Last Updated on July 18, 2021 by Sarah McCubbin
I always think it is interesting to hear how someone came up with an idea. What was the story or trigger that made them realize they could take the leap and start something new? My catalyst was a writing workshop. Like many things we do with our kids, I went hoping to inspire my daughter…to encourage her along in her gifting…to motivate her to use what she had.
In March 2020… days before the U.S. shut down due to covid…my oldest daughter, Sadie, and I jumped on a plane and flew to Denver, Colorado from Ohio. This was our first adventure together without the whole family and the freedom was palpable. Most trips with 9 children are regularly punctuated with pleas for food, bathroom breaks, and entertainment. But she and I enjoyed our trip in relative quiet…both of us happy to sit, read our books, scroll through our phones and stare out the window. Upon arriving in Denver, we rented a car and drove to Colorado Springs enjoying the open road, abundant sunshine, and mountains climbing in the distance.
Our destination that weekend would be a Pen and the Page writing workshop at the stunning Glen Eyrie Castle. Nestled between the towering red rocks and evergreens, we met for 3 days to learn about writing. Now this workshop was excellent, but I wasn’t really there to be a writer. I wanted my daughter to write.
Over the course of those 3 days, we were invited to go ahead and call ourselves Writers. Whether that writing looked like personal journaling or professional publishing…or anything in between….we were invited to call ourselves Writers. Funny thing…identifying as something before you see it really play out in your life. I don’t feel like the words ever rolled off my tongue well that weekend…after all, I wasn’t the writer, I was there for my daughter. But I would say that a seed was planted…or maybe watered. Ideas were starting to happen.
Over the course of about 36 hours, we would repeat the same exercise over and over. Interspersed with story telling, encouragement and inspiration, we would scratch down a writing prompt on our page. Before we would write, there were a few ground rules.
Among other things, we learned we should…
- Write whatever came to mind–unfiltered
- Never let our hand stop moving
- Write without editing…not stopping to correct spelling, punctuation, or grammar
- And we would do all of this for just 10 minutes
Write Your Story…10 minutes…Repeat
Over and over the exercise was repeated. In short blasts we scribbled away writing about memories from our childhood and adulthood. Happy memories sprinkled the page only to be followed by possibly sad or unhappy ones in the next prompt. With every prompt, I realized that I had NEVER written these things down…but here I was…doing something new…TEN MINUTES at a time.
Ten minutes was enough time to start something new. Ten minutes repeated over and over translated into hours and days and months of effort. In a season of busy parenting, schooling, working and family, that weekend, I gave myself permission to believe that with just 10 minutes, dreams that had been buried could be dusted off and placed back on the shelf. I would no longer disqualify myself from dreams because “I don’t have enough time.” Ten minutes became the momentum that decided a story would be written and no just lived.
So that is it…I took a trip…not for me…and learned something anyway. Ten Minute Momentum is the idea that whatever season of life we are in, we can dream new dreams (or old ones), make progress on things that really matter to us and still be present with “our people”…family, friends and acquaintances…while we work on those goals even if its only ten minutes at a time.
In the craziness of 2020, I used the Ten MInute Momentum to start exercising, lose 30lbs, graduate my oldest from high school, push past old junk in my past, hand over control of a large homeschool group I directed to the next director and many many more steps…that were significant and important TO ME. Every step was not easy…but it started with just ten minutes repeated over and over. Let’s Do This!
Here are 10 Steps to Accomplishing Your Goals
Purpose + Persistence + Time = Goal Accomplished
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