A lot of people have something to do. They know what they want to be - or already are. They have a job, a family or a passion to work for. They can do so day by day, letting it grow.
Yet, there are so many possibilities, that choosing is often impossible. How many of you have merely one interest? Sooner or later you'll have to choose, still not knowing what interest overpowers all the others. Not knowing whether the choice you've made is better than the choices you didn't make. Choosing a study, a job, a career.
Even picking a hobby can be challenging.
After hours challenges.
As long as you don't lock yourself inside the house, you'll end up in some not-so-great-yet-not-horrible job. That's your security. Usually, people pick a hobby to fill their spare time.
Others pick challenges.
Daily challenges, weekly challenges, monthly challenges, yearly challenges. 100 day challenges, one time challenges, three week challenges.
What kind of challenges? Anything, really.
Benjamin Franklin had a rotating cycle of thirteen virtues. Every week, he'd focus on battling one of those. He argued that by practicing them all, one at a time, someday they'd be ingrained in his nature.
He never managed a clean slate.
Yet, he said that practicing this helped him grow to personal success. That's an important clue. It's about doing the challenge, not about the results. Put up a little fight. If anything, it's a exercise of will power.
Then you have Matt Cutts, who also claims that taking on challenges improved his life wholly:
Matt Cutts who takes on a new challenge every month:
He mentioned NaNoWriMo, the challenge where you write a complete book in one month. That must be the prime example of how challenges bring out the best in people. How many people do you know that have a story in them, yet never finished writing it?
When I asked around, nearly everyone had started a book. A few were still writing new books every now and then. At least, the beginning of those books.
And then you've got those who brag about the amazing book they'll publish, but they haven't got one chapter yet.
Out of all the dozens of people I asked, only one had finished writing. (not me, sadly ;_;)
But on NaNoWriMo, people actually finish.
Out of all those people pretending to be writers, over 30,000 NaNoWriMo writers finish their book.
Some people take it even further, biting into one year challenges. Not just your average New Year resolution, but jumping onto something new and exiting.
My two favourites are "1000 Self Portraits" by Andrew Jones and "Dance in a Year" by Karen Cheng
Andrew Jones made a self portrait each day of the year. For three years. This is the result:
 |
| Full size image: http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/andrew_jones_1000.jpg |
The amount alone is impressive. His endless creativity is too: so much variation, so many different styles!
Then Karen Cheng, whose "I learned to dance in one year" video went viral:
Her idea was simple too: practice dancing every day. She's still going, after that year.
In September she launches a new website: Project 100, which will focus on practicing a skill for 100 days.
We sure like round numbers, don't we? Why not 52 days? 33 days. 126 days, maybe?
I found that hobbies don't work out for me. A few years ago, I bought a camera, but I'm still not taking pictures in my spare time. I have two sets of soft pastels, both unused. Never mind the forgotten stack of computer games.
I don't have full time career to focus on either. I gave up my childhood dream of becoming a caveman, so for now I'm just doing some university stuff.
Actually, I'm familiar with one particular challenge: lent. And that's it. (I always attempt "no junk food for one day", but rarely persist past lunch.)
So yeah, looks like I need to take on these challenges, if I ever want to put my spare time to use.
Three questions to answer:
- what
- how
- when
The first two are easy, because I kinda selected beforehand. What: any hobby I attempted and didn't forget about yet. How: internet guidance.
When: ...
Eh. Will I pick a weekly, monthly or yearly challenge? I tried determining the ideal way to practice. A week is nice, because it's easy to carry through a mere seven days. But a year will yield the best results. Is a month the logical in-between? What about all the other options?
Maybe I better choose based on subjective preference. Well... I don't know which one I like best.
In that case, I ought to try them all and sift out my favourite.
Karen Cheng needs testers for her upcoming Project 100. That's my starting point.
(psst, you can apply too, till August)
A 100 day challenge. It isn't midnight yet. I can start today.
Then I'd finish the 100th day right when November starts, set to go for a monthly challenge. Maybe NaNoWriMo?
And when December comes around, I have all the time to set up a weekly challenge, before January marks the start of a one-year adventure.
It'll take me a while, but I can try them all and figure out whether it works or not. After all, I've already spend years on trying to acquire a hobby.
And then I'll be ready to figure out an adventure schedule.
Oooh, I know what I'm going to do for 100 days. I'm going to paint portraits. Horrible, hideous portraits at first. May they improve tenfold!
If you want to join, do so! Pick something - anything, really. You can start a thread on some forum, a blog, join a site like lift.do or just keep it private.
I haven't started yet, but I'm already promising you it'll be great.
