Limited By Nothing

Earlier this morning while I was out walking I realized, 20 minutes in or so, that I shouldn’t have had all that orange juice beforehand, if you catch my drift. And I had another 40 minutes of walking to do! I suppose I could have quickly ran home or walk into a gas station restroom, but I didn’t. I walked and walked and walked, my bladder feeling fuller by the minute.

Now okay, why am I telling you this? Because the way I got through it was 10 minutes at a time. I kept telling myself that I could just tolerate the discomfort for 10 minutes. At the end of that 10 minutes I signed up for another 10 minutes. And pretty soon it was just 10 minutes to my house and my bathroom.

The 10-minute rule works for all kinds of discomfort, including the ones generated by your inner brat - that primitive part of your mind that keeps ruining your best efforts. Why 10 minutes? Well, I’ve found that 10 minutes is all that it takes for my anxiety to diminish and for my inner brat to calm down.

For example, imagine you want to accomplish something that you’ve been procrastinating all day – such as cleaning out your house, finishing up homework or following through on a personal project. The first 5 minutes are the hardest. You feel antsy, unfocused, maybe even annoyed. Your inner brat complains in the back of your mind that it really doesn’t feel like doing it right now, so you just keep putting that work off.

But if you ignore your inner brat’s fighting and focus on what you are to do, something incredible happens. You’ll find that you gradually become calmer and your ability to concentrate improves. Before you know it, your 10 minutes are up. Now it’s up to you to decide whether to continue for another 10. This time it will be a lot easier.

What about when you have to refrain from something? Let’s say you’re thinking about that delicious bag of potato chips in the next room; or you know that you must stop playing video games?

It’s the same thing – get busy for 10 minutes. But make sure that you’re busy enough to not think about what you’re craving, because thinking about it really magnifies that craving. Again, the first 5 minutes are the hardest, but surely you can tolerate only 5 minutes of discomfort, can’t you? When you break life into 10-minute chunks you can do (or refrain from) just about anything you set your mind to. Be limited by nothing!