WEEK(S) TWELVE TO EIGHTEEN: BETTER LATE THAN NEVER BUT LET’S RE-EVALUATE

Nov 1

** This blog post was originally posted as part of a personal challenge I did in 2016 **

Graphic showing Lauren (LDOT Designs) looking up over her shoulder at the text above. It read “week(s) twelve to eighteen : all the things - reevaluating goals, dancing up a store, getting back on track, and other cool stuff.”

Better way late than never right? Eight weeks late to be exact.

March and April were my most challenging months yet. I didn’t think about how much dance picks up and how busy life gets. Fitting writing in has been so extremely difficult. My creative brain is worn out and focus is non-existent.

So what HAVE I been up to?

Well for starters: LOTS of dancing. I was rehearsing for a show with Broken Rhythms and workingclasstheatre called “Burn This” by Landford Wilson. In addition to this show I have also been rehearsing for the annual Raino Dance recital “Heat” coming up on June 18th (yes, my birthday).

Besides rehearsals and performing, I’ve also spent some time with friends (something I don’t do enough). There were a couple weeks I chose spending time with friends over writing. This might seem like a cop-out to you but I am usually a bit of a “no” person when it comes to going out. Secret: I can be rather introverted. I love spending time with friends but will often chose time to myself over a group setting. The few times I went out, I actively chose to spend time with friends because I know it’s important but pushes me outside my comfort zone.

Additionally to all that fun stuff, I also went home and visited my family in Calgary for a few days. This was very nice since we are all pretty crazy busy and don’t get to talk often. The weather in Calgary ended up being very nice which meant lots of time spent in the sun/ in my parents sunroom. On top of a usual visit, we also celebrated my sister Ashley’s 19th birthday which was wonderful considering I live away from my family so I’m not usually around for birthdays. We also went on a “shopping spree” together which was quite fun (and something we’ve never done). Additionally, the trip included some of my favourites: late nights hanging out together, delicious food treats, and doggie snuggles. Put all that together and you have a really wonderful, much needed visit.

And that brings us back to now. June 18th is only six weeks away. That’s less than the number of weeks I am behind. I am not going to lie, now that I am this far behind the thought of quitting has crossed my mind. More than once. But you no what? I’m not going to quit. I committed to this challenge and I am going to finish. It might not be the way I originally envisioned it but I am going to make it happen.

One of my strengthsfinder strengths is I’m very futuristic (no, this doesn’t mean I’m a robot :-p). This means I have a vivid idea of what I want for the future, but sometimes the flip side to that can mean I have trouble getting there. I’ve really seen this in my challenge, especially in the last few weeks. My mind has started to wander to what’s next and I’m constantly having to rein it back into the present.

Even though I haven’t kept up with my list of goals, I am OK with that. To those reading this you might be thinking “what’s the point of the challenge if you aren’t completing the goals?” But to me, that was never my main focus. My BIGGEST goal of this challenge was to get comfortable with writing and getting my voice out there. I wanted to see if I enjoyed blogging and if it was something I was good at. It was a trial run for a future website and (hopefully) business. Based on that goal alone, I feel like I have already won. Like I have ALREADY completed the challenge with a gold star. Why? Because I realized I LOVE BLOGGING.

On top of my new found love for blogging, I realized something else from my mind’s wanderings and this challenge. The goals I created are fun things I want to accomplish or do at some point but most of them aren’t pushing me towards where I want to be. I think this is also why as the challenge progressed and the excitement died off it became harder to focus. My brain wanted to spend it’s energy on the more impactful things instead of things like “get up before 7am everyday” which was just for fun/ an experiment to how it affected what my day to day like looked like.

So on that note, The rest of my challenge might look a little different. The goals I work on might not being on my list, might not be the most exciting to read about, or they may not even be a “goal” in the conventional sense but I am going to keep posting anyways (YAH)! Some of my posts might look like :
-Small aspects to a freelance web design/ branding business I am trying to launch. (My goal is to launch it by July 1st)
♥ Small, impactful goals on my list
♥ No goal but updates on what I’m up to
♥ Post challenge goals and musings
♥ Who knows? Maybe other cool things!

And so, I hope you will continue to follow along for the rest of this challenge as I break all my rules and finish this challenge running. You can find me here, repeating the mantra “I will not quit.”