What's Up, Doc?

Sometimes you just need to let people know what's up.

I almost didn't post today. It's Tuesday, and I always post to Just Five Minutes on Tuesdays, but today I felt I didn't have time.

That's funny, isn't it? The blog is called Just Five Minutes, and I didn't feel I had time to post. (I'm rolling my eyes at myself as I type this.) Fortunately I realized how ridiculous that is. So here I am.

I know why I felt so pressed for time, and the reason's legitimate. My team at work was recently notified that the budget for our project won't be extended. We all need to look for jobs. So that's what I was doing tonight. I put together and sent off four resume/application packages. Frankly, that ate my evening. So the post I had planned to write isn't going to happen today.

And that's okay. Not posting--that wouldn't have been okay. It would have left those of you who read this blog wondering where I was and what had happened. Not cool. Not when I can spend just five minutes writing a quick post that lets you know I'm here and still working on this blog.

Just five minutes can let others know what's going on.

Destiny Has Torn Us Asunder

Destinies can change in just five minutes

The boss called the team into the conference room. "One of you is getting laid off. You guys decide who."

I wasn't there, but I can imagine the wide-eyed terror that comes from being blindsided. The heat of anger at being left to make this decision. The rock in the stomach from wondering if one of your coworkers is going to tear you down in order to build themselves up. The awful, terrible unknowing.

My friend, single and childless, volunteered to take the hit.

For my friend, this decision had to hurt, but would it have hurt more if he'd stayed knowing that one of his coworkers was now out of a job? He doesn't know what's next for him, but it's a different path than he saw just a month ago. He's free to return to school, work overseas, find another position in his field, or pursue another career entirely. And I'm sure there are dozens of other options that are now open to him that he wouldn't have seen had he stayed where he was.

It isn't just his destiny that he affected. By sacrificing himself, my friend spared his coworkers.

I don't know them. I don't know their lives. But I do know that money problems is one of the top relationship killers. I know that the stress of unemployment can cause fathers and husbands, mothers and wives to act out against their kids or spouses, or retreat within themselves. Whether anything like that would have happened, we'll never know. My friend spared them the stress of being laid off.. He affected their destinies by letting them remain on their current paths.

What choices have you made that changed peoples destinies?

note: As of this post my friend still hasn't been told whether or not they're actually going to lay him off. He's in limbo, waiting to find out.

Say what?

Stating your case quickly and clearly sometimes gets you what you want.

Several years ago my sister, my nephew, and I were running errands. It was late, and everyone was ready for dinner--my nine-year-old nephew particularly. He didn't react well to hunger, so I knew there wasn't time to head home and make dinner. Fortunately, the town offered plenty of restaurant choices, though a sit-down restaurant probably would take too long, too. Fast food it was.

I was driving, so I made the announcement:

"We're gonna run through a drive-through. Burger King or Taco Johns?"

My nephew immediately balked. "I wanna go to McDonalds."

I tried explaining that McDonalds was the absolutely worst fast food restaurant for a vegetarian (can't even eat their fries, and their salads all had chicken on them). But he was hungry, tired, and cranky as only a nine-year-old can be.

"Let's try this again. Instead of whining and getting mad, how about you tell me why it's so important that we go to McDonalds instead of Burger King."

"It won't matter."

"Try me. But calmly."

So he did. This was the last day to get a particular Happy Meal toy. He had all the rest from the series, but my parents hadn't had time to take him to McDonalds over the past week (a weekly ritual of theirs), so he didnt have this one.

I remember how important things like that can be. And my dinner could wait till I dropped my sister and nephew off. We went to McDonalds. But if he hadn't been able to explain in less than five minutes why going to McDonalds was so important to him, we wouldn't have.

What position of yours can you explain to an adversary in just five minutes to make a difference in your life?

Feel Better Soon

Just five minutes a day keeps the doctor at bay.

Two months ago Dr. Jo Barton and Professor Jules Pretty, University of Essex, published their results of a study about exercising in nature (green exercise). What they found backs up what I've been saying: Just five minutes can make a difference.

The results of the study show that just five minutes of exercising in nature has a measurable effect on your mental health—especially mood and self-esteem.

According to Professor Pretty, "You get a very substantial benefit from the first five minutes. We should be encouraging people in busy and stressed environments to get outside regularly, even for short bits of time."

It doesn't seem to matter what type of exercise you do, as long as you do it in nature. So if you want to garden, take a walk in a park, ride a horse, go sailing... do it. But make sure you do it for at least five minutes.

Read about the green exercise study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

How will you spend just five minutes today improving your mental health?

Alternate Reality

Just five minutes can make a difference in the way you see things.

You know that feeling of suddenly being someone else for just a moment (or maybe several moments)? The one that comes when you make a certain expression with your face, or you phrase something just so, or something. It's not always clear what causes it, but you're going along, minding your own business, and BAM, you're experiencing an alternate reality.

It happened to me earlier today. I was walking down the freshly painted halls of my apartment building, just going to move my laundry from the washers to the dryer, when I suddenly had the sense I was experiencing the world the way J- does.

Part of me was aware enough to pull back and try to figure out why. It certainly wasn't the setting. Although the walls are freshly painted, the carpet is old, stained, ugly. Not J-'s thing at all. And she wouldn't be doing her own laundry, so that wasn't it. I rethought my expressions, my thoughts, my movements… and there it was. It was my stride, the way I was carrying myself. It felt like hers. Strong, confident, sexy.

I tried to hold onto that feeling of living, however momentarily, someone else's life. That feeling of having someone else's world view. I always try to hold onto that when it happens.

Yes, I know although I feel I've stepped into someone's reality, what I'm experiencing isn't likely to be what they experience. Still, it is different from the way I experience things. It opens me to a different way of viewing the world, of experiencing the moments around me. It shifts my perspective, my paradigm. Sometimes uncomfortably so--like when I see how alone and adrift someone feels. Sometimes in a way that I want to embrace and make mine--like the confidence I felt as I channeled J- this afternoon. But whether uncomfortable or empowering, it always gives me something.

What difference could you make in your life if you spend just five minutes looking at things from someone else's point of view?

I did what?

Sometimes you don't even know you make a difference.

Not long ago a co-worker and I were sent to pick up a sheet of foam core mounting board for a presentation. I had purchasing authority, he had car keys and knowledge of exactly what he needed. It took just a few minutes to get to the frame shop. My co-worker told the proprietor what he needed and she went to the back to find it for him. I paid for the foam core when she brought it out. While I signed the credit card slip, my co-worker picked up the 3'x4' piece. We thanked the lady who had helped us, then headed to the vehicle.

He opened the hatch of the SUV and finessed the foam core into it. I opened the back passenger door and pulled it over the seat back so he could close the hatch. We got into the vehicle and headed back to work.

He stopped in front of the side door and we both got out. I waited for him to unlock the hatch, then pulled out the foam core and headed toward the building.

"You're gonna' carry it in?" Surprise colored the question.

"Yeah." I could feel the well, duh look on my face. He had to park the SUV; while he did that, I'd carry the mounting board. Made sense.

"Wow! You're great."

And he meant it. He was that surprised. I don't know if his wife and kids don't do small things like that, or if the folks he works closely with at work leave everything to him. I do know he was genuinely surprised and appreciative that I didn't leave the board for him to carry.

Like I said, sometimes you don't know when you're going to make a difference. Live a good life, help people--even with seemingly tiny things--and I guarantee that you'll have plenty of moments that make differences you never expect and may never see.

What small thing might you have done today that made a difference for someone else?

I'll write this post tomorrow

Just five minutes can make a difference in reaching your goals.

Procrastination.  I don't know about you, but I am a master.  In fact, I was supposed to start this post an hour ago, but sat at the coffee shop talking with a friend (who was also supposed to be writing a blog post).  Fortunately, with just five minutes, procrastination can be overcome.

When I find myself putting something off, whether it's something I want to do or something I'd rather not, I tell myself that I'll work on it for just five minutes. And then I do.

Most of the time--almost always--I end up spending more than five minutes at it. I finish or make good headway.  Even those rare times when I do spend just five minutes, I'm five minutes further than I was before.  I've made progress.

If I do that regularly, I'll continue to make progress.  And then, during one of those five minute sprints, I'll finish.  I'll reach my goal.  And that feels fantastic.

How will you spend five minutes working toward your goals today?