Yo! What a week! I felt ALL the feelings this week!!! Off the back of the challenges in South Africa coupled with my own challenges it all felt a bit too much.
It’s been KUK! Kuk is a word we use in South Africa to say that it’s been really crappy. Sometimes too much bad news, makes us feel powerless and overwhelmed. Feeling powerless has made me realise just how much power we do actually have but often it’s the SMALLEST of things that end up making the BIGGEST impact.
Feeling powerless made me realise “the power of ONE” and it’s this idea I wanted to share with you today. Even if you never read anything of mine again, please remember this;
Just do ONE thing
When we feel powerless, we think we can’t make a difference in the grand scheme of things, in our own lives or in the lives of others and the world around us but actually, that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s often just doing ONE Thing that makes a massive difference. In a crisis, ONE phone call to a friend makes a difference. In changing your weight, just ONE thing makes a difference. In changing your situation, it’s often just ONE thing like having a difficult conversation or taking a necessary step forward that makes a difference.
Just ONE thing!
Isn’t that exciting?!
The problem is when we don’t feel like that ONE thing makes a difference or if we get overwhelmed with emotion, we give up but it’s been proven over time that making small changes have a BIG impact.
I’ll tell you right now, meditation feels almost impossible for me so from the start of this month I decided I’d do just 20 minutes of yoga every day followed by my morning cup of coffee; rewards, after all, are all important!. It’s just a thing I started because I wanted to shift my energy, after all making sure you’re feeling good is SUPER important these days in order to cope with the demands on us). Generally, I was waking up and feeling ‘kuk’ because I’d turn on my phone and scroll on social media for half an hour before dragging myself out of bed. Just these 20 minutes each day has helped me shift how I feel and I see that if I feel good, I tend to just do and feel generally better.
So what does this mean for you and how could you use this concept? (HINT – don’t try do all of these things!)
- What ONE consistent action or activity over time is going to change things for you?
- Want to lose weight? What ONE thing do you need to do? Drink more water? Ditch the guilt? See a therapist? Read a relevant book?
- Want to feel healthier? What ONE daily habit would make a difference in your life that’s relatively easy to implement?
- Want to help but don’t know how? What ONE action right now for a friend or charity will make a difference?
- Want to change your marriage, career or fitness? What ONE thing each day is going to move you in that direction?
- Feeling overwhelmed – just get ONE thing done today or just this ONE task. Don’t focus on the whole picture, just do ONE Thing.
- Want to make a difference and don’t know how? Call just ONE person today and ask them how they are
ONE thing at a time…
I’ve realised in the past while just how much I try to do a million things and not only that but all at once. The gift of chaos has forced me to focus on what’s important and due to feeling completely overwhelmed, I’ve had to focus on just ONE thing at a time.
It’s actually a pretty cool concept because so often our thoughts lead us to believe “It’s impossible” but actually it’s just ONE moment at a time. So in this moment, what do you need to or want to do to shift your energy? In this moment, what ONE thing could help? Even if it is just taking a breath or sipping on your tea.
It’s funny but challenging times aren’t actually very different to easy times, it’s still ONE moment at time.
Tust me this has been SUPER tough for me to practice and learn as generally I prefer achieving things exponentially but actually seeing things in this light has made me realise that exponential growth is actually a series of small investments made over time; a little like compound interest.