Recently, I had a discussion with my best friend on pursuit of dreams and her career. She claimed that much of her aspirations have been dimmed due to other obligations she had in her life. She offered reasons like children, work and relationship for her failed attempts to pursue what she really wanted. “All it takes is 5 -30-minutes intervals to change your life” – I suggested. “Daily 30-minute fitness and 10-minute educational Youtube tutorials are what has kept me in shape and helped me advance my career”, I explained.
I had seen the power of small in every aspect of my life; I learned how to code by watching minute long YouTube tutorials every day. I learned about influencer marketing by reading forums daily on Quora for several minutes and typing any questions I had. These small changes compounded to huge transformations and allowed me to found my own company, an influencer marketing agency, that works with some of the largest names in the business.
Below, I am including some of my top advice on small changes that can completely transform our life within a single year:
- Save several dollars each day: the power of small can help us reach our dreams of saving enough to purchase a valuable asset. For example, we can save only 5 dollars each day, and we would end up with $1,800 to invest at the end of the year. If we hold on to the savings, in just 5 years our savings account would be larger by $9,000.
- Watch a Youtube tutorial for 10 minutes each day: if you are looking to learn something new, Youtube is a great way to get extraordinarily valuable information quick in a form that is broken down and easy to understand. By watching 10 minutes tutorial each day, we can transform our knowledge and become instantly more marketable to our existing or future employers. Some of my favorite tutorials on Youtube include practical knowledge that almost anyone today could use, including videos on SEO, User Interface (UX), coding, graphic design, and more.
- Exercise for 10 minutes each day: it takes less than 10 minutes to achieve flat abs by doing 100 sit-ups. If your dream is to have a six-pack, it could be small effort of 10 minutes of crunches each day that will give you your dream physique. If you have another 10 minutes to spare, invest into burpees or lounges as they are some of the most effective 10-minute exercises you can do.
- Write a journal for 5 minutes each day: a healthy mental state is essential for achieving our dreams. By writing in a journal for only 5 minutes a day, we can get clarity, achieve deeper sleep, decrease our anxiety, and improve the overall quality of our life. I noticed a post from DVF on journaling that stuck with me for some time, and after starting my own journey of journaling, my overall mental well-being has tremendously changed.
Don’t underestimate the power of small. It is incremental changes over time that compound to huge endeavors. Small consistent activities often achieve far more than one-time strenuous bursts of efforts. We all have the power to achieve many of our dreams if we only have “5 minutes to spare.”