A New Challenge

It's almost April and I can feel that Spring is already upon us. This is a great time to get outdoors by yourself or with family and friends, and soak up the vitamin D!

My last challenge focused on how to think consciously about our finances. Through our 30 Day Challenge to buy generic food, I learned that groceries don't have to be as expensive as I thought. That is a lesson I put into practice by continuing to buy generic groceries where possible, and looking for the cheapest and best value products. We found that switching to cheaper alternatives didn't affect the quality or taste of our meals. Some things may have had a very slight difference in flavour, but most things seemed the same. 

Shopping mindfully was a surprisingly easy transition.  It really only required a little extra time at the store to compare products and a little planning, so that the we knew what we needed to buy for all our meals each week.  Though we mainly conquered the grocery store, we will continue to explore different ways to live more frugal in all areas, and I expect to come back to this topic of finances in the future.

This month, however, we will move forward with our plan to live more consciously by exploring how we spend our time.  What we do on a daily basis really affects the way our lives, as a whole, unfold.  Not only on a short term basis, but our ultimate path too. Most of us go to work, and then fill our time with all kinds of activities alone, with friends, or with family. But do we take stock of everything we do, making sure that we are living each day to the fullest, or do we simply go through the motions?

For the next 30 days I am going to keep a log of everything I do and attempt to make more conscious decisions about how I spend my time.  I have written a list of activities that fall into four categories: Physical, Mental/Emotional, Goal Seeking, and Maintenance.  I will use my list as a guide to help me understand how my time is divided and to assist me in making good decisions.

Here is a breakdown of my four categories:

1. Physical - Probably the most obvious of the four, this pertains to things like exercise, nutrition, sleep and rest.
2. Mental/Emotional - This encompasses relaxation, stress management, meditation, and prayer.
3. Goal Seeking - Developing and achieving values, learning, creating, honing crafts and skills, and pursuing personal and professional goals.
4. Maintenance - Organization, planning, cleaning, and maintaining relationships with others.

Many people have their own set of categories based on their own values and needs.  Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, calls them the Four Dimensions of Renewal.  I like the term renewal because that's really what you are doing when you continue to dedicate yourself to conscious thought on a daily basis.  Each time you take a moment to consider or review an action you are renewing your mind and realigning yourself with what is important to you.  As I have said before, it is so easy to stray from the path.  That's why having a system for staying on track is important, and rededicating yourself daily to live consciously and knowing and analyzing how you spend your time is an important activity.

I will likely add to my categories as I explore each area more fully, but initially I just wanted to have a basic idea of how I normally spend my time and what was important to me.  Each of these four areas are important for my general well being and for feeling a sense of fulfillment in my daily life.  The goal seeking category should also help me to find a deeper and bigger fulfillment by allowing me to pursue my larger purpose.

For this challenge I want to be sure that I'm spending an equal amount of time in each of these areas, and that the quality of the activity that falls under these categories is high.  In other words, I want to make sure that my relaxation time is not consistently and solely spent watching television.  I come back to television a lot because it is one of my personal blocks to conscious and productive living and an easy way to avoid other more meaningful, though challenging, tasks and activities. 

My hope is that by the end of this challenge I will not only have learned to live a more valuable, productive, and well managed life, but also to have found a renewed sense of peace and purpose that would, otherwise, have escaped me.