It’s easy to blow off responsibilities when you’re busy.
It’s easy to care less about something when your attention is constantly in demand.
It’s easy to skip a recurring task — just this one time — and make it up next week.
But by doing any of the above, you’re cheating yourself. And you owe yourself more.
The little things matter a lot.
You know about the little things, right? They’re the ones you consider skipping. The blog posts you don’t bother writing, because you’re tired, and you only have like 34 minutes and really what good are you going to write in such a short period of time?
But 34 minutes is still a whole lot more than no minutes. You owe it to yourself to take advantage of that time. Sure, your 34-minute post isn’t going to be the best one you’ve ever written, but does that automatically mean it’s not worthwhile? You’ll still learn a ton, and it will still be fun to write.
Do it.
And I’m not just talking about blogs.
Party too hard this weekend? Must be tempting to phone it in on Monday. Find some excuses, push a few things to tomorrow, whatever. You have to leave early to take the kids to soccer anyway, so you may as well relax and take it easy.
Don’t let rationalization fool you. You’re better than you give yourself credit for.
You have most of a day. You won’t be working at full strength, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take on a mean-looking todo-list and still win. You’re an underdog, and underdogs don’t give up. They push and use every bit of energy they’ve got to do what they shouldn’t have reasonably been capable of doing.
Be unreasonable.
Yes, I’m talking to you.
I know you have moments where you think of calling it off. You think of caving, of letting this one go. Everybody does.
Just remember: Something is always better than nothing. So go make something of that time, that energy, that everything.
Don’t make nothing.