The Spare Change Principle
I saw a video from a few years ago by Jon Acuff that made good sense to me. He shared that he had run 1,000 miles the previous year. How? Short answer: he ran a lot. Long answer: he used the “Spare Change Principle.”
And what was that? It was his willingness to do an extra .2 miles at the end of his runs. When he planned to run 3 miles, he would instead run 3.2 miles. He always had a little more energy left and though it didn’t seem like much, it added up!
Running roughly 300 times that year meant that his .2 spare change turned into an extra 60 miles!
Anyone who has collected their spare change in a jar or bowl at the end of the day knows that it adds up.
What can we glean from this concept? We can “spare change” many areas of our life. We can incorporate the idea into other areas in our lives.
- Don’t just send 4 thank you notes; send 5.
- Don’t just read 20 pages of that book; read 24.
- Don’t just walk for 30 minutes; walk for 35.
- Save a little more.
- Unclutter a little more.
- Write a little more.
- Give a little more.
- Do one more act of kindness this week.
- Add a handwritten postscript to that form letter you’re sending.
- Think of a few more ideas to do a little bit more of.
It turns out that over time, a little bit more is always a whole lot!
5 Comments
Thank you for sharing Grandma! Very inspirational and very DOABLE!
Yep! Doable is the key!
Pat,
Another great one!
It was nice seeing you today.
Sometimes I do this in reverse — eat one less chip, leave ½ cookie for later. It does add up.
I think this would be a good idea for me…at least with those chocolate chip cookies!