#MonthJanuary Challenges

Back at the end of August, one of my favorite authors, Jon Acuff, issued what he called his #SeptemberJanuary Challenge, which after some thought and some discussion with myself, I decided to accept. My goal—my promise to myself—was to simply write for 5 minutes a day. No writing that was work-related…it had to be personal. Learn more about this challenge here.

So…how’d it go?

I nailed it in September, and I loved it so much that I carried it on into October, then November, then December, and now into January. And I plan to carry it on for months to come. I eventually gave myself Sunday off if I wanted, which is a nice break.
In those 4 months, I missed a total of 5 (FIVE!!!) days of writing! I must say…I think that is pretty awesome!

Why did I (do I) love it?

I would have NEVER accomplished that much writing without this challenge. In the past, my writing was very sporadic. Like…REALLY sporadic.
I love a challenge, so I wanted to nail this goal! When I set my mind to doing something, especially when there’s a chart to mark off, I usually do pretty well. And I really enjoy making each month’s chart, so that’s a bonus!
5 minutes is really nothing, and I’d say that 90% of the time I wrote for more than 5 minutes.
I found that the more I wrote, the easier it became. It’s like anything in life—the more you do it, the easier it gets. And I hope I’m getting better at it too.
One of my other goals is to post on my blog once a week, and at two different times, I was 4 weeks ahead!!! That is huge, especially since I’d often go for several weeks—or even months—in between posts pre-challenge.
Writing is stress relief for me, and it gives me the opportunity to share my passions and desire to help others. I figure that if I only help one person with something I write, that’s awesome!
Out of the 4 months, I missed posting ONE week. And I don’t feel badly about that since it was during my foot surgery recovery, and I was basically in survival mode between healing and working and other life stuff I needed to take care of.

What did I learn?

I realized I was tempted some days to count any time over 5 minutes in a day towards the next day’s (or days’) time. But that’s not the point. The point was not to write a total of minutes. The point was to form a habit of consistency from day to day. It’s like expecting to get fit by working out several hours one day a week. That just won’t cut it!
I’m working on my perfectionistic tendencies, so I was tempted to look at any days missed as a failure. But I realized that the number of days I missed was way smaller than the number of days I kept my promise to myself. And I’m not trying to go for perfection—that all-or-nothing mentality, because that would get me nowhere, and I probably wouldn’t be writing at all. Because if I can’t be perfect, why write at all? Yeah…that’s pretty silly.
I learned that when I’m tempted to break a promise to myself, I can usually find a way to keep it. Seriously…write for only 5 minutes a day. And I can write on my phone or anywhere. There’s really no reason to not keep this promise!