One thing about me? I will procrastinate. I’m a major procrastinator. I will not do something until I absolutely cannot avoid it anymore. I’ve been procrastinating writing this. I’ve been avoiding this blog. Then, I started feeling… weird. I have so much I say, so much I want to talk about, so much knowledge in my head… that just stays there. Yeah, I learn a lot. I talk a lot. I’m a Real (with a capital R. That serious) chatterbox. So I’ve decided I will talk about everything I learn here too! I will follow through on that decision! The information in my head just… sits there all disorganised, but if I start talking about it in a written format, it will organise itself. Not only will it benefit me, but also anyone who reads these blog posts and learns something new.
I believe in education and that education is development. The day that you stop learning, you stop growing. Procrastination causes me to be stagnant, and I hate that. So I’m learning something new and I’m going to be using my brain in ways I haven’t before. The brain is a muscle and it needs to be treated as such! Muscles that don’t get used begin to atrophy, and I don’t want my brain to turn to mush and my skull to basically be cobwebs. I’m going to hold myself accountable to this!
Anyways, onto the real reason I sat down to write: I’m going to do a challenge. I’m sure some of you may have heard of this thing called 75 Hard, right? If you haven’t, it’s basically this challenge where you do around 5 things every day for 75 days. If you miss a day, you start again. I cannot do that, because I will never do it. So instead of stressing myself about doing something difficult for 75 days, I’ll try 25 Soft. I know this is not original, but 25 Soft seems more feasible for me. I will start today! The purpose of this challenge is to force yourself to do something hard for the sake of personal growth. I think we can all agree that in today’s world it’s hard to find time to do things for yourself, especially once you enter adulthood. Having a challenge, a new goal to achieve with the prize being self-satisfaction and tangible growth is really difficult. However, if it was easy, it wouldn’t be a challenge, right?
Why am I doing 25 Soft and not 75 Hard? Because I know I’ll fail 75 Hard. There’s no argument, I’ll fail it. I’m not good at keeping to things and the general conditions for 75 Hard are too difficult for me to do as I am now. Rather than do something outrageously difficult and fail, I would like to do something that is still making a change in my life and work up to the point where 75 Hard isn’t a challenge, but a lifestyle. When it comes to making changes in our lifestyle, a lot of people try to make drastic changes. Going from couch potatoes to trying to be advanced athletes, and then wondering why they fail and give up. One step at a time! It’s better to succeed at something small and level up instead of trying to fight the boss of a game you just started.
I like to start things at certain times. I’ll start a new schedule on Monday. I’ll start working at exactly 10:00 am. I give myself these specific times to start and do things, and then I miss them because I got distracted, and I end up never doing what I’ve set out to do. It’s a terrible cycle to be in, so instead of doing that, on this random day, halfway through it, I’ve decided I’ll start a new challenge. It’s never too late to start something new or to decide to change something about yourself. It starts with having the drive, and making a plan. Keep this in mind though: plans without actions are merely ideas. They do nothing if you keep them to yourself and sit on them. At the same time, unplanned actions can go any way, and you could end up in a worse position due to poor preparation. Balance is needed for everything. It’s good to plan things and move accordingly.
This is how I create my plans:
- Be realistic about what will actually happen. It doesn’t make sense for me to plan to run a marathon when I can’t even do a 5km run and I can’t regularly make 2000 steps. Start with making a weekly 1000 step average, then 2000, and work it up from there. End goal should be the marathon, not the first step. By being realistic, you can actually make the change more likely to happen. It’s more motivating to start with the small things and then work your way up. Motivation is key! It’s also easier to maintain when you keep your goals practical! Keep it up!
- Be flexible. Life gets in the way of things sometimes, and not everyone can keep to a strict timetable. By being flexible, if something doesn’t happen when it should, it becomes easier to still get it done, instead of giving up. Giving up and constantly starting over can be a deterrent to doing anything new, keeping you stuck in that one place. It’s good to be flexible, give yourself room. If you fail, get back up. Just get back up and start from where you were. Punishing yourself won’t do anything, just get back up. Positive reinforcement is key! Don’t put yourself down! Self-depreciation will never bring you anywhere higher from where you are.
- Don’t get over-enthusiastic about the planning process and actually bring it into reality. One thing I do a lot is come up with idea after idea, and then I become too overwhelmed to do anything. This adds to my procrastination issue, because now I have given myself too many things to focus on, so I don’t know where to start. I wander around again and again, and nothing happens. It’s good to have this energy! It’s a good thing, but too much will keep you stuck in one place. The purpose of planning is to give you a guideline on how to move so you can achieve what you have actually set out to do. Sometimes aiming higher than you can reach will push you to do more than you might have set out to do if you were realistic, but if you’re not one of those people, avoid being over-enthusiastic.
I won’t talk about what I’ve decided to do because it’s personal, and I want to keep it to myself. Not everything has to be shared with the world, even things we consider insignificant. I will say one of the things I have decided to do is be more active here. Another thing I will do is that if I miss a day, I’m going to add another day on. Starting from the start makes it too hard and I want to be gentle on myself as I move up! I hope that in 25 days when I’m done, I can talk about my achievements with joy. Until then, I’m growing! Good luck to anyone else doing something like this, even if it’s not specifically 75 Hard or something like it! I hope you all get motivated to start doing something, even if it’s as small as showering regularly or brushing your teeth more often. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Not everyone can do a full 180º turnaround overnight. Be kind to yourself.
