Hello, Dolls!
As promised, I want to share a little bit about the Rediscover Me 28 Day Challenge that I just completed with Alison Lumbatis at Get Your Pretty On. Day 28 of the challenge was yesterday so it would be easy to surmise (confession: had to look that word up to spell it right!) that the challenge is over. Even I can do that math…twenty-eight days hath February, and a twenty-eight day challenge that began on February 1 would be over on February 28th, right?
WRONG!
Because the Rediscover Me 28 Day Challenge is really misnamed.
In my opinion, it should be Rediscover Me for LIFE!
Everything we did over the past twenty-eight days, is going to impact me for life.
Truly.
I have made resolutions and set goals for as long as I can remember. Sometimes I kept my resolutions through the entire month of January. Sometimes I reached my goals; a few even became good habits. But more often, I returned to my old ways or allowed my goals to slip through my fingers before I could fully grasp them.
So what’s different this time?
The first difference I think of is that I was in charge in this month long journey to self-(re)discovery. Of course, I was always in charge of setting my own course, my own goals before, too. But I didn’t feel in control. And that is huge.
Alison guided us, guided me, through this journey utilizing life coaching techniques that effectively boosted my confidence, helped me prioritize what is most important in my life, and then take the steps toward achieving these goals, toward living a richer, more productive, fulfilling life.
On the first day of the challenge, participants were invited to identify three to five of our most important goals for this new year. Too easy. Being ever the over-achiever and Type A personality that I am, I wrote six. Of course I had a head-start. This fall, I had identified goals in at least three posts right here on my blog. You can read about them here, here and here.
But Alison provided a “Goal Setting Worksheet” that took this activity to a deeper level. Not only did I have to list my goals, but I had to examine the reason or reasons why I was setting each goal. I had to identify how I was going to attain each goal. And lastly, I had to write a dialog or an I-statement of sorts, in the future tense as if I had accomplished my goal…a statement about how realizing my goal made me feel, impacted my life. A statement about how I was feeling, how accomplishing my goal had changed my behavior, my life and why these changes made me feel this way.
My goals that very first day were:
- Exercise 30-45 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week. In order to get in better shape, regain strength, health and improve muscle tone. I would go to the gym, do Fitness Blender videos, walk my kitties, swim, and track my Weight Watchers food and activity points.
- Read one book a month. I enjoy reading, it stimulates my mind and imagination, improves my mental and emotional health. I would read one chapter every night before bed.
- Write something somewhere everyday. Writing is one of my favorite hobbies, it is a release for emotions, worries, troubles, and allows me a creative way to express myself. I would schedule a time for writing everyday either as a part of the 28 Day Challenge, or writing in my journal, on my blog or on some of my story ideas.
- Have a devotional time everyday. I have so much to be thankful for and reflecting on the good helps me develop a closeness to God in good times and bad. Makes me more positive. I would make devotionals my priority, first thing every morning.
- Finish up loose ends on projects and activities that I started in this first year of retirement. I want to inspire creativity in myself and others. I want to volunteer for my community and do good to help others. I want to complete some of the art-related projects I have started so that I have my own art in my home, in my life. I would assign days or times each day to work on my art. I would schedule times for going to work at the El Paso Holocaust Museum, The Mustard Seed Cafe, to work on my mosaic, my painting, my scrapbooks.
- Internet less, participate in life more. Instead of reading about life, I want to live life more. Do some of what I read about on the Internet. Use some of my pinned Pinterest ideas. By experiencing life more, I will also get rid of my dreaded
Internet-behind. We only go around once. Living life is healthier. I want to be a more hands-on participant in my own life. I would turn off the computer during the day while I am at home after checking emails, taking care of any online business. I would schedule time for working on my blog, writing emails. When my battery dies, I turn off my computer.
Most of these goals were things I had already identified and begun work on before the first day of the challenge, February 1, 2015. And I had made progress on my own. But I am so excited about how much further I have come under Alison’s great guidance.
Tomorrow, I will share my accomplishments over the past 28 days and how I plan to carry this rediscovery challenge into my life from February 28, 2015 – on. Hope you will come back to read part 2 of Rediscovering Me, a 28 Day Challenge for LIFE.
Join me?
Hugs and butterfly kisses,
Alison @ Get Your Pretty On
What a beautiful write up and testimonial for the power of this challenge, Leslie! Thanks so much for sharing your experience with me. It is so uplifting to see the difference it’s made. I really appreciate all of the hard work that was put into this from you. I feel so humbled and honored to have been able to facilitate this challenge.
I love that you said many of these exercises will stay with you for life. I’m looking forward to building on what we’ve learned and done in a future challenge.
Thanks so much sweet friend,
Alison
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you so much for stopping by. I have written a part 2 today and will do a final post about all of my accomplishments tomorrow. Guess who can now wear a size 6 pants? Yup! Moi!!! Not because I have lost weight but because I have been exercising and holding myself accountable for doing so. Thanks to YOU!! Please, please let us know when you offer this challenge again. I have so many folks who are interested in doing it next time. XO
Deena
Very neat to hear about this…I was curious how it was going. Glad to see you loved it!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
I can’t say enough about this challenge. If Alison does offer it again, I would highly recommend it.
Morgan
I look forward to reading tomorrow’s post. 🙂
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Yay, YOU!! How are you feeling? Hope you have your bags packed and ready to go. With the change in the barometric pressure (and rain), women often go into labor. Probably too early with this week’s rain, but look out later in the month. XO