30-Day Challenge: Creative Movement and Day 1

Here we are, folks . . . at the beginning of a new creative entrepreneurship journey, and it’s all about the goals.

I fittingly named this challenge “Creative Movement” because most of the goals you’ll notice over the next 30-days are creative content goals.  Not only are they creative content goals, but they’re creative content goals that I’ve put off for some time now. Hence, the reason it’s time for some movement toward accomplishing them. And, I’ll also have a few goals of a personal nature that will be intermingled within these creative content goals.

Justifications for the procrastination taken against these particular goals have everything to do with time limitations (task is too time-consuming), not having the actual know-how to perform the task (research is required before I can even start on the task), considering the task out of my realm of comfortability, considering the task too difficult to carry out, considering the task to be too cumbersome (requiring too much work/complexity in nature), and not viewing the task as an enjoyable undertaking.

So unlike the “Procrastination Station” 30-day challenge that I participated in, where I put off certain personal goals for a rainy day (but finally decided to get after them during the challenge), I am now in the throes of GETTING WORK DONE on the more professional side of my goal-making and achieving efforts.

I really plan on taking advantage of these 30 days of the challenge, because there’s a lot of work I need to get accomplished. And as I progress in my creative content journey, I find it necessary, at times, to go back and revamp or clean up some things. Therefore, the further I push these housekeeping initiatives back in my timeline, the more the procrastination is going to hinder my progress. Essentially, avoiding tasks that I know effect my business leads to working inefficiently (spinning my wheels so to speak without seeing any noticeable results). Building any venture on faulty systems and measures will ultimately result in little to no growth of my creative content efforts.

So, it’s best to just go back (now, not later) and update things that need to be updated, correct things that need to be corrected, and improve upon things that need to be improved upon, so that I can move forward and make sure I’m building up my creative entrepreneurial efforts on a strong content foundation.

The 30-day challenge is my call to action to go back to the drawing board and fix the fixable.

And here are a few logistical items that provide some context to the 30-day challenge:

1. I’ll be publishing blog posts for 30 consecutive days, excluding Saturdays (until I have met the 30 days of working on my specific to-do list of goals for this timeframe).
2. I’ll also be publishing the day’s events on the following day. Reason being: I need to have a full day of working on a particular goal before I can accurately report on it. Realistically-speaking, I’ll most likely need the full day to get that day’s goal completed. So, I’ll be posting a day in arrears. For example, today (5/18/21) marks my report for Day 1, but the events of Day 1 actually occurred yesterday (5/17/21). I hope that makes sense.
3.  I’ll still publish the posts early mornings like I normally do.
4. Although the posts will follow my journey throughout this challenge, I want to always make sure and leave my wonderful reading audience with a little food for thought that can be applied to their life situation(s) as well. So, you’ll see my attempt at some Degrees of Maternity advice, coming right at you.
5. As previously mentioned in my blog post, entitled Blogging Truths Be Told: The Blogging Community is the BEST Accountability Partner EVER!, you are a part of my accountability partner network. The fact that you’re following along with me on this goal-setting and goal-achieving journey is the impetus that’s going to keep me pressing forward in GETTING THINGS DONE. I publicly made it known to you that I’d be participating in this challenge and I wholeheartedly want to fulfill that commitment and stay true to my words.
6. There may be unforeseen situations that come up and create some hiccups in the completion of tasks/goals. Life, inevitably, will bring those on from time to time, and that’s just life doing what life does. So, I’ll take these hiccups in stride, knowing that I have every intention of being consistently devoted to this challenge each and every day and in seeing it through to the very end. IF a situation arises that takes me temporarily off course, then I’ll have to address it accordingly. And after attending to the unforeseeable event, my goal is to get right back on course with my daily to-dos and to keep progressing forward.
7. Some goals will take more than one day, some goals will be completed in the course of one day, and some goals will be started on a particular day but will be ongoing for a period of time or indefinitely.
8. I will allow myself some flexibility on how I accomplish a task for the day. I’m not going to micromanage the process for getting something done. I just want to make sure and get that day’s work completed to the best of my ability in whatever method I chose to use on that day. 

Now that the logistics are out of the way, I’d like to proceed with the actual events of day 1 of the 30-day challenge.

Day 1 of the 30-Day Challenge: Creative Movement:

Task: to create a list of to-do items that I want to get done during this 30-day challenge.

Reason for Task: Establishing some organization is incredibly important before undergoing a goal-setting challenge like the one I’m embarking upon. I don’t want to go willy-nilly throughout this 30-day challenge, trying to figure out what it is I’m supposed to be doing each day. 

I already have a list of to-dos that I have in mind for this challenge, but some of those to-dos are in the old noggin, some are written down, and some organically present themselves from time to time when I’m in the course of doing other tasks (reminding me that I need to give them some attention one of these days). 

So, in order to organize those to-dos and use them to help create a plan of attack for getting some much-needed content work completed, I find it necessary to take those to-dos from my mind, from my premade lists, and from going through the motions of daily life and place all of that information into one central repository for safekeeping from a slipping memory.

Essentially, I’m skipping step 1 of my goal-setting process (brainstorming) and I’m going straight into step 2, or the list-making phase. As far as step 3 of the process, creating SMART goals for each of the tasks/goals for this challenge, I don’t think that will be necessary. I have a flexible framework that I’ll be working within in order to make sure that I’m able to complete this challenge in the most fluid, efficient way possible.

Furthermore, I’m not going to be regimented in assigning my list of to-dos for specific days during this challenge, or engage in step 4 of the goal-setting process (scheduling). Again, I want to maintain a level of flexibility in which to work and to get in tasks where they naturally fit in during this month of goals. MY OVERALL GOAL IS TO JUST MAKE SURE THAT I GET MY LIST OF TASKS COMPLETED WITHIN THE CHALLENGE’S TIMEFRAME.

If you need some context as to my references regarding steps 1 and 2 of The Goal-Setting Process, check out these posts:

Goal-Setting Process for Writing & More – Step 1: Brainstorming 

Goal-Setting Process for Writing & More – Step 2: List-making

Duration of Task: 1 day

Outcome of Task: I was able to successfully create my list and I already started implementing it on day 1. 

Practical Application of Day 1 for Your Life: I want to encourage any of you who are in a place where your mindset is geared toward accomplishing some goals that you’ve put off (for whatever reason) to organize yourself as best you can. Mapping out your plan of attacking some much-needed work is so invaluable to your goal achievement efforts. It just helps assist you in efficiently carrying out The Goal-Setting Process. (I noted the blog posts for steps 1 and 2 (above), but you might find the following posts to be helpful as well: Goal-Setting Process for Writing & More – Step 3: SMART Goals, Goal-Setting Process for Writing & More – Step 3: SMART Goals (Cont.), and Goal-Setting Process for Writing & More – Step 4: Scheduling.