The 7 Page Challenge

Of course, I didn’t really think I was buying into the NYE resolutions because my #1 goal has been to get into grad school. But who am I kidding? I love a good resolution, and I’m not ashamed of it!

January is a fun month for me because all the family time from the holiday season fills my cup. And I return from the great North to a vacation from work AND school. I get to just spend time with the hubs. And I’m talking a straight, uninterrupted Marvel marathon. It’s glorious. Plus, it’s my birthday month. And I’m always emotional because the passage of time makes me simultaneously nostalgic and extra plan-ny. Which for once, didn’t make me super anxious (hooray for my 30’s & CBD!)

Anyway, amongst the much-needed decompression, I joined a water challenge. And I got much different results from it than I ever expected.

First, I was super excited to do The 7-Page Challenge with Thyme is Honey because I’ve admired Dani for a while. But only recently did I download her Daily Page template (it’s awesome if you’ve gone digital but miss paper!) and she recently launched a super entertaining podcast. You could say I was already drinking the Kool-Aid. But I’m notoriously bad at participating in things without face-to-face accountability so I really didn’t expect much from myself.

Regardless, I joined the Facebook group. I wrote out all 7 days of my week (to-do’s, and meal plans for the most part) on the Daily Page. I even calculated my water goal for each day—a cool 96 oz to be exact.

I don’t know about you, but for me, writing things out really helps it stick in my brain. But I’ve gone the way of the iPad/iPhone cloud sync and simply can’t live without using my phone’s calendar/notes/reminders to mostly guide my way through the week (I don’t care if this sounds super millennial-ly—you try working full time and studying stoichiometry at 30 and then you can lecture me.)

But despite writing everything out, and my sincerest intentions to drink up every ounce, I realized not only that I was overly ambitious. I know my bestie is laughing right now because that’s suuuuper typical of me. But really,  before I even began, I failed.

In none of my planning, did I ever write out any time to just relax? Nope. Everything was a list of stuff that “should” get done. In my overly ambitious state, I basically planned out how to overwhelm myself in one week. And the craziest thing? I’ve been operating like that for months! The only difference is this time I wrote it down. Kind of a bummer but also a huge revelation. It sounds incredibly lame but I need to make time to rest before I burn out.

The challenge is supposed to help you stay organized, hydrated, and give you a way to be accountable to yourself by being accountable with the support of people who are also jumping on the wagon. But it was incredibly clear to me that in resolution season, it’s not impossible to actually enjoy this good energy while also trying to do too much at once.

The irony of writing and revamping a blog while planning out how to relax is not lost on me. But I’m excited I started the year with this revelation instead of giving myself an anxiety attack. Last year at a Dwell Dinner, we spoke about the notion of “hustling slow” and I think nothing has ever been truer.

I didn’t get all 96 ounces every day, but I think in the end, I might have hydrated my spirit instead and that feels like that’s maybe just as nourishing for 2019.

Cheers,