Why One Is Better Than None
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One isn’t a very impressive number. It’s even less impressive when that one is one push-up, one minute of exercise, one piece of fruit, one expression of appreciation, one minute of meditation, one sentence in a gratitude journal, one verse of scripture, or one dollar saved in a bank account.
When it comes to becoming better in the areas that matter most in our lives, most of us have much grander and bigger dreams for our physical health, spiritual strength, mental wellness, relationships and financial freedom than just one.
But we must not overlook the importance of one and what it symbolizes. One means that we have gone from motion to movement.
We can be in motion our whole lives and never move any closer toward our goals. How many times have we googled the best ways to lose weight, workout, improve our relationships or build wealth but have failed to take any action. Action creates movement forward.
Even though one may seem small and insignificant, it is actually the very beginning of movement toward our goals and our potential, one is where we commence the pathway to becoming better. It’s where momentum starts.
One is better than none because one is action, and small action done consistently compounds into much larger outcomes.
416 Days ago I decided to start running. I decided I would run one mile every day since that was a distance I believed I could do even on bad days. We were back visiting my parents in England at the time and for my first run I ran from my childhood home to the old post office half a mile up the road and back again. I was so out of shape that the almost flat terrain left me gasping. I now run somewhere between one and three miles each day but never less than one mile.
Since that first run I have not missed a single day and you’d think that after 415 days my daily mile would be easy. It’s not. mentally and occasionally physically, running feels hard. On the hard days I just show up and do my best. I am not concerned about achieving a certain time or pace, the goal is to just show up and run.
As I have continued to show up, there have been days where I have run much further than one mile, days where I trail run up and down hills, and manage to run a mile in under 7-minutes, which for me is fast. But not every day is like this. For every good run, there’s triple the slow, less glamorous ones around our local neighborhood streets.
But without these daily runs, I know that I would not be the runner I am able to be on my good days. I am able to do runs today that would not have been possible 416 days ago. One mile is not much, but that one mile has slowly compounded and I am becoming a runner. And not just a runner, a runner who shows up every day.
I am not suggesting that everyone needs to run one mile every day, some of you probably hate running, but I hope this encourages you to start something small and to do it every day. If you feel overwhelmed or unsure about what to do, simply start with one.
I hope this helps to make life better,
All the best,
Matthew