Five Minutes.
Better to do five minutes than not to do it at all – the sentence that outlasted every heroic training plan.
Perfectionism doesn't only spoil finished work; it prevents starts. Bella's version came with numbers: plus thirty kilos, then hour-long sessions that punished her into quitting. The sentence that turned it around wasn't a training plan: better to do five minutes than not to do it at all.
The motto works because it removes the three things that kill a practice – expectations, self-violence, disappointment – and keeps the only thing that builds one: not quitting. Four sessions a week instead of daily heroics; ten lazy minutes on the bad days; and the familiar trick that five intended minutes usually turn into thirty once you've begun. Surrender & Decision walks this same line at full width – surrender and conscious doing aren't opposites, and the balance of the two is what a practice can actually stand on.
Her question at the end is the practice in miniature: what would you like to start – the thing you keep putting off? Five minutes of it counts.
We always want to do everything perfectly, all the way. And that pushes us away from an enormous number of interesting and important things.
For example, I never much liked doing sport, but after +30 kg I understood I had to. And so you turn on a workout video or go to a trainer, kill yourself for an hour – and on the whole you don't feel like doing it again.
And at that moment I heard important words: better to do 5 minutes than not to do it at all.
And that's my motto now. I do sport about 4 times a week, 20–30 minutes. It used to be every day. And the weight is coming off, the body has tightened up, and – most importantly – I don't quit. There are days when I'm really too lazy, and I do 10 minutes. Because even 10 minutes of cardio is better than nothing 🤭
And very often, when you think "well, I'll do 5 minutes", you end up getting drawn in – and half an hour or an hour goes by )
No expectations, no violence, no disappointment. Even 5 minutes a day of anything is already more than nothing 🩷
And what would you like to start doing – the thing you keep putting off? )
Thank you for reading.
If her words reached somewhere mine don't – good. That's what this blog is for. Take what fits and leave the rest.
– Jan