The Five Minute Challenge

Most people think it takes a long time to change or to get something done. But it doesn't have to.

Sometimes, when I am really not in the mood to work on something, one of the ways I get through it is to spend just five minutes on the task. That's why I dared myself to spend just five minutes writing this post. It's remarkable what you can get accomplished when you know your time is limited.

My friend Margalit Jakob, who originally gave me this idea, began practicing violin for just five minutes a day. Now she plays in a community orchestra. I know someone else who hates housework and spends again, just five minutes a day on cleaning tasks. She claims that she packs an awful lot of work into those five minutes because she is so focused. The five minute challenge can be applied to those things we don't want to do or don't think we'll be able to do. By setting boundaries around the task at hand the tough becomes tolerable and the impossible, possible. And sometimes, by setting the five minute clock, time miraculously expands and we end up so engrossed in what we've started that we just keep going....

In our information dense, technology packed world, time is rapidly approaching the value of gold or even diamonds. For some of us, five minutes of this precious commodity holds the opposite promise and challenge- how to slow down and be present. I don't particularly like hang ing out laundry, but I recall fondly once such occasion that I was fully present as I hung each article of clothing, feeling the dampness and texture of the fabric, the movements of my fingers opening and closing the clothes pins, the sound of the clothes line as I moved it forward. That five minutes brought me as close to bliss as any household chore I can remember doing.

So, pick something you want to do or dream of doing but think it's impossible, and spend a little bit of time every day on that. Spend as well, five minute increments as often as you can throughout the day, practicing being present to whatever you are doing- whether it is taking a break or facing some boring, or distasteful or challenging task. Somewhere I once read that if a sailor changes his course just one degree, within 6 months he'd be a whole hemisphere away from his original destination. I have no idea if it's true, but it's a good metaphor for change. One degree or five minutes of being fully engaged. Feel free to post me a message on what five minute challenge you have chosen. Then later, write again and let me know where you are six months down the road...