One of the things that I started back with is SparkPeople. I need the support of the community and having a place to keep track of my healthy habits. And for some reason, as I was writing in my blog there today (I really have a lot of blogs and haven't been keeping up with any of them much lately), I realized that one of the things I want to do for myself is come up with a small challenge each day. Some of them may be writing challenges to help me get to know myself better. Some may be physical challenges to make myself feel better. Some may be craft challenges to keep my inspiration going. And some may be spiritual challenges to help me figure out where I'm going from here. My plan is to document each challenge every day. If you feel like joining me for the journey, feel free. I'd love to see what you do with the challenge as well. Even if you just want to come along and read what I'm up to, that's ok too. I always like getting support from those around me. Also, in the hope of keeping the support that I know I get from people over at LifeKraze. They're great about making me feel good about myself and what I write about.
My main purpose for doing these challenges, though, is for me. I want to grow in as many ways as possible, and to be the best person I can be. I'm hoping these small challenges will bring that about.
Today's challenge is:
List 10 things you'd like to improve, along with how you plan on making them happen.
- I want to lose 80 pounds within the next year and a half. I've been too heavy for too long. I've felt like crap for too long. So I'm paying attention to what I'm eating and I'm making sure to get in at least 20 minutes of exercise a day.
- I want my house organized. I am going to set aside a different area to organize every weekend (so I don't have to slog through things on my own.) I'm not going to bite off more than I can chew so I'll plan baby steps.
- I want to feel good about myself. I plan on having many of my daily challenges be self-affirming to remind me that I've got more good than bad.
- I want to start spending time with more adults. I am going to start by getting together with the SparkNashville people more regularly. I used to love getting together with them, walking and getting healthy together. From there, who knows where I'll meet my next friends.
- I want to challenge myself. I'm not sure how yet - getting out of my shell a little more, to start. I want to stretch myself into joining things I find interesting rather than letting opportunities pass me by.
- I want to get back into journal writing. I already have a notebook that I'm writing in. I haven't in a few days, but I'm going to remind myself that a few days away doesn't have to be forever. There's not better time to jump back into things than now.
- I want to be active with my blogs again. I'm going to set up a schedule for me to write in them so keeping up with all of them won't be as overwhelming as it seems to be now.
- I want to get back into my creativity. I'm going to start by setting aside a couple hours a week for creativity. It could be working on a smash book, or working on a scrapbook, maybe even writing. But a couple hours a week should be a good way to get me back into the swing of things.
- I want to hold myself accountable. Far too often, I make excuses for myself. "I had to grab something at McDonald's to eat because I was in a hurry.", "I couldn't work out because the kids were watching TV." Excuses. Sometimes the excuses are valid - my ankle was hurting too much for me to do high impact exercise. But I'm going to start using my Today I... blog daily (whether at the end of the night or first thing in the morning) to talk about what I did and didn't do. It will also help me look at myself in a clearer light.
- I want to organize myself better. Every day, I have a general idea of what I want to get done, but I don't write it down. And then things slip away from me. I'm planning on writing a soft schedule for myself once a week (possibly by using WeekPlan) so I know what needs to be done and have an idea how much time to put aside for it. As a matter of fact, writing up that soft schedule will be my challenge for tomorrow.
So, come back tomorrow to see how I handle my challenge to
Write a soft schedule for myself for the next week
