Goal-setting has never been my strong point. If you’ve been reading
this blog long enough, you know that I’m a perfectionist and once I mess up, I’m
done with it. I stepped away from it for a while to reexamine how and why I was
setting goals. I learned a lot in that time and I’m hoping I’ll be able to put
my new knowledge to use for the following three challenges.
No-Spend October
I tried this as an experiment in August and it went pretty well. In short, the
goal is to spend zero dollars during the month of October. However, I go into
it knowing I’m not truly going to meet that goal. There will be a day that I
really, really need that pumpkin
spice latte, or a weekend where I want to split the bill on a dinner date with
Erik.
The point is to be more aware. If I tell myself no spending, I’m a lot less likely to go
out for coffee every day and pick up fast food for dinner once a week. I don’t
go shopping “for fun” and I delete all the e-mails I get for stores/websites I
follow, unless it looks like an exceptionally good deal. This summer, I got
into the habit of spending very recklessly; this challenge helped bring me back
into reality and save the majority of my money.
Two-week sugar fast
Back in June, I participated in Nicole’s Sugar Detox and absolutely loved it… right
up until it came time to detox. I lasted two days before I was crying over the
fact I couldn’t have a smidge of mustard that was in the otherwise-sugar-free
meal my mom was making and, well, that was the end of that. Still, it was a
great challenge and I learned so much.
Thankfully, I found out that Stephany – who had also
participated in the program – had similar issues with making it through the
actual detox. Our solution? Take it a step down to a method that she had used
(successfully!) before: only eating foods with less than 2g of sugar per
serving. Starting today, we’ll be doing it together for two weeks then taking it in our own
direction, depending on how we do and how we feel.
Journal for 31 days
This is a last-minute addition to the list and hopefully I can see it through,
especially considering I have a very busy month ahead. In the past year, I’ve
had a tendency to lose touch with my feelings and thoughts until they all pile
up and bury me. Even if I write only a few sentences some days, I want to clear
things out of my mind on a daily basis.
What are you challenging yourself to do this month? Are you a perfectionist? Do you like goals where you do something every single day (like my journaling goal) or over-arching goals (like my no-spend goal)?
