The First Five Minutes are the Hardest

The first five minutes are the hardest. I don’t doubt this concept anymore. Keep reading to find out why.

I’ve been up for over fourteen hours as I sit down to write. I’m tired. Honestly, I don’t know what brain power I have left to write. Everything about this day has been hard, especially the first five minutes of everything.

• The first five minutes after the alarm clock rang at 5:00 a.m., hard. Coming out of a deep sleep feels like coming up from the deep waters of a swimming pool: blurry, muffled, and far from the surface.
• The first five minutes of the first conversation with my husband, hard. My brain neurons weren’t firing yet, but his were. His words sounded muffled to me.
• The first five minutes of being quiet with God this morning, hard. I didn’t know where to begin. I sat for the first five minutes just telling Him, I got nothing right now.
• The first five minutes of my workday, hard. Turning on my computer on Monday morning after being out of the office Friday to see over 40 emails. Hard!
• The first five minutes of every task today, hard. Trying to focus on each new task and shifting from one to another all day long, hard.
• The first five minutes of my dentist appointment, hard. I’ve had so much dental work done this year, I just sat in the chair and cringed.
• The first five minutes of my workout, hard. After mostly sitting at a computer all day, getting my body to move, super hard.
• The first five minutes of writing this blog, hard. I’m exhausted from this day. I don’t have much energy left. Where will the words come from?

Cardio Workout Revelation

It was when I was exercising to an online cardio workout today after work when my day got summed up by the instructor. Autumn Calabrese, said, “The first five minutes are the hardest.” Now, she was referring to the first five minutes of exercising because we go from a secondary heart rate to trying to push our heart and whole body into moving faster and harder. It’s hard. It takes effort and intentionality. It takes commitment.

Throughout that workout, I pondered the concept that the first five minutes are the hardest. It seems to ring true to many things in life, not just exercise. Just look at my list above.

Christ’s Strength Makes Things Possible

But even when things are hard, we can do them with the strength that Christ gives us (Philippians 4:13). I don’t know if I’ve connected this idea in this way before. This seems like a new concept to me. By breaking down the hard stuff we must do, to even the first five minutes, we can see how much we need God’s strength all day long.

God will give us strength to endure. But we need to commit. We need to endure and push past the first five minutes. 

Do you know what happens when we push past the first five minutes of hard? It gets easier! The brain’s neurons start firing, the blood starts pumping, the ideas start coming, and even words start forming into sentences and paragraphs. 

When we commit and push past the hard moments, we discover it’s not impossible. Makes me think of a Bible verse that most of us have probably heard a few times in our life.

“For nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37, ESV

Even the first five minutes of the hardest things in the world are not impossible when we do them with God. When we rely on His strength and we commit, well, before we know it, we’ve come to the finish line. We can rest knowing we pushed past the hardest parts, and we did it with God.

Blessing

May you push past the first five minutes of hard. Ask God for His strength to help you endure. May you stay committed to the work that God has called you to.