21

As you probably read about in A History of Love - Part 2 I have relatively recently gone through a break-up. Not a massive one, but enough for me to be a little shaken up, and need to start realigning who I am and what I'm really living for. I've decided 'up' is the answer to all these questions, but thought this probably needed a little more practical padding out.

During that low point after a break-up when the world is about to end,  'I am the most hideous person in the world', 'I will die alone', 'no-one will ever love me', 'give me chocolate', 'I hate rom-coms, but just can't stop watching them and sobbing for hours' etc etc, a friend put me in contact with another friend of his. I wasn't sure what exactly to expect when we met up, but it turns out she also volunteers where I'm an intern. Small world. She had a lot of awesome advice and a lot of things really struck me, but one of the key things was a little challenge.

Apparently if you do something for 21 days straight, then it becomes a habit. The moment she said it, I was hooked. With the busyness of Christmas and the holidays, however, I just haven't gotten round to starting a 21-day challenge yet.

So here it is. From now on, each month, I will be doing a 21-day challenge. I don't have any particular series of posts that I do on the blog yet (This is all about to change!) but seeing as it's a new year, I thought a new challenge would be very much in keeping with my word 'up'.

Each 21-day chunk will be challenging me to either make a good habit, break a bad one, start a new hobby or complete a project.

I've given this a lot of thought, as you may be able to tell, and here is the line-up so far.

Challenge 1: Bible (Read my bible every day)

Challenge 2: Greens (Eat my 5-a-day)

Challenge 3: Embroider (Learn how to do embroidery)

Challenge 4: Pray (Pray on my walk to work every morning)

Challenge 5: Instagram (Take an Instagram photo every day)

Challenge 6: Jumper (Knit a jumper)

Now I'm not promising daily updates on every challenge, I'm afraid, but I am aiming to post on days 1,3,7,14 and of course 21. That way you can have a good idea of how things are going without being bored to death with 'Today I ate an apple, a pear, a banana, some salad, and a carrot.' or 'Today I did 47 stitches.'(Please imagine someone saying them in a super boring nasally voice. It adds to the effect.) The only exception to this may be the Instagram Challenge, but we'll see how we go on that one.

I have now bought a very adorable Cupcake Calendar, so will shortly be marking off the days, hanging it on the wall, and beginning with the first challenge. Rest assured, I will let you know as soon as I begin!

Are there any new habits you want to make?
Old ones you want to break?
New hobbies or projects you want to start?

Start the 21-day challenge!