fixated on those being the only way to encourage, we can easily become discouraged and stop sharing it all together because we may not have enough time or energy to accomplish them.
Remember, grandiose ideas are not a prerequisite for encouragement. Consistent and committed encouragement, no matter the size, is what matters.
Not sure what E+DAY is? Check out this page for more info… I know you are curious!
Please share with someone you know who could use some encouragement in the wait.