Finally, I’ve completed my personal challenge.
It’s been exactly 30 days since I’ve been penning down and elaborating one thought per day. It hasn’t been an easy journey, but I feel the immense satisfaction of going through with a commitment that I made.
Here are some of the things that I’ve gained and learned through my blog:
Focus
The whole point of doing this 30 days challenge was to help focus a (my) wandering mind. Having to decide on a topic a day and elaborating on it within an hour or two requires a lot of focus, and focusing on one thing helps organise my thoughts and also temporarily distract me from the daily stress that I experience. Deciding to sit my ass down for a certain period of time to complete one task is also a skill that I think would be very useful in my future endeavours
You get better by the day
It took me about 3 hours per post to complete the first few individual posts, and that was with the help of the initial excitement and also already having a few topics I was excited to share about even before I started this blog. As the days went by, picking a topic became something I did on the fly, and elaborating on the chosen topic and at the same time doing a little research on it became something I was more and more familiar with. As of now, a blog post takes me about 1 to 1.5 hours to complete. I’m also starting to realise that I can write my blog posts with different styles when I am elaborating on different topics. Practice really does make perfect
70% percent is better than zero percent
The desire to complete a task perfectly is something that everyone has; but often times, this turns into an excuse we use to wait for the perfect topic or the perfect mood or the perfect timing and procrastinate doing what we want to do. I ideally want my blog posts to be 3 – 4 minutes long in reading length, but making a commitment to post 1 thought a day means that I have to power through and get my daily post done even if it is 70% of what I think is ideal. But hey, without this 70%, I wouldn’t be at day 30. Making small satisfactory progresses consistently over the long term is better than having a perfectly done task once in a blue moon
The meaning of commitment
Making a commitment is not an easy task, following through is harder. After the initial excitement wears off, getting up 6am daily to write one blog post a day is not as pleasant as it sounds
Working 12 hours a day through the weekend for a travel fair? Still need to post
Feeling sicklish today morning? Still need to post
Solving a challenge at work early in the morning? Still need to post
Having family activities planned for the weekend? Still need to post
Having absolutely no idea what topic I’d like to elaborate on today, even though it’s already 10pm? Still need to post
Having to go on a weeklong Vietnam tour? Still need to post. That’s the reason I lugged my laptop along this trip, because I am committed to complete this challenge
You get to know yourself a little better
The topics that I elaborate on revolve around a few main aspects of my life – my family, my entrepreneurial journey, my marketing thoughts, my financial thoughts
The more I write about my family, the more I know that Joyce and I are striving to become good parents; and how important Alyssa is to us. I’ve also come to realise how lucky I am to have the family and life that I have right now
The more I write about my entrepreneurial journey, the more sure I am that this is something I’d like to be doing, regardless whether or not I am in the travel line, throughout my life. I’m also starting to see that, as with everything, it takes practice, failure, persistence, perseverance, and most importantly, calculated risks, to improve my entrepreneurial skills
The more I write about my marketing thoughts, the more I see different, creative, and better ways to do marketing. More importantly, the more I write about my marketing thoughts, the more I know the gaps in which I need to cover in order to bring my business to another level
The more I write about my financial thoughts, the clearer I am with our (I no longer use the word ‘I’ when it comes to finances since the wife and I got married) financial goals and needs, and the short and long term steps that we need to take as a team to achieve them
All in all, I’ve gotten to know myself a little better in these 30 days – the things that I care about, the things that I am good at, the things I’m not so good at, and the things that I am excited about
Satisfaction
The satisfaction of following through and completing a commitment is oh so nice. A few more paragraphs, and I will be done with my personal challenge. Hopefully, this will translate into motivation for other important aspects of my life
It doesn’t matter how big of an audience I have and how many likes I get on my posts (which is sadly very little), the satisfaction that I feel for completing a challenge is still oh so nice.
Things move slower than you anticipate
My initial goal was to get 100 readers by the end of 30 days. As of today, I think I have probably achieved near to half that number.
I think that sometimes in life, no matter how ideal the scenario in our heads are, and no matter how well prepared we are, reality is very often a whole different thing. But it’s not a big deal, we’ll just have to keep finding a better way to do things
Speaking about reality, here’s the full text of my original challenge:
You only need to be slightly better than you were yesterday. This is my 30 day personal challenge to elaborate on 1 thought a day. The goal is to get 100 readers who enjoyed my content to donate RM3 at the end of 30 days to upgrade this free blog into a proper website.
It’s not about the money, it’s about the satisfaction of getting the acknowledgement that these content added value and brought enjoyment to other people
The 30 days challenge will be completed on the 22nd of May, 2019
Yours truly
I have no idea how this blog will turn out to be after today, or whether I will still continue to post one thought a day if I manage to upgrade this blog into a proper website; I’m still undecided but I am excited to find out. I will definitely keep you guys in the loop
Thank you for reading my blog, and I hope to continue adding value to you!
Cheers, Kenneth