Honey, I Shrunk My Schedule

Remember Honey, I Shrunk the Kids the movie? I didn’t until just now, but I was reminded as the S-word came up. Yup, I’m here to talk to you about the power of shrinking things to make more of them. 

Sounds like a miracle, right?

It works. Here’s an example. Growing up, our beach was always El Porto near Tower 42 in Manhattan Beach and we’d spend all freakin’ day there. The idea of going to the beach was mom packing a cooler, friends piling into the van, claiming our little territory, and us spending hours camped out in the sun. It was a whole ordeal. 

You can imagine that if going to the beach meant an all-day-camp-out session, how much beach time I’m doing these days as an adult.

Zilch! 

Then, one summer I shrunk the idea of a beach day to just 10-minutes. My new definition of “going to the beach” was bare feet in the sand, I dip under the waves, towel off, and leave. I’d keep a Turkish towel in my bag to make it easy. While it’s not that hard to beat zero trips to the beach, my frequency improved greatly!

I went to the beach dozens of times that year. The only difference was shrinking expectations. In later years, I invented the 15-minute vacation, which comprised of a short bike ride to my favorite coffee shop to have a cup and a short ride back to work.

I became the first workaholic in history to go on a hundred vacations in one year! 

I find myself currently struggling deeply. There doesn’t seem to be much joy or relenting of pressure at the current moment. As much as I’d love to take a sprawling European vacation to clear my head, I’ve found solace in the shrinking of reprieve. The way I see it is that I can hold tightly to my definition of a relaxing vacation and get none of it, or…

I can find micro-moments of joy a couple of times a day. Believe it or not, it works powerfully. Thank goodness. 

Try it!