So, how was it?
Simply put, I wasn't all that into it. I started the challenge feeling rather optimistic. "Oh hey! A way to keep track on my progress and improve on my habits!" It was a good idea. It really was. It's just that after about a few days or so, I stopped viewing it as a positive outlet and more as a task I have to complete each morning and night.
I had no issues fulfilling my game plan or eating healthy or exercising. It's really only writing down the progress that made me groan. In this case, fulfilling the challenge is easier than documenting it. Doing it was easier than saying it per se.
I don't know. In a way, I think I just felt awfully pressured to fulfill it. Awfully pressured to write my progress and results and game plan. I'll admit I'm seeing some improvements in my daily life. I'm watching what I eat and I prioritize my work. I find that I'm opening my schedule to be able to do more active exercise too.
I think things like that should come naturally. Of course, it's different for everyone. For some people, they think that it's the most effective to track their progress to see their improvements. It's better for them to have reminders and alarms or the like in order to be better.
While in my case, it's really a slow go. I don't need to write or track down anything. If I mean what I'm doing and strive to improve, I can do it. Reminders and trackers and journals only make me think pessimistically. "Oh, I didn't eat vegetables today," "Oh, I didn't get to exercise," "Oh, I didn't have eight hours of sleep." If anything, it causes me to regress in my improvement.
I get lazy. I start thinking "What even is the point of this when I'm not making any progress?" It demotivates me. It may be due to this perfectionist mindset. "If I'm not improving day by day then I might as well not keep going." It's not that I wasn't putting effort into this. It's that I'm reminded more of failure than I am of glory.
Most people will just tell me that failure is supposed to motivate you, but that type of inspiration reminds me of how parents hit their kids to discipline them. You motivate and teach someone through praise and reward, not punishments and reminders of how they're a failure.
No one told me that I was a failure during this challenge, but the walls of posts I made were loud in saying it. If I want to be great, I need to be great once too. So I can have this mindset of "I managed to do this once and survive, I can do this again."
It will then translate to: "I did great things, but now I can reach higher and be even greater!"
I'm not a "make good of a bad situation" type of person. I panic and I cry. I'm not a good problem solver. What I am good at is improving onto something. Make it better and reach for higher.
Of course, it's all a self-discovery journey anyway. I'm improving and I can see my efforts in doing so. I intend to continue improving on my lifestyle and habits further.
Thank you for reading.
Good feedback...and interesting that you should feel this way about things. Do you feel that writing something down makes it true and puts pressure on you? That's interesting in itself isn't it. As a teacher how might you have created a challenge where the progress could be documented in a way that may have made you feel more comfortable? A video diary perhaps?...
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