The Challenge to Change for November

I was ready for the challenge to change. I woke up determined to make it happen – to get it all done. I had a plan. I had a schedule. I had a list. I even had charts. NOTHING would get in the way of me doing all that I had planned.

Except maybe all that I had planned.

I had set up a great challenge for myself and when I shared all of my ideas with my husband he shook his head and asked me if I had lost my mind. I liked the idea behind his comment, and so I labeled my challenge accordingly.

The “Have You Lost Your Mind” challenge took all of the November challenges that I had attempted in the past and squeezed them into one challenge, compounding some just to keep things interesting. On top of this master challenge, I had the intention to keep on doing what I had been doing – ALL OF IT.

It turns out that you really can’t do it all and that at some point something IS going to give.

The Challenge to Change

1. Sometimes my challenge eyes are bigger than my challenge stomach. In this case, I didn’t sit down and truly measure how much time each element would require so on day one I learned that there LITERALLY wasn’t enough time in the day to get it all done. I could go the month without a full night’s sleep . . . but I’m not going to. Instead, I will have to adjust accordingly.

2. The real reason for challenges is not always in the description of the challenge. The best challenge is one that pushes me to the next level. Even this soon in the process, I am already gaining some serious perspective about what I am doing, what I can do, and what I actually want to do. Even if I stopped today, that would make this challenge a success.

3. A challenge set up for someone else or because of someone else will never work for me. I have to do a challenge because I want to do a challenge. It is the want that drives the will and it is always the will that gets things done.

I will keep on keeping on, with some adjustments suggested by the great women in my MasterMind group, and with my own realization about what I have to work with. The challenge may not turn out to be exactly what I thought it was going to be, but I do know that it will get me closer to where I want to go.

Each time I demand more from myself then I grow up in ability and in focus. Each time I take a step out then I move away from where I have been – maybe even where I have been stuck – and I move closer to where I want to go (or at least I just move and sometimes it is just moving that makes the difference).

Challenge yourself in all that you do – but be willing to learn from the challenge to change as you go and not just aim for an end.