The refrigerator in my new place doesn’t have an ice machine. It’s a very small inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. So I had to go out and purchase ice cube trays for the first time in a while. Again, small purchase of a few bucks. The thing about ice trays is that they’re not automatic. They need to be refilled whenever ice is used. When I was a kid, living in a house of four teenage boys, it was easy for someone to come along and use a few cube but not refill the tray. The thirty seconds that it to keep the supply intact was often too much time for a teenage mind.
We often forego simple things that we know we should do because we “don’t have the time.” Workouts, stretching, a letter to a friend, meditation, etc. are all activities that we know would improve our lives in the subtlest of ways but the allocation of the time gets in the way. Just remember that it’s only 1%.
If you break 24 hours down into minutes, it’s 1440. That makes 1% of a day, 14.4 minutes (14 minutes and 24 seconds). For simplicity’s sake, let’s use 15 minutes. That’s 1% of your day! Just like filling the ice cube trays. It’s nothing in the grand scheme of things. However, if you’re willing to put in that little bit of time now, you’ll reap the benefits later.
Stretching for 15 minutes will give you mobility when many of your peers are laid up with injury or discomfort. Meditating for 15 minutes will give you peace of mind when others are panicked. Writing that letter to a friend will keep a tighter bond and add to your mental well-being more than scrolling through Twitter to see random videos of people doing stupid things. Walking, jogging, swimming, etc. for just 15 minutes will do more for your energy and vitality than sitting on the couch for 5%.
Our lives are filled with ice cube tray items. The little things that will positively impact our future but take very little time. There’s a desire for everything to be automated. For health, relationships, finances, mental well-being, etc. to just be handled for us or by one big gesture. Life tends not to work that! We need to give 1% to things that matter regularly. But if we do it consistently, the rewards that we reap are so much greater than what we put in.
Go fill those trays!
Pete
Huryk Unlimited 