Day 4: Creative Movement 30-Day Challenge

Day 4 of the 30-Day Challenge: Creative Movement:

Task: to add the rest of my reading and writing series items (individually) to my Degrees of Maternity Etsy shop.

So, I’m going to bypass the sections for the reason for the task and the duration of the task, since they were addressed in yesterday’s post, entitled Day 3: Creative Movement 30-Day Challenge. Practical application of the task to your life is on the menu today. And let me just tell you, I’m serving you up a lot of practicality in this one post.

In order to be totally transparent, I just need to give you a little background on what day 4 looked like for me. And please bear with me as I go through my excuses for not executing on what I set as my challenge goal for the day. I promise I’m going somewhere with this.

Practical Application of Day 4 for Your Life: When you’re working on your goals, it’s important to give yourself realistic expectations. Don’t set yourself up for overwhelm when it’s not necessary. Today was a case in point, for me. Honestly, I didn’t want it to look like I was spending waaayyyyy too much time on any one goal, so three days to work on getting my reading and writing series items up on my Etsy shop seemed kind of excessive at first glance. However, it’s really not in light of all of the other items that I’m still working on (outside of Etsy updates).

I had to remind myself that I still have the same hectic schedule with the same 24 hours a day that I’ve always had; however, I’m having to work these additional 30-day challenge items into the mix. So, something has to give until I can figure out how to seamlessly incorporate my challenge into my daily routine without dropping the recurring to-dos that fill out my schedule.

Now, I know I just started on this challenge, but I’m already experiencing just how “challenging” it is to keep up with the best of intentions.

Forwarding to the particulars of the day . . . 

On the second day of working on the task as noted above, I ended up having a day like no other, where I was literally on the go from my wake-up time of 5a to about 9:30p. And when I say “on the go”, I mean I didn’t get any of the challenge stuff done today. Not one thing. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

I was outside of my house for the majority of the day running errands, grocery shopping, and helping other family members, etc. Then, I ended my day on a late evening Zoom call. And, all of those things I just mentioned were incredibly important items to take care of (don’t get me wrong). But, I just didn’t have time to incorporate my challenge item into my day like I intended to.

Now, you might say that I could have gotten after my challenge goal once everything else was completed for the day, which was around the 9:30p timeframe, as previously mentioned. But, it’s not that simple. I tried, folks. I really did. I sat down at my computer after I went through the bedtime routine with my youngest child and attempted to get some creative work done. But here’s what happened . . .

My normal list of Degrees of Maternity evening items got pushed back because of the fact that my day was so jam-packed with non-Degrees of Maternity items. And when I sat down at my computer to start on the Etsy updates, I realized that I hadn’t even gotten to my Pinterest pinning for the day. Ugghhh. Pinning was an activity that I used to do in the early morning, but I switched it over to the evenings with my new summer schedule. And even though I’m not starting on my summer schedule until next week, I decided to go ahead and move the pinning to the evenings a little prematurely. (I wouldn’t have had time to look at Pinterest this morning anyway).

Well, once I sat down at my computer to pin, I started experiencing the heavy eyelids syndrome. And believe me when I say, I know how to fall asleep at a keyboard like no other. Now, I hadn’t gotten quite to the point of closing my eyes and drifting off for substantial periods of time, but that unwelcomed feeling was soon to come upon me. I just knew it.

So, to prevent myself from sleeping at my computer, I told myself I would just set my alarm clock on my phone for a few minutes and take a little catnap on the couch. I didn’t want to get in the bed and get too comfortable because the catnap would turn to a full-fledged sleepy-bye for the night. Plus, I didn’t want to wake up my husband with an alarm clock going off during his sleep, so the couch seemed the best option to catch a few zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz’s before going back to my creative work (or actually, starting on my creative work, I should say).

Can you guess what happened?

If you guessed that the not-as-comfy couch and alarm clock didn’t succeed in breaking my need to focus on some much-needed sleep, then you are absolutely correct. I managed to sleepily turn off my alarm clock and not reset it. Then, I went back to sleep and woke up into the next day. Actually, I don’t want to lie, here. I may not have even set my alarm clock in the first place. That’s how tired I was (and still am). Quite frankly, the details of the alarm clock are a little fuzzy at the moment. Anyway, I’m not even going to tell you what time it is right now as I’m typing out this blog post.

When a person is already working off of a lack of sleep, it will eventually catch up to that person in different ways and one of those unfortunate ways is in lack of productivity. As I stated previously, I DIDN’T GET ANY WORK DONE ON THE CHALLENGE FOR DAY 4! (Furthermore, I totally kissed Pinterest pinning good-bye for the day.) And usually when something like this happens, it calls for doing some double-up work the next day. But let’s be real here, that probably ain’t gonna happen either. So, I’ve decided to cash in early on the flexibility card. I know, I know. It’s so early in the challenge to be implementing the “give yourself grace” tactic. But, I just might have to. We’ll see.

I’m going to work just as hard as I can to make up in day 5 what I totally missed doing in day 4. Why? Because, it’s really important for me to keep some momentum going. I’ve put off doing these to-do challenge items for a while now and it’s holding up my progress. It’s also important to do things for me that feed my soul in personal and professional ways. I need the work I do at Degrees of Maternity; it fulfills that inner place within me that “it” can only fill. And if I make it a point to always do those things that help fulfill others and never feed my own self-actualization needs, then I become a person who’s always doing for someone else but never taking care of herself.

I need the creative work (EVEN THOUGH IT’S WORK!). It serves a purpose-driven aspect in my life that’s actually therapeutic and life-balancing. So, I must do my best to press through and see what I can do. And, if I get a little behind, so be it. The underlying purpose of this goal-setting challenge is to GET WORK DONE that I’ve been putting off. As long as the work gets done within a reasonable timeframe, what’s an extra day in the whole big scheme of things?

Bet you’re still waiting for the Practical Application of Day 4 for Your Life, aren’t you? Well, you really shouldn’t be since I’ve been giving you helpful hints throughout this entire narrative of my day. But, that’s okay. I’ve got you covered if you need me to bring it on home in a way that makes it personal to you. I just need for you to tune in for day 5’s report (delivered on Sunday), and I’ll let you in on my logic behind everything I’ve just stated in this post.

But for now, I’m going back to sleep. See you later for day 5.