Here it is. Thanksgiving is just 3 weeks away and I can't wait to be with my family all together again. October has been a bit on the lonely side. I'm missing having family close by. At least the weather has been wonderful. Balt and I started our morning with a long walk in the sunshine. It was a mellow day, paying bills, cleaning house, and doing some writing.
November is write a novel month and I've been challenged once again to get back to writing mine, but the truth is, I'm not ready to stick my head into that project. I'm still trying to wrap my head around my own world and the life I'm living. I managed to get to 26 yoga classes last month for my 30 day yoga challenge, which Erika encouraged me to change into a 5 day a week yoga practice for the winter and I've stepped up to that. I have loved going into the yoga studio, not only to practice my own yoga but often to see Erika at work and occasionally practice next to her. I'm still tweeting daily quotes on happiness which has been a nice project. I'm 40 tweets into my #50daysofhappyposts.
So, am I up for another 30 day challenge? I'm not so sure. Instead of writing a novel in one month, I thought about writing 30 essays instead of one 50,000-word novel. I would try to write each essay with about 1500 words (in order to match the novel challenge). They would be about meaningful topics I have been thinking about lately, but every day this month?? I'm not so sure I can make that happen. I thought I'd get a head start and I managed to get one started last week-- just one and just started. And if I count this as an essay, I'm only about 300 words in. It's a lot of time spent, not just writing, but hashing out what I'm writing about, or editing some older writings.
There's a Ted Talk by Matt Cutts on 30 Day Challenges that I listened to a couple of years ago and I got hooked into the idea that it was good for me. In 2012 I made it a New Year's resolution-- to have a 30 day challenge every month for the year. I got to April, maybe. I kicked it off with a 30 day yoga challenge that I only got to 20 before having to start again in February. I challenged myself that month to give up Facebook, but ended up using Twitter to fill the void. I'd like to think giving up something for 30 days is a lot easier than adding something into your life, unless it's sugar. Giving up sugar for any amount of time is a tough one, because it's in so much of the food most people eat. Once you do it, though, it can be life changing. If you google 30 day challenges you'll find millions of sites, mostly fitness related challenges but there are articles everywhere about these challenges with ideas of what to do, and what to give up.
As for the 30-day yoga challenge, I've tried it 3 times and have yet to get in 30 straight days of practice, which brings me to the sticky part of this whole idea. Difficult challenges set me up for failure. Interestingly, I believe that the Catholics invented the 30 day challenge, only they called it Lent and it was for 40 days. What I really like about Lent and the idea of giving up something for a long period of time is that the church gave people Sundays off and a couple of other days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday that I'm not clear on. Anyway, I think I have to go into a 30 day challenge knowing I'm going to need a day off here or there. Of course, there is the idea of doubling up to make missed days, which I have had to do with my #50daysofhappyposts. The yoga studio I belong to (and Erika works at) encourages seasonal challenges called Personal Revolutions, and allows doubling up to make up missed days. It's still a great challenge and I love that there's a bit of flexibility built in, especially for something that is so physical.
So am I in for 30 days of essay writing? I'm still not sure and it's day one. I've got a lot on my plate and a lot on my mind. Not everything I'm thinking about is ready to be fully explored in an essay and I'm telling you, 1500 words is a lot to explore. (I'm only a bit over 750 now in this fully in depth discussion of whether I need another 30 day challenge in my life). I have encouragement though. Both Melissa and Josh keep bugging me to get back to writing. For various reasons, I've had to set it aside and just deal with life. Part of me feels setting aside time each day and writing in depth may actually help me deal with some of what life has thrown at me. On my list of things to discuss this month; women at work, college tuition, the love of a dog, family, adversity, giving, sleep, synchronicity, generations, girl power, and rejection. Throw in the fact that I have parent teacher conferences, I'm traveling later this month, seeing my mom, and cooking Thanksgiving dinner in California; I've got a lot going on, either to write about or to keep me from writing. Either way, I'm looking at a busy month.
At the root of the 30-day challenge, I believe, is to improve ourselves, to create new habits, give up bad ones and just become a better person. If you listen to the Ted Talk, Matt's last point is that small changes equalled sustainable changes. In other words, a difficult 30 day challenge will end and on day 31 will most likely revert back to life before the challenge. My wish to write a novel will not come true if I spend the next 30 days writing it because I know it will be a piece of crap, but I'd be further along. My wish to be a better writer in order to someday write a novel was what got me writing my blog every night. It has become a sustained habit because I have flexibility with it and it isn't so big of a challenge. Writing a 1500 word essay every night for 30 days is no easy task and won't necessarily make me a better a writer. And the truth is, I'm not sure my blog readers (my mom) really want to wade through such long posts while missing out on my daily happenings.Granted, there's not a lot of excitement happening on a daily basis to write about.
If you have read this far, you've gotten through 1125 words and I'm done writing about 30 day challenges for tonight. I have a feeling that is going to be my problem this month. I don't want to spend a lot of time rambling or ranting in order to catch up to a word count. That's where flexibility is needed. What I'm saying is I'm not guaranteeing an essay every night and I certainly won't inflict 1500 words needlessly.