Faded Jeans Living

For a bit of context for my 52 week challenge check out these links – You did the best you could? and Going for it 52 Week Challenge!

So wishing vs willing. Yes that’s what I learned about this week. I learned on a feel great day it’s pretty easy to start wishing away on how you want your life to be. The rub comes Monday morning when the rubber hits the pavement and you start asking the more appropriate question: am I really willing to change my life? Am I willing to put in the work and sacrifices?

Here we go on my first weekly status.

Working out

This was more of making the practice more consistent. Monday and Tuesday started my morning off going for it. Then Wednesday…no workout. Thursday…no workout. After two days of work I just wanted to sit on my butt in the morning and drink my coffee. My goal was 4 times a week. This was where the willingness questions started coming into play. I was starting to doubt myself, but I pushed through and worked out Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday. Now I should mention my workouts are at tops 20 to 30 minutes. I’ve learned not to burn out and go slow. I did notice I definitely felt better those days I worked out. I also recognized my ego trying to talk me out of this whole challenge.

Learning German

This went pretty smooth using the Rosetta Stone app. I think I worked on this Tuesday and Thursday night. Felt good following through and making progress.

Learn to play guitar

Now this was one of my biggest challenges, since I always told myself I was not musically talented. It was interesting that with it I kept putting it off and getting more and more stressed as I did. Finally on Saturday I brought my guitar out to the living room and downloaded the SimplyGuitar app. Oh man, it was so much fun. It was almost like playing Wii guitar. They were actually playing cool tunes and I had to strum when they signaled on the screen. I was laughing and singing and before you know it an hour had gone by and I had gotten my two weekly sessions in.

Learning how to cook

I waited till Sunday on this one. Again the same theme I’m just sucky sucky at this …On Thursday I had a good talk with myself and chilled out. I figured I had all week and there was no reason to be working myself up on my first week. My first recipe was Chicken Shepard’s Pie.

Well really it was Sloppy Chicken Shepard’s Pie. That’s the only negative I’ll say because you have to start somewhere and I actually started and did it! Wherever you first start and no matter how it works out is FABULOUS in my world.😊. The extra bonus of waiting till Sunday was I now have leftovers for the week.

So there you have it with week one in the books. My willingness was definitely challenged but I’m committed to giving myself a chance in these areas and one year is pretty short after beating myself up for decades!

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As a reward for the week I decided to put on my favorite flannel and go for a ride in Lola. We listened to Van Morrison and I treated myself to a snickers. Pretty “wild” stuff right? I tell you though I’m loving my simple sober life and being out of the fog to appreciate it.

Om shanti shanti shanti,

Dwight