Tag Archives: challenge yourself

Naturally Confident: 31 Blog Posts in 31 Days MISSION COMPLETED!

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I took a training class about six months after I fell. We were asked to draw a picture of what we wanted our lives to look like within a certain time frame. I was completely flummoxed. I really didn’t know what to draw. I did the best I could. When the time was up, I looked around the room at other people’s drawings. They were crowded with people, new houses, where they wanted to travel to and major life events.

When I looked back at my own, I saw myself sitting alone on a yoga mat with my eyes closed in meditation. The only other thing on my drawing was a smile with dollar signs around it.  Dental reconstruction has been foremost in my mind.  If I had more time I probably would have drawn my dog Chauncy sitting next to me. Clearly, after falling down the stairs and the hurricane, I had gotten out of the practice of setting goals.

Going through major life events can give you valuable insights. I mentioned before that while I was driving in the hurricane that I had a feeling of peace, knowing that as long as Chauncy and I could safely get to our destination; I was okay with losing what was back at my apartment. There is a flip side to that though, there is an almost constant awareness that anything and everything can be taken from you at any second. That chilling realization will spur some people into immediate, hard-core, relentless action and make other people VERY cautious. I fall into the second camp. (I always hold the handrail now!)

“Self-confidence grows every time you keep a promise to yourself.”

– Asha Dornfest

I think this challenge of writing and putting up a new blog post every day for the month of August has been really good for me. I set a goal for myself and followed through on it. While I didn’t cure cancer or do anything similarly monumental, I did do something that wasn’t exactly easy either. Posting every day with my job and commuting schedule, challenged me. Sometimes, other things like my yoga practice were sacrificed in order to keep this promise to myself.

I learned that I could rise to the challenge and meet it. I also learned that I do need to write every day. I learned that I do not want to post what I write EVERY day. I want more time for editing, proofreading and polishing my work. I also want to do other types of writing. I learned that it doesn’t matter what response I get, it’s about committing to the work, trusting that what comes out is enough and then following through.

My new plan (Ooo, look who has a plan!) is to post weekly. I may post more often than that but I feel comfortable that I can keep to that schedule and maintain a satisfactory degree of quality in my writing.

I want to thank all of you who have been reading my posts during this August Adventure Post-a-day Blogging Challenge. I have received some really wonderful support throughout this process and I am very grateful!

Many blessings,

Cynthia

 

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justdragonfly

 

Naturally Cranky: Almost there… Why Don’t I Feel Like It?

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I am coming into the home stretch of my August Adventure Blogging Challenge.  Challenged is how I feel at the moment…part of me would like to stop now.  I’m at the point where if Burgess Meredith were my coach, he would be giving me a pep talk about having heart.

The odd part is that I don’t have writer’s block exactly.  I still have a bunch of ideas jotted down.  I just find myself staring at them and not knowing exactly how I want to frame them in a post.  Every time an idea starts to take shape, a big cranky baby inside me slaps it down with a big, “NO!”  Then I start to think about other things I want to do like make jewelry, practice yoga or go walk on the beach.  Then I start to question,”Why did I publicly committ myself to this challenge again?”

“Why is this happening when I am so close,” I ask myself.  I think it is the other side of resistance, the dark side.  I mentioned last week in Naturally Balanced: Half-way Check-in and Knowing When to Take Five that feeling resistant can be fatigue or a sign that something is wrong but I don’t think that is what is going on here.  I wrote in Naturally Determined: So Long Procrastination! that while I work hard at not letting other people down, I have often fallen short on meeting personal goals and keeping promises to myself.  What I have going on here is one bad habit!

Gay Hendricks wrote in The Big Leap (Highly recommend it, by the way)  about how we all have an upper limit that we have unconsciously set for ourselves. We are like a dog who is used to being chained.  Even when we’re no longer tethered, we will not go beyond the area that the chain once imposed on us.  When we butt up again this self-imposed limitation, many of us will fall back instead of jumping up to the next level.  It’s a mentality that keeps us stuck in our comfort zone.  Oddly, many of us do not even find our comfort zones all that comfortable but the comfort is in the known versus the unknown.  The devil you know…

I don’t know what’s going to happen after I complete this challenge.  Maybe nothing.  Maybe something great.  Maybe something in-between.  However, I do know, if nothing else, I will complete it!

Many blessings to all,

Cynthia

 

Please follow me on Twitter.  Also, please LIKE my Facebook Page.

justdragonfly

 

Now for Something Completely Different… Naturally!

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A few months ago, I signed up for daily writing prompts on www.sarahselecky.com.  I needed some external inspiration… and reminders I ought to be writing.  Although, it is aimed more at fiction writers, I find her prompts have helped me to get my brain chugging.

Often, she will send out prompts that ask you to write a scene with seemingly incongruent elements like yellow sports cars and fingerling potatoes.  My first reaction is usually, “what? how?”  Then my brain sets about answering those questions.  My pen flies over the paper (by the way, her rule is you must write by hand in a notebook) and suddenly it all makes sense.

Today’s prompt was more of a challenge than a scene:

Write about something that is too sweet. Describe without using the word “sweet” (obviously.)

Write by hand, in your notebook for at least ten minutes.

This is what I wrote:

My eyes grew wide as I looked at the triple chocolate mousse that the server placed in front of me.  It looked so pretty in a silver-trimmed piece of glass stemware.  The deep dark brown confection was whipped about an inch above the rim of the glass.  Shavings of more dark chocolate graced the top in fragrant curls.

I felt a pleasant tingle of anticipation as I picked the spoon and slid it into the dreamy dessert.  I placed that first decadent spoonful into my mouth and closed my eyes to savor it.  I was transported to chocolate heaven for a moment.  Waves of pleasure radiated from my mouth to my belly as that first bite melted.

I eagerly scooped up another spoonful.  The second bite was good but perhaps a bit too sugary.  My teeth began to hurt with the third bite. A hard pit formed in my stomach.  The luscious bit of cool deliciousness turned on me in my own my mouth.  It seemed to be assaulting my taste buds with a thousand tiny arrows.  I forced my new frenemy down with a big gulp of water.  Slight nausea rose back up. I set my spoon down and pushed my plate away.  I was done!

Blessings to all,

Cynthia

justdragonfly