The 10-Minutes At a Time New Year’s Resolution

“You can’t always solve the big problems or worry about what life will throw at you a week or a month from now. But you can determine what you do in the next 10 minutes, and the 10 after that. Whether your goal is to lose weight, have a happier work life, save cash or give back more, take a step in that direction right now. You’ll have your best year yet–10 minutes at a time.” Lucy Danziger, Editor Self Magazine

I’ve been thinking about this advice from Lucy Danziger given in her editors letter in the January 2013 issue of Self magazine. You see I’m a planner and a worrier. I find myself often getting tangled up in my future expectations of myself and others. I’m notorious for constantly planning “things”. This is not all bad of course, I have a lot of ambition and drive. The down side of this focus is sometimes it can take me off course and I miss enjoying the opportunities and successes of right now. It’s 9 am and I’m already worrying about that meeting at 4 pm or what we are going to have for dinner tonight. Instead of focusing on the 10 minutes immediately in front of me. I’m also aware that most things don’t turn out as I planned– 2.5 years ago I had a completely different vision of my future then I do today. Luckily things tend to turn out better than I had hoped.

So, this notion of living in the now is something I’m really going to work on this year. Making the right choices and decisions on how to spend my time, my energy and my focus for the next 10-minutes… and then the next 10-minutes after that. I think I’ve lost enough time worrying about what will happen a month or a year from now. They will turn out how they turn out.

Thank you Lucy for helping me make a mental shift. I realize I’m baring my soul a bit publicly with this post but do so in the hopes that someone who reads it might find this helpful. Now on to the next 10-minutes!