In a bid not to have this year run away with me (as most years do), I have set myself monthly challenges;

• January – Meat Free
• February – Run Everyday (notice I picked the shortest month ;-))
• March – Alcohol Free
• April – Me Month (Yoga 4 times a week)

May was going to be a ‘tech free month’ but it became obvious that others were also craving a challenge, so in a blog group, I set up “A Blog a Day in May”. A 31 day blogging challenge to clear the writing cobwebs and tap back into all those good intentions we had for regular blogging at the start of the year.

This is day 1 but I must confess I decided to jump start all my monthly challenges by a few days and here is why…

1. It takes the pressure off – Having a few default veggy meals I liked before jumping into a whole month with no meat was great especially as the rest of the family didn’t partake in this challenge… bacon in the morning was just plain evil on my husbands part :-/
2. You’ve worked out the kinks – Before my running month had started I had got in the habit of laying out all my running gear, charging my iPod Nano (yes my little one circa 2005 still works and does the job great) the night before and rolling out of bed on that 1st alarm. There is nothing worse then trying to fumble with your sports top, bashing into walls (big busty issue) at 5am. Having said that, I could call waking hubby up that early pay back for the bacon…Karma;-)
3. You are already in flow – By the time March rolled around I was already used to saying “I’ll just have a water thanks” or “I’m driving tonight”. Remembering to pick up soda water or Appletiser at the supermarket so I could have something a little different with my meals.
4. You can adapt to change in circumstance before you start – April was originally going to be a self inflicted video-blog challenge… but a few days before the challenge was due to start I became unwell…3 days of, my default, ‘ignore & it’ll get better’ landed me at the doctors on a Sunday morning. Tonsillitis and (doctors words) being “Run down” coupled with my children on half term holidays lead me to change April from the slightly torturous video-blogging to a healing month where I took up yoga and let myself recover.
5. You can be way more productive with a Jump Start – With the knowledge of a blog challenge this month looming, I was able to map out my topics and start collating notes… for example this blog started as an idea back in Feb! And although it has adapted and been finished today (1st May 2015 – Day 1 Blog Challenge) using notes and ideas I already have will hopefully make this challenge much smoother than it could have been.

If you are doing the blog challenge, or a blog challenge or any challenge, I invite you to start a little early. Prep a couple of days in advance, dig out stuff you’ve already got to breath new life into (can you hear the yoga practice coming out? ;-)) and just take it one day at a time. But best of all is the feeling you get at the end of a challenge, when you can say “wow I did that, bring on the next.”

Comment with any challenges you’ve done, doing or want to do & if you want to join the blog challenge I’m doing now request to join https://www.facebook.com/groups/UberSupportiveBlogShare/ and I’ll see you there:-)