This post was posted on the Big Picture Classes blog a few weeks ago but I thought it would be good to post it here, too. I hope you like it.

In Turkish, we have a saying. It loosely translates to:

“Drop by drop, it becomes a lake.”

This is how time works. Negligible amounts of time dedicated to the small task can end up amounting to tangibile, visible changes in your life.

I wanted to share some examples of my personal projects with you today. I will share three different examples with you. Just to show you that the idea applies across the board.

One of my goals this year was to learn how to sketch. I can’t draw at all but I’ve always wanted to. I loved watching people sit with a piece of paper and pencil and create works of art within moments. I saw other people’s sketchbooks and felt a strong desire to have my own. I was quite scared of this goal and postponed it for a while. Finally, on April 10, I decided enough was enough and I would start sketching every single day. Here are the two sketches I made on that day:

Yes, I told you. I can’t draw.

Alas, I kept trying. I dedicated 15-30 minutes a day to it. Every single day since April 10. I took other people’s sketches and tried to create my own versions. I used charcoal, colored pencils, pastel pencils, and eventually watercolors. I used photos as inspirations, too.

In the process I found artists that inspired me and I copied their work. Since I wasn’t selling anything and made sure to give credit, I didn’t worry about copying.

my version of the amazing sketch by Andrea Joseph:

Then I started to draw off of photos:

and finally moved to watercolors:

With just 15 minutes or so every day, I was able to improve my sketching significantly. To the point that I am no longer scared to sit and draw. Yes, I still have days where I hate my creations and I have a long way to go before I can use my own imagination, but I am no longer scared when I see something. I no longer think “I could never do that.” I know it’s just a matter of time, patience, and dedication.

All it took to have faith in myself (and to draw better) was 15 minutes a day.

Here are two more examples of how regular dedication of time can make a tangible difference in your life:

Another project I worked on this year was starting to exercise. I have never, ever exercised in my life. I don’t do any sports, and I don’t even know how to ride a bike. On October 2, 2010, I decided enough was enough and I would start exercising every day. I started with a one mile walk around the neighborhood and slowly increased to a 45-minute exercise of 2 miles of walking and 1 mile of running. As of July 2011, I had lost 32 lbs. I now weigh less than I did when I was 19 years old. Yes, I did watch what I was eating but I’d been doing that for years. What made this work was the 45 minutes a day I dedicated to working out. And now that my stamina is higher, I was able to change things up so I run 2 miles instead of walking so my 45 minute exercise is down to 21 minutes. I can use the extra time to be with my family.

And, finally for something different, my oldest son just learned how to read a year ago and he’s becoming more and more interested in books. I wanted to spend 2010 reading books to him to encourage his love for reading. Since I didn’t grow up here, I asked around a lot and made a list. It had most of the classics from Charlotte’s Web to The Wizard of Oz. I dedicated 20 minutes a day to read to him. Sometimes it would be during breakfast and other times, near bedtime. Just 20 minutes a day. I’d read to him and when we finished a book, he’d tell me what he thought of the book. (you can read more about the project here🙂 As of November 12, we’ve read 48 books together. Just 20 minutes a day.

So let’s summarize. With 15-45 minutes a day of dedication a day on each task, in less than one year, I was able to improve my drawing, lose 32 lbs., and read 48 books. If those are not excellent results, I don’t know what is. So next time you’re complaining about how you don’t have time to start something, remember that it takes a lot less time to accomplish a goal than you might think.

More importantly, what I learned when I was writing the Reclaiming My Time workshop is that you have a lot more free time each day than you think. All it takes is a good, hard look at where your time goes. I promise you, you will be surprised. As you can see from my examples above, taking just a few minutes each day to do things I value has changed my life. It made me more productive, happier, and more fulfilled.

Remember that how you spend your time is how you spend your life.

It’s been a rough few days here. Mostly due to work where I am trying to get some things done and there’ve been some challenges. But if you read here regularly, you know I don’t talk about work here. So this post is not about work. This post is about the fine balance between positive self-encouragement and negative self-talk.

I am fantastic on the latter. Not so great on the former.

The funny thing is, I firmly believe that I regularly work on improving myself. In many areas of my life, I try to be better. And not even better by other people’s definitions but by my own. I do the things I want to do. I work on the things I want to be better at. That’s why I started trying to sketch. Or even why I started to exercise. I didn’t lose the weight for my husband or mom or anyone else but me. I decided it was time and I just did it. While there are still areas where I falter often, I am generally pretty good at trying to tackle things I feel the need to improve.

Where I struggle is when I disappoint someone else. Or even when I think I disappointed them. (Often the other party doesn’t seem to care or worry nearly as much as I do.) I can’t seem to get over the feeling of how my inadequacy caused me to let them down. I beat myself up and go into the bad place of where I nonstop think that I am not enough. I worry about it so much that I become even more unhelpful. It’s no longer constructive.

When I look at other people who have the fine balance more under control, they seem to be able to say “That sucked, I’m sorry, I’ll do better next time.” They take notes on what to do (or not to do) next time.

And then they move on.

That’s the thing. That particular moment has passed. Even if I let someone else down, I cannot take it back. I’ve come to realize that’s the part that kills me. I so want to take it back. I so want to do better. I so want to be better. But the moment has passed. There is absolutely nothing I can do to take it back. And it’s okay.

It’s okay that I cannot take it back.

Anyone who’s decent will forgive me. Because when people see me, they can tell I care. They can tell I am working on improving and they can tell I would never intentionally let anyone down. I am confident that this is obvious about me. So instead of falling apart, what I’d like to do is stay on the constructive side of this fine balance. Be able to step back, take some notes, figure out next steps and try not to get myself into a similar situation next time.

I believe I can do this.

I believe this is what I need to work on. Not trying to do it right each time. Which is unattainable. But trying to stay on the constructive side of the fine balance between improving and feeling not enough. Knowing that I am always enough just the way I am will give me the perspective that I need to improve the steps so the same situation doesn’t occur the next time.

Yes, it all starts with knowing that I am enough just the way I am.

No matter what.