Friday 23 May 2014

The Power of Three


Once, about six years ago, I did a 100 Day Challenge. I scribbled down big hairy goals and set schedules and surrounded myself with vision boards and positive people and worked like crazy to change my life beyond my wildest dreams. It lasted about a fortnight and then my concentration slipped because a new episode of LOST had come back on TV… and then I lost interest in LOST too because I had to trade my vision board for a white board to keep track of the characters and the emerging themes… damned if I know what happened in the end but I do remember I liked Sayid better than Jack who turned out to be a little bit                                                                             dull. I digress.

I have to confess I've always been a bit of a self-development junkie, which is why over the weekend I decided to Google ‘100 day Challenge’ to see what’s new.  In the space of what seems like a few years this 
  topic has exploded, and that’s good, and it still excites me. However, I still seem to have the concentration span of a gnat. The very idea of stepping out 100 days in time to reach a better place in my life leaves me exhausted and I know I’ll not make it: across the river of adversity, down the path of good intentions, through the door of opportunity, past the point of failed attempts or towards the light of never ending spiritual enlightenment without having to pause for some mind-numbing TV or bad food.  

So I figured I’d settle on something shorter and more manageable. At first I thought 50 days, half the time, sounds doable, but no, that’s quite a bit of planning still and a very large to-do list to go with my many and varied goals. ‘How about 30 days?’ I asked myself. Maybe, but I want results people! Successes, heady achievements, I don't want to fade. 30 days is just too long to maintain that much adrenalin-guzzling action, besides, that’s a long time to smile every-god-damn-day! Even a week requires a decent amount of planning and effort. So, I settled on three. Three days. Three days to get it right.


Three days of ‘getting it right’ will provide me with enough heart-pumping action and steely-minded determination needed to reach the challenges I've set myself. Here is my Three day challenge for anyone who has the grit to take it on..

FOR THREE DAYS, PLAN AND IMPLEMENT:

Plan three days’ worth of meals and shop for groceries = No going to the shops for three days, hooray! No having to find a car park;  No kicking the cat out of the way because you forgot to get the damn cat food

on your way home; No snide remarks required when your husband or significant other (see former comment about cat) asks ‘what’s for tea?’ No eating rubbish because you’re hungry and have to eat Tim Tams while deciding what to have for tea.

Plan three outfits to wear over the three days and hang them ready to wear. To increase the degree of difficulty of the challenge, accessorise outfits = No running from the shower to the laundry in the nuddy to find underwear; No stumbling around in the mornings looking for your running shoes and having to turn on the bedroom light at 5am. ‘Soooo sorry my darling, did I wake you?’; No arriving to work with top inside out; No mismatched earrings; No wearing the same outfit with tomato seeds on the
collar for three days in a row; No dressing in something that startles the cat.


Plan three work-out sessions = Feeling pretty damn proud and energised; No excuses; No mediocrity and No feelings of guilt about the Tim Tams.

Plan three must do projects for work = No regrets; No last minute scrambling to reach a dead line; No having to look for a new job.

Plan three projects for home and personal life = No thinking something else is more important right now; No delaying the dream; No need to wait until you’re on holidays, it’s a long-weekend, the family are visiting, the tax cheque arrives in the mail. Make it simple and preferably nothing that requires paint brushes.

Plan to watch only three programs on TV= only three EPISODES not three SERIES

Plan for three ‘fun’ activities = No martyrdom; no bitterness, no resentment, no stopping to check your work E-mails or whether your last study module submitted has been marked yet. Just have fun!”

So that’s it, my three days are pretty much planned for and achievable. It will be a challenge and if I'm successful I might really stretch myself and try for four days sometime in the future. It’s all about the journey…speaking of which, what did happen to Oceanic Flight 815?


2 comments:

  1. Your three day challenge sounds like the perfect length to not get too stressed over, Rebecca. And of course, you can carry on always doing three days in advance. I love it!

    I had to laugh at your original 100 day challenge and Lost starting. That's so cute and funny!

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  2. Thank you Fiona, and I've loved your blog over the last few weeks also, inspired me to do something pretty with my nails :)

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