Baby Steps Out

Today is the last day of the blog. At first I was thinking about having it be a 30 day, then a 45 day, but now that there are less than five people a day checking it, I definitely think it's time to be done at 60. So today's challenge is to go back to the day where the challenge made the biggest impact on you and repeat it. Or go back and do the whole thing again. Thanks for participating in this journey!

Plan something fun. Get an idea for something to look forward to. I may have asked you to do this before, but if I have, do it again. :-) We're starting to plan a summer trip to the DC area... it's nice to have something to look forward to!

Think of a funny song from your past that always makes you laugh. Then sing it to one of your kids. Sing out loud. Sing out strong. Sing of good things, not bad... sing of happy, not sad... woops, sorry, a tangent. Anyway, a couple of my favorites to sing to my kids are "If you want my body and you think I'm sexy come on baby let me know" and "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me." Sing it to them. Either it will get a laugh or they will leave the room, and depending on the day, either of those could be a plus!

Think about a hymn or a song that has been a constant in your life for years. Examples for me include Great is Thy Faithfulness and Now Thank We All Our God. Keep those in mind as you go through your day.

The Revised Serenity Prayer: Lord, give me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change the courage to change the person I can and the wisdom to know it's me. Anonymous

Look into the eyes of someone you love and smile at them. When they smile back enjoy being smiled at!!!

The orthodox church recommends continually saying the "Jesus prayer" all day long, again and again. Try saying it over and over today and see if it makes a difference in your life. "Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner."

The challenge for today: do every little thing that you do for the glory of the One who made.

Listen. Just take a minute and listen. Listen to nature. Listen to your soul... or your body... or to God. But listen. You might learn something.

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. Mother Teresa Think of one small thing that you are faithful in and how that is the foundation for your strength.

Today is a day to feel a sense of accomplishment. Take five minutes to make a list of things you are going to do today. Put things on there that are obviously. Like "go to the bathroom." Put it on there several times. Put your meals on there -- not just preparing them, but eating them. Every little thing you do should go on the list. Then spend the day crossing them off the list. It will feel SO good to get so much done. And you may realize that even on days when you don't feel like you've done much, you actually have accomplished a lot!

Obviously the past couple days I haven't posted and I'm wondering if the blog has run it's course. So I'm going to ask you what you think? Should I keep going? How important has it been to you? Did you notice that I missed the past couple days? let me know....

Express appreciation to the person who you least remember to say thank you to -- your spouse, one of your kids, a parent, a coworker, or a friend.... thank them either for something specific or just for being a part of your life.

Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still. Chinese Proverb

This is pretty off the wall, but if you have a kid like this it is guaranteed to make you and everyone in your house crack up. We have one. And he really can be like this.

This is kind of a repeat, but it's a good one. Think of a person in your life that always can make you smile. Call, text, email, or set up a time to spend time with them today. It can be anyone, but get yourself a smile from someone who is guaranteed to give you one.

Think of the person that drove you craziest yesterday. The one that got under your skin. Plan today to do one nice thing for that person, no matter how small.

Say it is so. Just for today tell anyone that asks you that you are doing well.... Or great... Or something positive!

“A year from now you will wish you had started today.” -Karen Lamb Start one thing today that you'll be glad you started a year from now....

Wow, the weeks are just clicking right by. How did you do during the past week? I actually met my goal. This coming week my goal is to get my blood monitor working and to test blood sugars for the week. I'm also trying to decrease carbs more, but it's getting a little trickier as the numbers go down... What about you?

Think of one thing that you do very well and meditate on that one thing for the day! (Thanks, Mary B).

Pick one thing you have done in the past and forgive yourself for it and let it go! Choose to recognize that you have been forgiven and then allow yourself to feel like it.

If you listen to this a few times, I guarantee it will grow on you! And it might just settle your anxiety to know that God has a plan...

Reflect on yesterday. What is one thing that you did that you think you could do better today? Just pick one thing. Today, do it better!

“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” ― Albert Einstein Think of one way today that you are practicing insanity. Determine to change the thing you are doing over and over again that isn't working....

Write a letter to yourself. Like the one in the post below. http://myfivemen.blogspot.com/2012/01/dear-betsy.html (thanks Rebecca!)

Today I want you to think of one challenge that I haven't thought of yet. Something that you think the rest of us could benefit by doing. This time, though, you have to comment and share it so that I can have everyone do it! (I know, I know, this is kind of cheating, but coming up with something brand new every day can get a bit tricky!)

Just for today.... stop worrying! Philippians 4:6-7 (New Living Translation) Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

So how has everyone been doing? So far I'm keeping up. This week my goal is to only eat 60% of the carbs from the first week I recorded them. Last week I successfully stayed at 80% of the first week. I'm still exercising at least three times a week and the bed and area around it is getting made and cleaned up every day! What about you? Successes? Failures?

Think of one of the things you listed on the day I had you list five things you liked about yourself. During the day today you are going to repeat that to yourself 20 times throughout the day. So, for example: I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people. I deeply care about people.

As a follow up to yesterday's "tell yourself the truth" challenges, check out this song.

Today I want you to tell yourself the truth about something. Oftentimes we meander through life believing lies. Things like "I can't do this. It's too hard." Or "everyone is out to get me." Or "Other people are the problem." Or "If so and so would just change...." So today I invite you to tell yourself the truth. "I can do ALL things through Christ who gives you strength." or "Most people are on my side." or "I can only change myself." You know what lie your telling yourself. Repeat the truth instead.

Let go of yesterday and start today Fresh. Here's a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

Allow yourself to sit and do nothing but think for 3 minutes today. You'll be surprised how hard this is because our lives have become so cluttered. Think about where you have been, where you are now, and where you would like to be. Begin to plot how you are going to get there.

This may seem like a weird thing to do, but if you use email much, this will help you feel less buried. Unsubscribe from 10 junk sites today. At the end of the email there is a place to do that. Get rid of them for the days to come. It will make you feel lighter!

It's all about how you frame it. That's what I tell myself often. It's taking a situation that makes me anxious or upset and reframing it into something that I can accept or appreciate. Here is an example: Your kid will not leave you alone. He's by your side every waking hour. You can see him as a needy person or you can rejoice that he wants to be with you and that he is attaching. So, pick something today and reframe it.

So, how is everyone doing? I'm pretty excited to say that I'm on track with all of this. I'm still doing week one's challenge, and week two's challenge, and I did week 3's challenge as well. What about y'all? My challenge for Week # 4 is to cut my carbs by 20% I ate quite a few too many last week, so it shouldn't be too tough to cut back....

I hope that this song gets stuck in your head and you sing it to yourself all day long.

Today I want you to live by a 10 two-letter word sentence. I think that most of us put the responsibility for things on someone else -- a coworker, supervisor, friend, spouse, child, parent.... but just for today live by these words: if it is to be it is up to me

Today it's time to throw away (or put in God's hands) one thing you are worried about that you can't do anything about on this very day. If you have anxiety about lots of things, pick one. Then tell God just for today that He can handle it -- or if you don't beleve He exists, simply throw it away for the day. If the thought comes back into your mind, refuse to dwell on it. In fact, pick one positive thing you can replace it with. Get how it goes? Replace the anxiety with a positive thought just for today and see how it goes.

Today is the day to take a first step towards feeling better physically. Make one change in your diet or add even five minutes of exercise to your routine. In my experience, most people who are struggling aren't doing well with this area of life. So, one small change. Drink too much pop? Too much alcohol? Eat too much sugar? Choose one thing to go without today and see if you feel better. Or get moving -- three or four trips up and down the stairs til your heart rate gets up. An endorphin high is a really nice thing -- try to achieve one today!

Today we are going to spend a minute thinking about progress over the last 23 days. Think about how you felt 23 days ago. Think about how you feel today. Do you have more hope? More energy? More enthusiasm for life? Or are you still stuck? If you're not seeing an improvement maybe you need to go back through the first 22 challenges and try some of them again. :-)

Read this quote. "Those who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed." - Lloyd Jones Based on the reflecting we've done, think about one thing you are going to try to do and begin to work on it.... just one.

So, here we are, three weeks into taking Baby Steps out of whatever mess we found ourselves in. SO, how have you done the past two weeks? I have been pretty pleased with myself. Keeping my area around the bed clear and the bed made I have been successful with for two full weeks. And last week I made it to the YMCA FIVE times when my goal was only three. This coming week it is my intention to keep track of the carbs I eat. This is going to be a pain in the butt to do -- but I have an app on my phone that will help me to do it. It will also be scary to see how many I am eating when I am not supposed to have many at all. So, maybe another week I'll start cutting down the number, but the goal for this week is simply to

Anybody have a book lying around or one downloaded on a Kindle, Nook, or Ipad that you've been really wanting to read but never have the time? Today's challenge is to read five pages of that book. If you don't have a book, try a magazine. But read five pages of something that you hold in your hands away from the computer. Of course, I'm hoping it leads you to read more because there is something centering about reading.... I'm in the middle of a Grisham novel and intend to spend time reading it while Bart is out of town this week. So what are you reading? How many pages did you read?

Today's challenge is really simple. Throw or give something away. My friend Kari was telling me this morning that they did the Fly Lady's 27 Fling Boogie, where you get rid of 27 things. She had each of her kids get rid of 27 things so they got a lot of decluttering done. If you feel really motivated, get rid of 27... but I'm just asking you to do one. Most of us live surrounded by way too much clutter. So get rid of something or give something away. I'd love to hear what people are giving or throwing away. Bet we could have some interesting things going out the door and leaving our lives... making us feel more free.

I want you to start another list. Get out a piece of paper. Write on it: Things I Like About Myself Then put down at least five things -- you can put them here if you wish. Just keep going if you get past five ;-)