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I am tired of hating myself. Setting myself 500 goals and then being upset when none are complete because the thought of them is so overwhelming I cannot begin just one. One of the intentions on my whiteboard is to let go of my past self and that combined with envy of other people because I feel like I'm not doing enough ultimately resolve in me doing nothing. So, all I have left is to be kind to myself. It's been a challenging month for me. University and work have been very stressful. I'm trying to finish things on a deadline for an SCA event at the end of this month. I'm now in a relationship that while it is joyful it also challenges me. I should spend less time focusing on this and more time focusing on myself. Inspired by Steve's post on Instagram I have two goals this challenge. 1. Read the book on calm I got from the library (Actually reading the books I get from the library is a smart idea) 2. Prepare the batcave. Except, it's more a hobbit house, I think I'm not sure what this looks like overall, except everything I don't want is gone, my areas are tidy, things are accessible and I set boundaries about what goes into my spaces. Does anyone have more advice/words on how to be kind to ones self?

The second half of 2018 was all kind of crazy for me, good crazy though. I tried to keep up with simple challenges but that didn’t work. Between frustrations at work, making the decision to look for another job, interviewing, getting a new job, learning the new job, getting promoted and learning another new job, I was emotionally exhausted. I barely kept myself functioning. While I still have an incredibly hard upcoming 2019, I think I might be at a point where I can focus on myself outside of work. Also as a note, I did a pretty fantastic job keeping my weight down and not eating my emotions back to where I started in 2018. The following Home, Health, and Financial sections will be the foundation for all my goals and challenges for 2019. I’ll break that down after the last section. HOME One of the biggest areas in my life that cause me to relapse into old habits is the chaos that is called my home. I jokingly say that my house looks like I’m losing a game of Jumanji. Each year I make an effort to get on a cleaning schedule or organize the disaster I live in. Every year it starts out well then things start to snowball and accumulate, bringing me crashing down and curling up on the sofa to watch Netflix. I'm looking at you, Michael Scott! I decided to read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. For years I’ve wanted to read this book but had anxiety just thinking about it. Well, I had lots of quiet data entering time at work so I downloaded the audiobook and that helped me start and finish the book. Just thinking about how she describes the process still makes me uneasy but I think I need that. I just have too much stuff I never touch and the clutter is driving me insane. Marie Kondo says it can take 6 months to a year to fully tidy up and I think I’ve broken down her categories pretty good so I can hit my goal of December 31, 2019. Bonus, Marie Kondo's Netflix show starts on January 1st. I'll try to incorporate that into my goal somehow. HEALTH I can’t ignore health so of course, it has its own section. My health section covers exercise and nutrition. 2018 was a year of slacking when it came to exercise. I don’t remember the last time I went to the gym or did a routine workout. I could check but I honestly don't care...I don’t have a specific end goal for workouts in mind but one big goal is doing the Christmas Rush 5k in December. I have no excuse for not doing it since it’s in my town and only a 5k. Nutrition was not horrible but it can always be better. I want to get back in the habit of not drinking my calories, I want to make sure I’m making my lunches for work and it’s always good to get more veggies! FINANCIAL Who doesn’t want financial freedom? With my new job and new salary, I have a real chance to pay off my debt and start working on my retirement. I took some time and did a rough draft of my budget, plus snowball payments on each of my debts and did my budget out until I had no more debt. According to my math, I can pay off everything, including my townhouse, by my 40th birthday. With a pretty aggressive budget plan, it is doable. The budget does not include potential income increases and increased bills but it’s a great place to start. 2019 MONTHLY CHALLENGE BREAKDOWN I’ll follow the challenge dates but all my goals start on Day 1 of the month and end on either the 28th, 30th, or 31st of the challenge months. Some challenges will have 2 different sets of goals, I’m ok with that. I’ve found that not starting on the 1st can stress me out and I want to do as much to avoid that as possible. Plus it’s easier for me to keep track that way.

Time for bed, deets tomorrow Mmk, technically bedtime now but I should do this to so... Last challenge: didn't take holidays into account, didn't end up tracking food at all due to not making my food for probably half the challenge cause I was home, continued sleeping not-enough, etc. etc. So, time to try and do the things that I've been trying to do for ages? Previous Challenge Stats STR - 31.75 | DEX - 47.5 | STA - 41.75 | CON - 72 | WIS - 41.5 | CHA - 44.5 Weight Waist Belly Hips Thigh Body Fat Goals Cardio I have a 5k coming up in a couple months, so that and rugby starting up again are my cardio motivation. I should do a "long" (5k-ish) run once a week, and intervals once a week. Sleep This is the big one. Bedtime is 10:30, gotta figure out how to meet it. Mobility Gotta do this 5/7 days a week to keep my body happy Food Food prep + IIFYM are gonna be the order of the day here. Aiming for 5/7 days of IIFYM. Mini Challenge Week 1: You Must Gather More Resources Before we can begin rebuilding the Guild Hall, we need something to build it with. So for week 1 we will be quarrying stone, chopping down trees, and gathering dirt for mortar. This will be represented by several activities from which you can choose. Wood Choppers will represent cutting down trees and milling them. Kettlebell Swings will represent mining for stone. Shovelglove workouts will represent gathering supplies for mortar. We will track it by multiplying reps times weight. It would get to technical trying to keep the three separate, so any of the three, in any combination, counts toward the goal. Keep track of how many reps you do at each weight, and post your totals in the mini-challenge tracking spreadsheet. Week 2: Return To Base We have gathered all the supplies we need to re build the guild hall. Now we need to get them to the construction site. This weeks feat is a distance feat. We need to log 220 miles as a guild to get all the wood, stone and mortar supplies to the fort so we can use them. The barkeep is getting positively giddy with anticipation. Apparently the rubble we cleared from the old hall was organized in our absence, which means the new hall will be even bigger and more impressive than the last. Any mileage counts, whether its real world stuff or on some sort of cardio machine, just log your miles on the tracking spreadsheet. Count anything from 12:01 am Sunday morning your time to 11:59pm Saturday night your time. Week 3: Construction Commencing We have gathered all the supplies we need to rebuild the hall and transported them to the construction site. Let's build this thing! To represent moving the supplies into position, shaping them, and actually assembling them, we will work with over the head weighted exercises. By that I mean anything that involves moving something weighted over your head. That could be any of the Olympic lifts or their variants, over head press, push press, thrusters, squat thrusters, squat press, Turkish Get Ups, any of it. Again, multiply weight times reps to get yours score and post it on the tracking spreadsheet. We need 50000 lbs to finish. Week 4: Putting The Tent Away Well done everyone, we've got the project done on time and under budget. The only thing that remains is to give the guild tent a thorough cleaning before folding it up and putting it away one last time. That's right, it's time to do your Domestic Rangering feat. When you finish, put a 1 in the week 4 column by your name in the tracking spreadsheet. At least twenty of us need to get our feats done to get the tent cleaned and fully packed into the cart. To Do List 2017 Roadmap Mitts for Dad Kitchen Organize cupboards Work on Imagining Other Earths on Coursera Shrink sweater sleeves Stretch NY shirt Rugby team website/image gallery/design Account/password list Finish white skirt Drawing Change address Tidy Closet - started Grey drawers - started Bed drawers - started Clean green purse Get watch button fixed Living Room TV out Magazines - working through the stack Tray on coffee table (actually a trunk) Mending (socks + leggings) Send @Wild Wolf that prehab stuff (I promise I didn't forget - I scanned the stuff I had and then realized that it's not super helpful without visuals so I have to find videos/pictures to go along with it) The Road So Far Week 1: Cardio 1/2 Sleep 0/7 Mobility 4/5 Food 4/5 Week 2: Cardio 2/2 Sleep 1/7 Mobility 5/5 Food 5/5 Week 3: Cardio 2/2 Sleep 0/7 Mobility 3/5 Food 5/5 Week 4 Cardio 2/2 Sleep 0/7 Mobility 5/5 Food 5/5

As usual I have too much to do for just the requisite amount of goals per month, but unless I make great headway I'll never get anywhere so I'm making another big push this month. I also have to return to work in March so it's now or never! 1. Improve Diet Continue to eat soups/pasta/healthy pre-prepared meals/baked beans/omelettes for dinner at least 5 days/weekGet started on a joint meal plan, for me & baby.Consider how to limit snacking during this stressful period2. Exercise take baby outside at least 5 days/week - using sling where possible3. Posture stand up straight when following baby around, aim not to sit down during this time, or max sitting time 1 min every 154. Bedtime Routine finish eating by 8:30 pm (unless baby bedtime takes too long, but it's usually finished by 8)continue January task of doing housework to "reset to zero" right after eating, i.e. washing up, cleaning kitchen, tidying away toys etconce housework is done, get ready for bed all bar teeth cleaningclean teeth by 9:30 pm5. Forgiveness "To forgive is to release a prisoner, and realise that prisoner was you" After some stomach-turning betrayals I need to move forward with my life. Plan: there are 3 people I want to get started with; so that's an average of 1 / weekwrite a letter to them explaining why I am cross with themwrite a pretend letter back from them explaining why they are sorry (apparently this technique does actually work!!)6. Enjoy Time With Baby This is the most important one of all! This is the last month where I am not at work and he is not at nursery. This is linked to my "being present" tag. Limit mobile phone usage to only 1 min every 15No mobile phone during meal timesRead together every dayFind more baby activities in the area for himTake him to swings when possible6a. Sub-Goal: Deactivate facebook account I feel this will assist with the being present, and having more time to get on with things. 7. Tidying I moved house at the end of December into an unfurnished property. By the end of January I have made massive improvements to my living space, and some of the house is happiness-inducing nice. Other parts make me feel the weight of stuff to do. I have 28 items of house tidying that I want to achieve in Feb - there's 28 days in the month, and 26 days of this challenge, so averaging 1/day will work out nicely. In no particular order... Lounge get TV table assembledput up pictures throughout house (pictures are all currently boxed up in the lounge)wipe clean yoga ballwipe down all window sills (throughout house)Mirrored Room move stuff to donate/sell to spare roomwash all clothes that I will be putting in new drawers/wardrobemake decision on awkward clothingdeclutter corner of mirrored roomget rid of plastic boxes in mirrored roomtidy baby changing unitKitchen clean inside fridgeclean inside freezerclean inside repaired cupboardwash all items that had been in repaired cupboardrearrange kitchen organisation with extra cupboard to helporganise kitchen cupboards and drawers, buying organisers (that fit - measure first!) where necessarydeclutter and tidy counter topsresearch baby proofing items (for kitchen & for stairs)order baby proofing items (for kitchen & for stairs)consider a staging area for recycling and incoming mail/mid-processing mailBathroom declutter bathroom possessionsorganise bathroom possessionsclean bathroomBedroom unpack (and connect) printerput more curtain rings on bedroom curtainsget second memory box & start putting stuff in it (mem box ordered - trying out amazon prime "deliver this evening")Spare Room put up curtainsdeclutter stationary drawersgive clothes to charity that I no longer want

I have now done quite a number of 6-week challenges. They have mostly been marked by being fundamentally boring, which is not necessarily a bad thing but I love the creativity that others bring to their challenges and threads, but also wildly inconsistent. Even though my past challenges have possibly had more downs than ups, I at least feel that I am trying to get somewhere. Having let myself slide of late into a place where I am inactive and lack goals it is high time to start doing challenges again and getting myself moving. For this challenge I am not going to reinvent the wheel, in fact I expect my challenge to be somewhat boring - although hopefully in a good way as I intend to aim for consistency. With this in mind my goals will all involve small daily actions. Goal 1: Get up to my alarm every day - goodbye to snoozing. Goal 2: Move daily - This can be any sort of exercise. Goal 3: Study German every day - even if it is just a little bit! Goal 4: Tidy - I hope that trying to keep control of my mess might positively impact my general feeling of organisation. Whilst I hope that I will be able to do more than the bare minimum, my emphasis will be on small wins, so nothing is too little.

I've read a lot about this book and it's teachings lately, but only from news type places. I was wondering if any rebels have used this method successfully? I'm thinking of buying it but I don't want to spend the $$ if it's garbage.

To achieve Level 9 I will be focussing on myself, mostly on my mindset and motivation. My main quest is to fit comfortably into size 14 trousers by losing body fat. To move towards this achievement, I have set the following quests for this challenge: 1. Handstands! STR+2 DEX+3 As a much younger hooman, summer lunchtimes were spent out on the fields doing cartwheels and handstands. Now I wish to revisit those carefree days. Using Chris Salvato's method as a guide, I will spend 5 minutes per day on handstand practice (continued from previous challenge). A = 28+ days of handstand practice B = 25-27 days C = 22-24 days F = 21 days or fewer of handstand practice. 2. Floor! CON+2 CHA+ 2 STA+1 I can fit my exercise mat on the floor (just) but in order to really make use of the space in front of my mirrored wardrobe doors, I need to have a clearout, to tidy up and to keep it that way (continued from previous challenge). A = Plenty of space to workout on my mat B = Satisfactory space but clutter is starting to creep back C = Mat barely fits and I trashed everywhere else F = No space for a mat to fit. 3. Mindset! WIS+3 CHA+1 CON+1 Inspired by Neghar Fonooni's email article recommending spending 15 minutes per day dedicated to personal time, I have decided to set aside 15 minutes of my day for personal reflection. This time will include my participation in the JillFit "Mindset Makeover" email course and also could include things like meditation, journalling, walking, reading or whatever at the time gives me energy and renewed motivation. A = 28+ days of reflection B = 25-27 days C = 22-24 days F = 21 days or fewer of reflection. During this challenge, not only will I have a birthday, it will also mark a year since I started lifting free weights