In my blog reading a few weeks ago I came across a post which has played on my mind. I’ve admitted to this habit before – I mull over stuff all of the time. Yes, it’s true. My name is Deborah and I am a ‘muller’!
Actually – in all honesty – I cannot tell you how much richer my life is, as a result of the stuff I get put onto by other bloggers, writers and the like.
New discoveries aside; the post in question was by Chubby Girlfriend from Boyfriends Make You Fat and it linked to this clip.
I’d encourage you to watch it as it’s only three and a half minutes.
I’m not much into challenges, indeed I wrote a somewhat sarcastic blog post earlier this year about the myriad doing the rounds. Plank-a-day, Burpees-a-day, Push ups-a-day… and so forth. I got the point where I thought I might scream if another update appeared in my Facebook feed or I saw yet-another tweet pronouncing someone’s latest achievement. #Killmenow I was thinking.
However, I have recently partaken in a couple of low-key challenges from o/s bloggers: I agreed to post my weight each week over the month of May (just on her site, to keep ourselves honest); and at Easter I committed to exercise all four days of the break.
Easy peasey. No hard taskmaster was standing over me with a stopwatch and clipboard and there were no public lashings if I failed in my task.
But given this antipathy towards the whole ‘challenge’ concept I was a bit ‘meh’ about the clip. Until I watched it.
Matt Cutts is no fire and brimstone evangelist or self-help book toting public speaker. He describes himself as just a desk-dwelling IT geek. His TED talk focuses on goal-setting – just by trying something new/different for 30 days. After all, he says, the 30 days are going to pass no matter what… Why don’t we take the opportunity to add or subtract something from our lives, which we’ve been aching to do.
“You can do anything for 30 days,” he says.
Another blogger from my diet world, the lovely Satu, recently talked about breaking bad habits. We do this in two ways she suggested. Firstly (the one I’m most prone to use) is the wham-bam-thank you-maam option (aka Innovation). It’s effective and brings immediate results. But if you’re like me, it’s often short-lived. The other option (the Kaizen way / continual improvement in a business-sense) involves slow incremental change. It’s all about integrating small steps into our daily lives until we no longer notice they were never there.
Cutts has the same advice in his TED talk. He says that the smaller changes were (for him) the ones most likely to stick.
When I read through the list of stuff he did over a period of a few months, I thought… ‘shit, I could do that’. Little things. Little changes: 10,000 steps a day and biking to work. Etcetera. He commented that participating in the challenges made time more memorable. (Living in the moment, perhaps?)
Having completed a photo-a-day challenge, he said he could look back over any photograph he’d taken over that time and recall exactly where and when it was taken.
Aussie blogger, Chantelle from Fat Mum Slim has been hugely successful with her Photo-a-Day challenges. I must confess I’ve never really ‘gotten’ the concept. I suspect this is for two reasons: the aforementioned antipathy towards ‘challenges’; and the fact that I’m not really into photography or visuals. Sure I use pictures in my blogs, but for me words are all-important. I’m an auditory thinker and though I love pretty stuff (don’t we all?!) I’m not usually patient enough to think about creating it for myself.
But… inspired by Matt Cutts, I am going to do Fat Mum Slim’s Photo-a-Day for June. I can’t promise my life will be any richer. I can’t promise my photographs will be anything other than blurry waffle, but… I might as well give it a try. Because I have nothing to lose and everything to gain, including some perspective. I hope! Cutts said his challenges got bigger and bigger as he went along. So that’s where I’m headed.
Oh, and by the way… I’m also aiming to NOT eat any corn chips, rice cakes or chocolate for 30 days. As I pronounce this I’m reminded of the apoplectic fit I had when my therapist tried to force me to agree to this very thing at Easter in a ‘never again’ way. But… as Cutts says, we can do ANYTHING for 30 days. Can’t we?
What would you give up or start doing in a 30 day challenge?
May 30, 2012
It took tremendous self control from me to not come here and read your post when I saw your trackback. I’ve been reading about willpower and I wanted to give it some exercise….
I’m also pretty conflicted about challenges. The first problems is alwasy: what do I do if I fail to do what I’m supposed to on -say- day 11 of the 30-day challenge? Does it mean I failed and have to give up the whole challenge? My black-and-white mind has trouble grasping the idea.
I like Matt Cutts’ concept. Do you know if he did the same thing every day of his 30-day challenge? I guess I have to check his blog. Maybe I start doing them too and find myself on Kilimanjaro one day? 🙂
Good luck for your challenge! I must admit your no chocolate for 30 days sounds awfully demanding, but I’m a self-confessed chocoholic.
May 30, 2012
Satu, I think he did different things each month because he says something about making the challenges more ‘challenging!’ of difficult each month. Which is why I figured I’d start with the photo thing.
The no corn chip/ chocolate etc thing is because I’ve been binging on them on weekends. I’m hoping by saying I won’t have any for a month isn’t as scary as saying I will never eat them again!!!
Deb
May 30, 2012
The photo a day challenge is fun – I did it in February and loved it. Of course, then I decided to continue in March and totally failed because life got a little out-of-control busy. LOL
I love challenges – especially short ones. Having a goal, a start and finish date and some sort of public commitment seems to work for me. Well, except for the aforementioned failed March challenge… Meh. Nobody’s perfect.
May 30, 2012
Kerryn, I also just said to Satu that I’m hoping that by starting with something not too scary (photo a day) I prove to myself I can follow through on something… and it gives me pause for thought on occasion.
Fingers crossed!
Deb
May 30, 2012
Hi Deb
the photo a day challenge is fun – I have done it on and off over this year.
the best thing that chantelle speaks of is – join in and drop out when you need to – no pressure.
it helps keep a little fun in your life and you know I love anything through a lens 🙂
Download instadesk for mac as an app and it makes it so easy to follow people you wish to via instagram ( I know this will be after-hours for you because of work)
have a lovely day Deb
x Loulou
May 30, 2012
Thanks Loulou… Will definitely download instadeck. At the moment I use instagram on my phone but don’t go online so don’t really know what the site itself offers (or how to follow people etc!). Mind you, I’m a bit like that with Pinterest which I’ve recently joined.
I hadn’t really considered the photo-a-day thing (as photographs aren’t my thing – unlike you!) until I realised it could be a stepping stone to a bigger commitment!
Deb
May 30, 2012
I do photoaday & use it as blog topics on days when the brain isn’t thinking of anything else. It’s helped me from a creativity viewpoint, but I can’t say that I’ve ever kept at every day. The issue I have with challenges is it automatically removes the ability to be gentle on yourself- that is the nature of a challenge. But, being as boundary challenged as I am, I need that from time to time.
May 30, 2012
I’m a bit like you Jo… I figure the photo challenge is a good one to start off on – not overly restrictive and kinda fun. (I’ll see how the rice cake, corn chip and chocolate one goes….)
Deb
May 31, 2012
I think that’s a great idea! I can’t wait to see your pics too! I quite like the challenges and I have done the photo a day and loved it .. tried it again this month and lost the plot being a bit busy ( no excuse! ). I also challenged myself for sugar free September which I’ll be sure to do again this year .. maybe you would love to join me!
Good luck for the month, I’m sure you will suceed!
Vic x
May 31, 2012
Thanks Vicki.. one more sleep! As I said in the comments, I hope it leads to bigger and better things and a knowledge that I CAN achieve goals I set for myself!
Deb
May 31, 2012
LOL – I’m a muller too. And a self-proclaimed over-thinker.
May 31, 2012
Highly over-rated…. isn’t it?!?!?
June 1, 2012
I’m with the other Karen and you…mullers and over-thinkers unite! So yeah…these kinds of challenges? The minute I say I am going to do them, the minute I don’t. So I don’t bother any more.
June 1, 2012
Well… it’s only 6hrs into day one, but so far so good!!! I think the hardest thing for me will be remembering to take the damned photos!
🙂