I briefly interacted with a gal working one of the booths at BottleRock. She wore amazing eye makeup, intensely purple and shimmery, ombre, with thick, expertly-applied liquid cat-eye liner.
Because I believe in freely and generously offering sincere compliments to friends and strangers, I commented on how beautiful her makeup looked. I also asked how long it took to apply, because obviously it took time.
“Forty-five minutes,” she replied matter-of-factly, like it was no big deal.
“Wow, that’s a commitment,” I responded.
To myself I added, That’s not a commitment I’d make!
I wouldn’t know how to spend 45 minutes on makeup. I could watch YouTube eye makeup tutorials, but I wouldn’t. It doesn’t matter to me to wear that kind of statement makeup.
That interaction has stuck with me. Commitments take time. Time spent = commitment.
Where do I spend my time?
This summer I’ve committed to doing a lot of writing and reading, exercising and praying. But I’ve also noticed the time sucks, the minutes between things where I pick up my phone out of habit and scroll through social media. Periodically I check the “Screen Time” function on my phone which reports how much time I have spent on social media versus reading/research; guess which wins…
I want to say that social media doesn’t matter to me that much, but my time says otherwise.
For now, I’m working on Social-Free Sundays, one day a week when I leave my phone down altogether. I’m also working on microMOVEments, a technique promoted by one of my favorite artists, SARK.
SARK decided that she could motivate herself to get big projects done if she broke, say, “Write a book,” into five minute steps. She could do anything for five minutes, especially if she sprinkled juicy adjectives into the description of each step. For example, one microMOVEment in writing could be: “Write down title.” But it’s so much more fun to “Play amazing title game!”
SARK’s secret is that once you get going, once you commit five minutes to one succulent step towards a larger goal, it’s easier to keep going. But even if you just commit five minutes, that’s still something. You can fill in another five minutes another time. Eventually all the minutes add up.
And what a better use of the in-betweens!
bravo on such great uses of your time! 🙂
Thanks! Hope you also will be inspired to achieve your goals, one short step at a time.
it did encourage me, thank you! i keep telling myself, it is never too late and keep moving forward!
I commend you for your blog, Siv. I love how you manage to be both upbeat and not uptight (“loose” doesn’t sound right). You have worthwhile things to say and an appealing manner in which you say them. Congrats, and blessings on you.
Thank you so much, Heather! I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment, and encouragement from you means ever so much!
Interesting observation, makes me wonder how exactly I spend my time!
Thank you! Good luck in your pursuit of greater self-knowledge and micromovements!