Volume XLIX – Taking A 30 Day Challenge

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Motivational Monday Edition of the Good News Journal, thank You so much for being here!

Well, the weather wasn’t terrible today – in fact, the thermometer hit a balmy +1 degree Celcius at the warmest point of the day, and I did manage to get out and pick up the supplies for My Magical little DIY project to Motivate Your Monday, but I didn’t have enough time to get it completed.  I could have rushed to pull it together but that would entirely defeat the purpose.  I actually have a lot of little projects going on in My microcosm that I Will eventually share, but I need to remain somewhat Secretive about some of them for now.

I could have potentially used My failure to complete My intended Project and Post for today as an excuse to Write nothing, but I’ve been really, really, Good at Keeping all of My other commitments, and I know tall King about them with My audience here is largely to thank for that.  So thank You!  Really! 😀

I’m not sure exactly when it was that I Writ My Goals out on paper, but I’ve kept My Word on every one.  I have continued to actively manage My Twitter account, I have continued to read at least one hour every day, I have watched at least one video every day (the only concession being that I have sometimes traded a motivational video for an educational video or lecture), and I have maintained My exercise routine (five sets of push-ups daily).  I also added shaving to My morning regiment, and have Writ a Blog Post every day, even though the Goal was only to Write more, not necessarily every day. I did miss one day shaving, but that was a conscious choice because I consider Sunday’s a leisure day and felt I deserve to reward My Self in some Way!  It’s a pretty Good start to the year for Me and I know it’s because I made a Point of Writing these things down and even more importantly, sharing My Goals with My audience – it made Me accountable.

Today I’m sharing another TEDtalks video by Matt Cutts, “Try Something New for 30 Days”.  I’ll be honest, he’s not the most energized or enthusiastic speaker I’ve watched, in fact, his approach is pretty common and plain, but so is the philosophy and that might be what makes the concept so appealing; try something new for 30 days.  Here’s the video, and it’s under four minutes long so it doesn’t even take much of a commitment to watch.

I started the Motivational Monday Edition because I actually like Monday’s.  Probably because I don’t have to go to a job I hate, but also because it’s the beginning of a new week and a chance to start fresh.  For Me, this week was no different because despite Keeping My workout routine, I’m not very pleased with the results so far and I have to retract My review of the app I was using.  It’s okay but it’s just not pushing Me enough and I have My own Ideas about what works for Me.  I also wanted to incorporate other exercises into My routine and even though I tried to change the setting to every second day (so I could add pull ups on the alternate days), it still insisted on Giving Me a reminder.  How did I interpret that?  Perfect excuse to just do the push ups that are no longer challenging Me rather than integrate a new exercise.  So today’s the day that changes.

For Me, the new workout routine is part of My 30 day challenge to try something new.  I would actually like to find something completely new to try for 30 days but I’m so pleased with the commitments I’m already Keeping that I don’t want to give any of them up by taking on too much.  So refining My workout routine is one of the things I am going to commit to for the next 30 days and the new routine Will have the same Goal (for push ups – 500) but Will include new goals for chins (pull ups) and I have no Idea what the benchmark should be because it’s been so long.  I think My record is less than 20 consecutive, maybe 13-16 (pull ups are considerably more difficult than push ups).

I can tell You that all of My efforts have paid off; My Blog views have increased every week, I feel incredible – perhaps better than ever before in Life!  And that’s really the Point to all of this; to prove that when We do put in the effort, We get the results.  Push ups were hard, and I was in pain for roughly five days.  Then the pain was gone and the workouts were easy.  I was trying to be patient, enjoy the gradual pace, the program is supposed to increase in difficulty over time – I didn’t.  I feel like it’s the only thing I started that didn’t produce the results I was hoping to share.

The first day, I was able to do 24 push ups as a ‘test’.  After almost a month, the program had Me doing 34 push ups over 5 sets, daily.  8,8,7,5,6.  It’s been easy since the fifth day.  So I’m going back to My own workout philosophy, which is harder to describe because it involves doing every set to failure, sort of.  Because I was able to do 24 on My first day, the first goal is the next multiple of Five, in this Case 25.  The next Goal, is Five sets to 25.  As soon as I am able to do 20 or more for each of the remaining four sets, I increase the first set by Five (30).  Now I must reach 25 or more in the remaining four sets before I can increase the first set to 35.  I hope that makes sense, because I swear it works like a charm and I am hoping I Will be able to Show how much better this system works at the end of 30 days.

There is one more element of My technique which is tremendously important – I Will only be doing push ups every second day.  I Will integrate pull ups on the alternate days and take Sunday’s off.  I am thing King this is very important because the muscles don’t have enough time to properly recover in 24 hours.  I Will apply the same technique to pull ups, though the numbers Will be considerably smaller.  I started the routine today, and completed 74 push ups over 5 sets compared to the 34 I would have done if I’d stuck with the other program – pretty evident it wasn’t working Me hard enough.

The other challenge I’m going to Give My Self Will be to Publish My Posts earlier.  Ideally, I would like to have a Post ready to Publish a day in advance so I can begin scheduled Publishing.  Not much point getting the Motivational Monday Edition at 10:00 Post Midi!

I do have a preview for You of what I Will be Presenting for the next Motivational Monday Edition, though.  Oh, and there is one more thing I’m going to challenge My Self to do for 30 days.  I’m going to try and spend two hours doing something Creative; Artwork, Calligraphy, Crafting, whatever – just something, anything Creative (in addition to Writing, of course; Writing counts as a Creative activity, especially if One doesn’t do it much [but I’m already doing that]).

Challenge Your Self to do something new for 30 days and feel free to Write and share with Me in the comments what it is You are choosing to challenge Your Self with.

I’d better get this thing Published or it Will be the Motivational Tuesday Edition!

Love and Blessings,