Change of Plans…
Sometimes the best laid plans can go astray! I started my 100 Day Challenge with a clear plan of focusing on Facebook, You Tube and Pinterest. But…things are about to change! I had the chance to take a workshop on social media for business this past week and as I worked through the information and the steps to creating a marketing plan, I realized that I needed to adjust my plans for the 100 Day Challenge. So, my focus is now shifting to learning about Linked In, Pinterest and You Tube! Just a slight change but I wanted to share this with you because you may have hit a similar place in your challenge.
The first couple of weeks of any new plan, in my opinion, are always the testing phase. If you are at all like me, you have great ideas about what you want to accomplish with any plan – whether it’s for your day, for an event or for something like the 100 Day Challenge. As a Life Coach, I am quite good at coaching my clients to adjust their plan greatly, especially at the beginning, when they have set a new goal for themselves. There are so many factors that can affect your plan that you can’t anticipate – the biggest one being that you ALWAYS underestimate how long it will take to complete a task! Another factor that often plays into having to adjust is that you get new information which may require a change in approach.
So, take a look at where you are at with your challenge. Has it been too hard? Has it been too easy? Do you need to adjust in some way? Don’t worry if you need to adjust – that’s part of learning and part of the challenge! And if you are not sure how to adjust your challenge, let me know in the comments and I’ll give you some ideas to help you along!
Joyfully,
Deb
My 100 day challenge is to learn Spanish… I haven’t listened to the CD’s 10 minutes a day like they recommend, life is busy and my mind wanders to other things that need to get done.
On the other hand, I greet m 6 yr old son everyday with common spanish words and sentences. it’s not a full 10 minutes, but at least I don’t feel like I’m not trying.
I have tried at least three 100 day challenges and have not succeeded once. So I gave up for awhile. I decided to give it another try this round and I am doing great.
What I did this time was take a different approach – before I was doing things that I thought I should do.
I hadn’t found something that I really really wanted
to do. This time I chose something that actually is meeting my needs.
I chose to do pilates – I didn’t know anything about pilates but, I wanted to get into shape. I have very
active phyical winter seasons, yet I am not in condition. My first plan was to start running 3 times
a week as I love to run – but, in the evenings I was
so tired from my day I could not get myself to my
tredmill even for 10 mins. So, I started to think about why I wanted to get into shape. I realized that I want to get in better condition so I can improve my
riding (horseback). And then I asked myself how can I
get into better condition with my schedule and routine
in a way that supports me – instead of me fighting my
environment and just using ‘will power’ and disciplining myself into doing workouts. I sat quietly
and realized I needed a low key effective exercise that I can do while I watch t.v. in the winter evenings. I talked to a friend about pilates and she
knows pilates and thought it was a great idea. And we
decided to check in once a week with each other because she wants to get into shape too and she has her workout set up so she can workout in front of the t.v. as well…So I got myself a book on PILATES FOR
RIDERS…and I am having a blast. I find it hard and
challenging to learn and so it feeds my need to learn new skills. And it fits perfectly with my winter schedule and energy level in the evenings…I am for the first time believing that I may make the 100 days!
It is Deb Dawson Dunn who has taught me to learn to set up my enviroment so that it supports my success.
This is so much fun…
I am not doing as well as I was hoping with this challenge. But I am hanging in there. I originally set my challenge to be NO flour and NO sugar. I really set myself up for failure with this.
Rather than quitting, I have made a realistic (for me) challenge. I am limiting flour and sugar and portions now. I have also added another 50 days to extend this after the 100 days is up. This allows me to set a goal that I feel I can adapt to real life change when the challenge is over.
I have slipped especially on the Sat evenings. I enjoy treating myself and haven’t been able to give this up so far.
My ultimate goal from the challenge is weight loss and that hasn’t happened as of yet.But being a yo yo dieter for almost 35 years now I find being able to maintain my weight is an accomplishment in itself.I am learning to applaud my little accomplishments along the way. Staying on track with this is only possible when I am gentle on myself and pick myself up again.
So far I have not started my 100 day challenge. Last time it was much easier to start and committee to it. Going to make a greater effort this week.
I am waning in my resolution to work on having Strength and Beauty in my life. So far I have been able to work on the Beauty part because there is a lot of information and products out there to make yourself and your surroundings beautiful. Just visit a Drug store and you will see what I mean. I am having a harder time with the Strength committment. I think I am going to have to buy a three month membership to a gym to encourage myself to get stronger. I am just not able to build it into my life on my own. I always seem to come up with an excuse not to go to the gym. It is the old temptation to put others first even though I know I should be holding firm and trying to get stronger and improve my fitness. What a challenge this is proving to be…
Lulu – this is a nice adjustment for your challenge. Getting support from your son this way is one way to help you stay with the challenge. Ask him to remind you about words that you have learned or to speak to you in Spanish so that you have to respond. Kids love to remind us about our tasks and goals – they like to be on the other side of things for a change!
Raylene – I am so happy that you really listened to yourself and asked about what you needed and what would work in your regular day to day. This is a key part of success – not trying to add more but gentley working with what is already happening. Great job!
Nancy – being gentle with yourself is the key to any life change. I’m glad you recognized this! Also, recognizing that your challenge might be a bit too much of a challenge is helpful. My suggestion would be to break it down even more for now. Maybe just eliminating flour 3 times a week to start, or maybe just at breakfast time or maybe just at supper time…then as you get more comfortable with that, you could add in another day or another mealtime. Very gradually, very slowly – almost like you are barely doing anything at all. Little tiny steps can really pack a whallop when they are added up at the end!
Dawna – I am going to suggest a stimilar idea as I did for Nancy. If you can’t get started with 20 minutes, start with one minute. I know that sounds like it’s not very useful but what you are really doing here is establishing a habit. If you start with one minute a day, once you get into the rhythm of that, you can add two minutes, then three, etc. sometimes, we have to really break it down before we can get there!
Heather – you are right that there are always excuses not to go to the gym! I suggest you do something similar to what I mentioned for Dawna. Stop worrying about getting to the gym and just get down on the floor and do one push up or one sit up. Then, the next day, do the same. Gradually add two push ups and then three push ups…trust me, push ups will make you stronger! You don’t have to change your clothes, you won’t get sweaty, you don’t have to get in the car and go anywhere…just do one tiny little action and you will begin to build trust with yourself and you won’t have any reason for beating yourself down because you aren’t getting to the gym. Just start really, really small and before you know it, you will find yourself feeling much stronger!
Keep going everyone – you are going a great service to yourself!
Deb