The experiment is called "The Thirty Day Challenge to Becoming a Better Woman" and has been created as a positive response to a similar challenge for men found on theartofmanliness.com, a spectacular website with great life lessons and insights for men.
This experiment will last a year and will be broken up into month long assignments. Each month we will be given a list of challenges, one for each day. We have been asked to record our progress and share it with others.
This month's daily challenges are as follows:
Day 1: Define your core values
Day 2: Get your diamond ring polished (or an important piece of gold or silver that needs it!)
Day 3: Find a mentor
Day 4: Increase your endorphins
Day 5: Cultivate your gratitude
Day 6: Start a Journal
Day 7: Update your resume
Day 8: Reconnect with an old friend
Day 9: Take a man on a date
Day 10: Find your VULVA (Values Unaltered by Life’s Varying Adjustments)
Day 11: Memorize a poem
Day 12: Give yourself a breast exam
Day 13: Create/Revise your bucket list
Day 14: Declutter your life
Day 15: Write a letter to your Mother
Day 16: Make a meal
Day 17: Create a budget
Day 18: Start a debt reduction plan
Day 19: Talk to 3 strangers
Day 20: Schedule a physical exam
Day 21: Perform an act of service
Day 22: Write your own eulogy
Day 23: Improve your posture
Day 24: Learn a Manual Skill
Day 25: PLAY!
Day 26: Take the Army Physical Training test
Day 27: Start a book
Day 28: Write a love letter
Day 29: Conquer a fear
Day 30: Have an “old-fashioned” girl’s night out
** If you are doing the 12 month “Becoming a Better Woman” project, then Month 1 also includes the goal of exercising daily and clean eating! **
I'm grateful for the invitation to begin this challenge and I'm glad to set aside some constructive "me-time" each day. I know that self-improvement helps not only me, but those around me--my husband, family, friends, co-workers, and clients.
The goal of becoming a better women is different than becoming more feminine. Tiffani, the creator of this project describes it beautifully:
I think womanliness is different from the concept of femininity. Femininity brings to mind the characteristics that are generally associated with being a woman, such as softness and tenderness. However, femininity is a human characteristic. Men can be feminine. Womanliness on the other hand conjures a greater picture, which may include femininity. Womanliness includes characteristics that are needed to perform beautifully as a woman in society, a mother, a daughter, a wife, a grandmother. Each of these is separate from another and each has specific types of characteristics that make them unique. The characteristics required to be a wife are different from the ones needed to be a great sister (there may be some overlap of course). But the concept itself says that womanliness is a deep concept that needs to be developed and honed, like a block of clay or a blank canvas. For each of us to discover our inner womanliness we need to put in the work to become diverse, adaptable, educated, and ever seeking to become a better woman.
I would like to encourage anyone else out there who would like to join us in self-improvement to follow our progress and share your own experiences as well. For more information about this program, click HERE.
Before I begin the project myself, because I have an irrational fear that people are 1) actually reading what I write and 2) judging what I think and say and 3) critiquing my methods I need to list a few disclaimers.
DISCLAIMERS:
1 - I will try my best to post each day on each daily goal, and to actually complete that goal on that day, but there are no guarantees. I function in what has been coined "real-time." Real-time is a natural rhythm of life - going to bed and waking up when you are ready to do so, giving your wife flowers because you were thinking of her and you love her and not because it is Valentine's Day, scheduling your life and decisions outside of the definitions and deadlines that the world throws at you. I get heat all the time because I show up late to an event or gift a birthday present a month late. I don't do well within the confines of man-made time. Obviously, I do my best to work with it so I can be a functioning member of society, but it does not bode well with me naturally. Consequently, I will do my best to accomplish the daily goals listed in a timely manner, but I will not be angry with myself if it does not happen when it has been assigned. I will breathe easy knowing that I accomplished it in good time, in real time.
2 - I will be writing as honestly as I can. I believe that there is a significant difference between good writers and great writers, and the difference is honesty. I have often felt that my writing has suffered because I have been dishonest in an attempt to please others, to fit it, to conceal my oft times crazy moments. I have created this blog for this project to initially gain some anonymity from those who I fear criticism. I have also created this blog to keep my thoughts organized and to act as a journal of sorts. It will be my own little secret, until I feel ready to share it with others. It is so strange--I was so outspoken once and unfortunately received some heavy reprimands because of it. I hope to heal from those lashes through this experiment and feel comfortable sharing all of the genuine parts of me again with people I care about. It is also my goal to be OK with myself when those I care about disagree with these things. I will overcome my people pleasing tendencies. All in good time. :)
3 - I believe that I am a good person, but I am also fully aware that I am nowhere near being a perfect person. I am acknowledging now that while I expect to have some successfully stellar experiences with this project, I am also aware that I will likely encounter some failures. I will happily describe these here and you can laugh with me as I try to figure out this life and what it means to be a woman, and human, and sister, wife, friend, and daughter.
I'm looking forward to this project. It officially begins on Wednesday.
:)
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