Something is Better than Nothing

It happens all the time.You don’t have time for a five-mile run anymore because you got trapped at work and left fifteen minutes late, so you don’t exercise at all. You don’t want to get trapped in a 45-minute conversation, so you let the call go to voicemail, which turns into yet another thing you have to do later. You want to blog, but you don't have a 3 hour block to write, so you don't write at all.You don’t have time to do the ideal, so you don’t do anything.But here's what I've learned: Something is better than nothing.Take a ten-minute run on the treadmill or a ten-minute walk around the parking lot at work (hint: bring your running shoes to work).Answer your phone and talk for five minutes, then be done. When I actually do this, I feel so much better than having the voicemails stack up. And let’s be honest: no one actually wants to talk on the phone for 45 minutes, not even to you.I write in spurts. I write a little bit at night, a lot during larger chunks every few weeks, and a little bit in the morning. I write paragraphs, not pages, at a time. If I had to have large blocks of time in order to write a sentence, nothing would ever get written.As a pastor, people often ask to meet with me to talk, and if it seems appropriate, I ask them to join me on a run or a walk instead.Some of you want to start a spiritual practice like praying or journaling or reading your bible but you keep doing nothing, because you think that for it to be legit, it has to be at least 45 minutes of spiritual intensity that results in a completely altered state of consciousness, every time. Start with five minutes. You can pray, or read some Scriptures in five minutes. Five minutes of turning yourself toward God every day would be incredible.My experience is that the momentum of my life changes for the better when I quit pretending I have to do the enormous things for it to “count,” and I start doing the embarrassingly small things; the things I actually can do.What small thing could you start doing that would bring momentum to your life?