“Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.”
-Peter Marshall
I am a master at procrastination, planning and basically daydreaming. There is always another excuse or another book to read before I actually get my act together and do something. This blog is a great example. I’m always thinking and planning new posts but seem to somehow have a really difficult time actually sitting down and doing some writing.
Health and wellness are other great examples. There are millions of books and seminars on healthy diets, stress reduction techniques and exercise. They are all filled with really good ideas (I’ve read lots of them). So why am I not healthier? I fail to take action.
Think back on goals or resolutions that you may have had in the past. If you’re like me most of them never got done. Sure you thought about them, wrote them down and maybe even read about ways to accomplish them. But when all is said and done the only way to make progress is to DO something.
The interesting thing is that you really don’t have to do something big. Say you want to start exercising. You don’t need to wait until you have a gym membership or a personal trainer. You don’t need the perfect outfit or equipment. You don’t really need to research what the very best exercises and programs would be. What you really need to do is just do something–anything. Go for a walk, do some jumping jacks, do a couple of stretches. Health and wellness really involve doing many small things consistently over time.
So here are some examples of some small things that you can get done:
Go for a walk (even 10 minutes is a great start).
Try to have a really healthy snack today.
Try to focus your efforts on making just one meal a day (or even one meal a week extra healthy).
Try doing a “health day” once a week where you focus for just one day a week on your health–healthy meals, exercise, etc.
Take a moment during the day to focus on your breathing.
Give a complement or send someone a thank you note.
Take the stairs
These small things done will add up to great deeds accomplished.