12 Challenges in 12 Months
So, for 2017, entering into my 40th year on planet earth, I've decided to test my own resilience, will power, sanity and other dark dog like voices in my head and try to take on a challenge each month for 2017 to help me improve myself. Making myself 1% better one might say.
For January, I decided to go 'dry' and by 'dry' I mean not drinking any alcohol whatsoever. Not 'dry' as in drinking dry gin, wine or other booze of a dry nature. For 31 days (in fact it was 33 days), I didn't touch a drop. Literally a drop. Not since I started drinking (at 18 of course) have I resisted for that long before. Truth be told, the weeks went by fast and it wasn't that difficult overall. To my surprise. Other factors that made it easy:
•No birthday of any friends during this period
•Not replying to friend's text messages
•Throwing myself into Podcast work at the weekend
•Going to bed very early on Friday and Saturday nights
So, Month One down. Successful. Good start.
At the time of writing this, I'm 10 days into the February Challenge which has me not reading work related email until after 10am daily. This has been tougher than the drink one. Honestly, the habit of reading and reply to email before even getting out of bed is one I really need to overcome. It can have an impact on the rest of your day negatively and stifle productivity for the rest of it. So far, I've found that focusing on real work (or deep work as Cal Newport calls it) is more easier and rewarding in the early hours of the morning/work day and I'm trying to make this a habit.
Hopefully I'll be two for two by the end of the month. Thinking about what Month 3 has in store and have a few ideas but open to suggestions.
Feel free to leave a comment, feedback or anything else you might like to share!
Have a great day,
Rob
