December 21, 2016

#1 – Prioritize Your Passion 10 Minutes a Day

How many things would you like to learn; either learn about or to learn how to do? For me, there are TONS of things – Painting, playing the piano, photography, speaking French, European art history, history of France and Paris, Stoic philosophy, quantum science, and spirituality, write a book… and on and on and on.

What about you? What are the things you “want to learn”? Sadly, most of us don’t make these things a priority and we rarely allocate time to learning new things if it isn’t required for a job or generating income.

There’s always something “more important” that needs to be done.

Really? More important than our quality of our life? We can’t even prioritize a few minutes a day – out of 24 hours – to something that would increase the richness of our life. Really? Yes. Sad.

So, #1 on our list for 2018 is this:

#1 – Prioritize A Passion for 10 minutes a day.

Even giving ourselves one day-off a week, that’s still 6 days at 10 minutes a day, or 60 minutes – a single hour a WEEK. Certainly, we are worth that.

The dishes can wait 10 minutes.
The kids / husband / neighbors can wait 10 min.
Certainly, the dog can wait 10 minutes.
You can wait to check your email for 10 minutes –
Your friends on Facebook and Instagram can wait 10 minutes.

No one will think you’re ignoring them and the world will not fall apart. Trust us.

Being realistic will help, too.

Being caretakers, pleasers and nurturers we’d like to think our families, co-workers, and friends would fall apart if we “let them down”. But, really – what does “let them down” look like to you?

Lynnelle here. Barb, I love you – and you likely have more than a few stories on me, too – but this really struck me… Barb tells me she’s spent time making an hors d’oevure dish for a friend’s party. She loves the friend and the friend loves the dish, but it takes a lot of effort to make. I asked why she decided to make the dish considering all the things she needed to focus on before the end of the year, to which she said that she didn’t want to “let the friend down”. Don’t get me wrong. I love Barb and I love how she loves her friends, one of which I am very honored to be. The point is still about prioritizing OURSELVES and our passions. It isn’t about our friends not being important. It’s about us and the importance of OUR goals, objectives, and passions.

Think about your calendar or to-do list. How many things are scheduled for you, by you? Not scheduled for you by someone or something else. Not scheduled by you to make someone else happy (even though that might make you happy in return); but scheduled for you, by you because it’s a passion of yours and will make you more fulfilled. Huh?

10 minutes, That’s it!

Sit down at the piano and do some scales.
Pick up that book on Picasso.
Watch the first lesson of that CreativeLive Photography course you purchased 3 months ago. (Heels Diva, hanging her head.)

If all you have is 10 minutes, read (or do) for 10 minutes. If you have longer and you get lost in the reading or doing – then great! But, with an initial commitment of only 10 minutes, that’s nothing! Heck, the worst that can happen is that you gain 10 minutes additional knowledge on something you’re passionate about.

If we’re consistent with this daily ritual, at least 50% of the time, imagine how much more you’ll know this time next year. Even at 50%, you know some of those 10 minutes will end up being 30 or 60 …or more. If it’s really a passion, it will. And if not, think of the guilt you WON’T have about not doing that thing you’re not really passionate about – and the extra time you’ll have for that thing you ARE!

What will you dedicate 10 minutes to?

If you’d like to get our other 9 steps, let us know. We don’t want to junk up your inbox if you’re not in with us on this. You’re still on our main list, but we just won’t bother you with the 2018 – 10 Steps. Or, at least the last 9. Again, if you’d like to see the other 9, click here and fill out the form . (You may have gotten this post via email. If you did and signed up at the end of that email, you’re in.)

We’ll be sending out emails every other day, or so, to make sure we get all 10 in before January 1. Please let us know what you think and steps you consider important we may have overlooked.