Julian JP Lee

We can’t always do what we want to do, but we can always do what we can.

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Dear friends,

It’s been a hot 2 years since I’ve posted on this blog!

I’m not exactly sure why I’ve taken so long to post here, but somehow that’s how things have turned out!

In the spirit of breaking this dry spell, I’ve decided to do up a short post today. This post serves as a reminder to myself more than anything else. Nonetheless, I hope you can take something away from it too!

Today, my little note-to-self is this: Do what you can.

This little piece of wisdom was inspired by another area of my life: my exercise routine.

Recently, I adopted the ‘do what you can’ philosophy to help me exercise regularly.

With this philosophy, each morning I would will ask myself how much time I think I can spend on exercise that day. Then, I would set a timer and get down to working-out.

While I acknowledge that I might not be doing enough exercise to keep myself fighting fit, I really find the flexibility afforded by this philosophy to be liberating. If I’m feeling energetic one day, I might commit to 5 minutes of exercise. If I’m exhausted one day, I might just do 1 push-up. If I’m sick, I wouldn’t exercise at all. The point is that I’m doing what I can.

Doing what I can stands in contrast to the other exercise philosophies I’ve tried. For example, I once tried setting a fixed amount of time every day to exercise.

While this particular exercise philosophy may be far better for my health and well-being (if successfully executed), it is also more likely to make me feel discouraged. After all, on the days when I fail to do 30 minutes of exercise, I might feel like I’ve let myself down.

It is great to have high ideals and lofty aspirations. However, may I remember that real progress is made through action, not mere fantasising.

Doing what I can do is an empowering piece of wisdom for me because it prevents me from making excuses. I can always do what I can do and when I do so, that is a wonderful start.

I’m trying to apply what I’ve learnt from my exercise routine to this posting on this blog as well.

I’m doing what I can do, even if it’s just to create a little blog post like this.

Sometimes, when we cannot do all that we want to do, it is good enough to do what we can.

With warmth,

Julian