I have given the last week plus a bit of a break from 30 day challenges. I have kept my to do list simple, cleared my mind a bit, and focused on the positive outcomes from all my changes this year. For yearly goals I outlined in 2009 I have made progress on in all directions. I am feeling more confident about what I can accomplish, and gaining a better understanding of what works and what does not with my individual self. My attitude towards the positive has continued, and it is much easier for me to shift in that direction in most situations.
Now that I have had a break, I am ready to move to the next mountain to climb. In my review this last week, I definitely found a pattern in where I find success and where I struggle. Looking back at my 30 day challenges, or even just one time events, the more intense and all encompassing the better my success rate. For example, my unplugged challenge from Jan/Feb this year I was really proud of. The level of concentration and awareness required for me in that challenge was super high and constant. Living most of my waking hours on the phone, email, internet, PC games, and in front of the TV is not an understatement, and removal of them all at once was a super shock. Habits I had been running non stop (avoiding work, procrastination, the never ending messaging programs), took quite a bit of mental focus to suddenly eliminate 100%. In the end though, I probably had the greatest success on this challenge over anything else I have tried thus far.
So in looking forward to my next 30 day, I have decided that full immersion and high intensity is needed. One serious driving aspect in my motivation is to kick up my progress another notch. I feel like I have laid a strong foundation, learned new discipline skills, and tested my limitations. Now I am ready to “Level Up” so to speak. I am going to be incorporating a combination of major all day habit changes (total food overhaul, implementing large time management changes at work), along with numerous past habits that take time, but have been practiced before (meditation, exercise, ect). Its time to get to the next level of what I can accomplish.
So here is a list of what I will be tackling starting June 1:
- 30 days of Raw diet (vegan, low fruit)
- Improve balance with dogs
- Implement time blocking and several habit changes at work
- Continue exercise, minimum 30 minutes a day, plus one high intense day and one rest day
- Addition of 30 minute home care time block
- Continue website posting minimums
- Continue Daily meditation, minimum 20 minutes a day
Inclusive in this challenge will be daily posts within this blog, both summary of the total results and deeper dives into different aspects. Three of the items in the challenge are ‘continued’ from prior challenges, and need more work to be a consistent habit.
To accomplish all of this, I have a lot of prep work to complete. I made a list today of all items that need to be completed before I can begin. Normally I start a challenge within a couple days of working out the details. This time, I think I am going to post pone it until June 1, just so I can be 100% set up for success. My husband is out of town this week as well, and I would prefer to sit down and go over the details with him before I begin. For the amount of time and immersion this challenge will require, I need to make sure he understands what and why before I dive in and change things up. He has always been a great help in all my past challenges, and I think that full disclosure and reason why I do what I do helps.
My level of detail in posts will likely be pretty high, but that is how I function. I love detail, analysis, numbers, give me data data data. I create elaborate checklists, and this challenge is right up my alley for information overload. For those interested in a quick summary, I will have a daily post that does just that in 30 day. For those wanting all the nitty gritty, those will be found in the other three categories (balance, focus, furballs). I will be recording details on my daily food intake and nutrition levels, how I am responding to the changes, and so forth. I am even contemplating some before and after photos (which won’t be that drastic, since I have no major weight to lose, but they might prove to be interesting all the same).
So this week is prep time. I am going to try and post some ramblings on how I prepare and create these challenges while I work up to the June 1 start date.
This should be an interesting start to the summer!
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