My 100,000 technique challenge- 2 months on

September was not a great month for my 100,000 technique challenge; after August and the luxury of my 6 week summer holiday, I had got accustomed to being able to use my time how I wanted and September came as quite a shock. While August had been the month of excuses, September became the month of how-on-earth-am-I-going-to-fit-all-this-in??!!

So, I’m back at work and finding it hard, but today I did manage to break the 20,000 punches milestone; I’m a fifth of the way there and I am back on track after a tough month.

This month I have learnt lots….

I learnt that sometimes I need to use my time better. We all have the same 24 hours and what we choose to do with those hours determines how successful we are. Geoff Thompson devotes a chapter to this in his book, “The Elephant and the Twig”. My working week is sometimes a bit manic; I have my day job, I teach Tae Kwon Do two nights a week and I try and get my own training in during the week as well. It’s pretty full-on and can be exhausting. So, I have been looking at the things in my life that I could reduce, get rid of or improve (long journey to work, spending too long on the internet on pointless things, getting the right amount of sleep…) After chatting to Geoff and Sharon, I have been thinking about how to be more creative with my 24 hours to ensure that I finish the challenge in roughly 6 months.

I’ve also learnt that sometimes I do need to slow down and listen to my body. There’s a nasty cold going round and I caught it last month. It knocked me off my feet, which is quite unusual for me. The whole time I was ill I felt guilty for not being able to work, teach or punch and after a couple of weeks of feeling run-down I was really missing exercise and training. I wasn’t a happy bunny. I realised that I am quite guilt-driven and feel bad if I don’t continue to keep ticking things off the big to-do list that I carry around in my head. That’s not to say I want to lead a life of sloth, but maybe I could be a little kinder to myself when I don’t manage to get it all done and when I don’t get it perfect all the time.

I spoke to Geoff and Sharon about having missed a couple of weeks (felt like I was back at school and confessing to not having done my homework- which I only ever had to do once I think!! I was a good girl, me.) They were really reassuring. It’s more the commitment to the challenge and the things you learn from doing it that are important, rather than how long it takes. Saying that, I do want to complete the challenge in as short a time as possible. Like they said, there’ll be more of a sense of achievement that way.

So, I’m not sure what this next month will bring. In the 3^rd Masterclass, which was last weekend, Geoff talked about the power of imagination. A good place to start October would be to imagine big things and then start making them happen, I guess…

I’ll let you know how I’m getting on next month!

Sarah Wilson x