30-day Well Challenge
An effort to improve my life in small steps
The New York Times has made me aware of the fact that they have a ‘30-day Well Challenge’. According to it, there are four aspects to consider: Move, Refresh, Connect and Nourish.
As I quit my job last year, and am in the process of looking for new career possibilities, I am re-evaluating where I want to go and spend my time. Time is a finite resource for us humans and slogs on with or without us. So, I want to make that valuable time worthwhile.
Move.
I want to move something, my body as well, but more importantly my career. I was moving in a direction I did not find to be beneficial for me. So, for the year 2019, I want to move in another direction. For the next 30 days I want to find out how I can best leverage my skills and translate them into a business context. Ideally, I would see myself past these 30 days working remotely. This, too, would be a goal of mine to increase the time I can spend with family, but also my more creative endeavors.
Naturally I want to also do something for my body, so my goal for now are:
10 push-ups and 10 sit-ups.
Every day. That’s all. For the next thirty days, I want to have completed 300 sit-ups and 300 push-ups.
Refresh.
Daily meditation. In the year to come and in the next 30 days I will meditate every day, for 10 minutes, and find serenity in an ever-shifting and at times chaotic world. Through this meditation I hope to gain more acceptance of the world around me and the challenges I face, as well as improve how I interact with other people.
Connect.
Ask one person in my life, every day for 30 days, how they are feeling and will also compliment them, or go through a memory with them that I cherish. I wish to show the people I know that I am grateful for having them with me in this journey called life. While it is an unavoidable fact of life, that you won’t connect with many people and be able to sustain long lasting and deep friendships, it is vital to recognize the ones that do give you serenity, happiness, and create happiness.
Nourish.
Living in this country of the Czech Republic has been a wonderful experience for my life, yet my drinking habits have surpassed healthy limits long ago. It has become the norm to drink amounts that are detrimental to my health and I have accepted it with a shrug.
Yet, as I get older, so I notice more things and I become more aware of the fragility of myself. So, I plan to drink less. A lot less. I managed to reduce my alcohol consumption to weekends a few weeks in a row last year, yet as the Christmas days neared and many dinners were celebrated before it, the consumption rose. Especially during the week, as weekends were also planned with other things!
So, for this year, I will reduce my alcohol consumption to three drinks over the entire weekend. Only beer, no liquors. Especially shots…
Eventually, I look forward to maintaining these habits. Meditation I have already been doing the last year, over 2500 minutes in all my meditation sessions. That is great, but I want to keep it up. There are still times where I put my meditation aside temporarily to engage in other things, but 10 minutes is nothing at all. In a day with 1440 minutes, I believe I can take 10 away to focus on myself. Granted, I am probably sleeping during 420 of those minutes, at least, but the remaining 1020 can be reduced to 1010 without me worrying about having done enough during my day.
I hope to recognize over these 30 days, what my biggest inhibitors are and hurdles that I need to overcome. Why am I doing it? Ultimately I want to become a better me, a better person.
New year, better me.
