Thursday, April 26, 2012

Our 21 Day Challenge: Join us!


"When mom is happy, everyone is happy."  



This is particularly true in our house.  What about yours?  I love our family dynamic on days when I feel peaceful and happy...present.  I've come to realize that there are choices I make that contribute to my own unhappiness even when I think it is good at the moment....a bad habit.

Staying up too late.  If it is one thing I think that will improve my overall happiness, it would be getting to bed earlier.  Sure I want my free time at night and it feels good to finally have some peace and quiet after a crazy, loud day with the kids at home.  But going to bed at 11:30pm isn't gaining me peace when my kids wake me up every morning around 6:30am and I'm groaning as they ask me to help them start their day (getting dressed, breakfast, etc).  I want to wake up like Cinderella did every morning-singing and looking forward to the day.  (My daughter would be thrilled to hear me comparing myself to Cinderella, btw.)  Perhaps the day won't feel as much of a drag in the afternoon.  Hey, a girl can hope, right? :)


21 Days.  Apparently, it only takes 21 days of doing a new habit or breaking an old one to make it automatic.  I can't find the evidence that proves this is actually true but I am going to give it a try anyhow.  Starting May 1st, I am going to go to bed at 10:00pm.  Notice that I didn't say 9:30pm.  I want this to be a realistic goal for me.  If I went to sleep by 10:30pm, then I would still get 8 hours of sleep.  Of course, we are sometimes woken up by either of our 2 children at night, so this is not a flawless victory every night.  But it's a start.

After this 21 day challenge, I might start a new challenge in June to wake up at 6am to see if I can wake up before the kids.  Perhaps I will build on this and see more and more results.

YOUR TURN.



Do you have a bad habit you need to break or want to start a new challenge?

Perhaps you want to start meal planning for the week, try to incorporate more fitness into your life, pick up a hobby you used to love to do (knitting, sewing, scrapbooking, art, photography, etc), read more books to your kids, schedule regular mom's night out, anything.  Perhaps you want to stop eating processed food, yelling at your kids, overspending, eating out so much, watching too much tv.

Join me.  Join me these short 21 days and see whether you can get on track toward more intentional living, living on your terms.  What's needing a new direction? Do you need more steady days?

For those participating, we will journey together and check in on my blog from time to time.  Some call it accountability.  I say it's community building.  It's fun to know what others are doing and how it's going.  It also helps keep us thinking about our intention.

Write it down.  Think about it and put down in the comment section.  What's your goal for the 21 Day Challenge starting May 1st?  What's your reason for wanting this change?  Try to make it as specific as possible. For example, instead of saying "I want to get fit," try saying I will spend 30 minutes each morning around 9am and ride my bike.  21 days!

It's a commitment and a challenge.  Are you up for it?  We'll even have some fun goodies and giveaways for participants along the way!  Sign up below and join the fun.  Invite your friends & family too!

Peace & joy,




Jen Starks, Owner
www.ecologicalbabies.com 
ecologicalbabies@gmail.com 
574.275.1235

12 comments:

Deanna McCool said...

I'll do this. I'm going to cut my TV time in half (or even a bit more than half on some days). I pledge to only spend 1 hour on TV a day. Note that I can't completely go cold turkey, so this is a good place to start! :)

Laura Krieger said...

ierI am going to go on a twenty minute walk four days a week. I really need to do this!

Angela said...

I'm I will work out 4 days a week hoping by the end to be at 5 days

Wes and Kaitlin Martin said...

I'm in! I want to read at least one short story to my daughter every day. My husband and I talk about it all the time, but I don't want to do it before bedtime. We always wait until then and she's usually just tired and ready to eat and sleep. Here's to it!!

Haley@Carrots for Michaelmas said...

I know it sounds silly, but I really want to get in the habit of actually making my bed each morning. Between nursing babies and starting breakfast and rushing to take a shower before my husband leaves, it's just one thing that always gets forgotten. But, I think it would help my mental sanity.

MommaK said...

I'm totally on board! 6 am wake up sounds great and I think a 30 run in the morning would be doable if I actually got my bum out of bed! 21 days is possible. Not so scary. It is tempting to pledge to do everything I know I should but I will just start with this and maybe next month I'll add on the other pieces.

Hannah said...

Count me in! I am going to make a FULL commitment to cloth diapers and cloth wipes. We've been in and out of disposables for a month now dealing with horrible rashes and diarrhea trying to find an antibiotic that will kick my son's ear infection(s) ... and we've always used disposables at night. Now is the time to go "all-in" on cloth diapers and wipes! Down with disposables! ;-) I'm looking forward to a blog entry about this tonight!

Courtneybee said...

So many things I could stand to change about my life, but for the next 21 days, I am going to exercise every day in some way for at least 20 minutes! I can do it!

Anonymous said...

These are all great goals! I think keeping it simple and achievable is going to be the best way to go. You can always build on it! I'll check back in after a week of the challenge. Good luck starting tomorrow!

Anna said...

I'll join. I will workout 4 days a week... whether be a 30 minute walk or waking up when my alarm goes off and working out before work.

Marlo (aka Mama Frog) said...

I definitely need this! I challenge myself to get to bed by 11pm every night. Lack of sleep has wrecked my mind and body. Need to start taking care of ME!

Leslee said...

I'm going to be heading to Lake Ella four mornings a week after dropping Dan off at work, putting SB in the Ergo and walking for 30 minutes. EEK!