The 21 Day Challenge

Well, 2011 is upon us. I don't know about you, but I always begin each new year pondering the year past and more importantly, pondering the one ahead of me... trying to discern where I can improve and where I ought to be spending my time and effort. This is something I need to pray about more than anything, but during the time of listening to God for direction each year, my action plan usually involves doing the best I can with what He's already given me. There are lots of plans that I've made for this year regarding those things, but I won't go into it all now. The reason for this post is mainly to talk about one big adjustment that I'm needing to make: I need to better manage my time.

Over the past little while, I've slipped into the terrible habit of sleeping in every day. Being self employed, I am accountable to myself. And well... I've not been keeping myself too rigidly accountable in the area of "Getting an early start on each day." I realize that if I am going to be a good steward of things that God has given me, I need to maximize my time. I need to be more disciplined with getting out of bed every day.

I've made many grand pronouncements of "What I am planning to do to make myself get out of bed" in the past, but they mostly haven't worked... So I've come up with a NEW plan! It's called, "The 21 Day Challenge."

They say it takes 21 days to form a new habit. My efforts in the past to make myself form the habit of early rising have usually involved "Eat right away so that I wake up," "Exercise right away so that I wake up," "Read my Bible right away so that I wake up," etc... But, those efforts usually end up something like this.

Me: *zzzz*
Alarm clock: "BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!"
Me: "AHHH! *leap out of bed to turn it off and groggily look around to see a soft, plush bed beside me*"
Alarm clock: *silence*
Me: "I am tired. I am freezing. If I get up now, I will be tired and freezing."
*thinks*
Me: "zzzzzz"

(2 hours later)....

Me: "*wake up, look at clock* AH!"

Yep. That's the typical pattern. :-/ I ashamed to admit it, but there it is. SO...

To break this habit, I've decided that I need a system of accountability. My 21 Day Challenge will be to keep myself accountable to this blog! This Wednesday is day #1. I'm challenging myself to get up every day with my alarm, take a picture of the time I got up, and then write a recap of how the day was spent on this blog. If I fail to STAY up after taking the photo of the clock, the 21 day period restarts. I have to go 21 days straight without sleeping in.

ALSO...

One of my projects for the new year is to learn to use my awesome new camera better. So, each day, I'll try to take some photos of something. Those will go on here as well. :)

I have no idea if anyone even reads this blog, but at the very least, I do. :-D And that's reason enough for me to keep it up. So, here goes!

Note: Today was going to be day #1 of The 21 Day Challenge... But I fell asleep reading my Bible. Eh-he. So, knowing that I'm having company tonight and will probably be up late, Wednesday it is!

--(Insert random photo of self below)--

Thank you Sarah for this awesome hat! :D :D :D Talk about yay!