I'm just going to come right out and say it...I FAILED the challenge. Well, sort of. I guess it depends on how you view success. Did I make it the full 365 days without buying something new? No. An unequivocal, resounding fucking NOOOOOOO! Actually, a big fat failure of a NO. But, I did make it 6 months. Six months and 3 days to be exact. I'm not sure what it was...I was on vacation spending time with my family for the 4th of July weekend. And I just decided to buy something...a commemorative t-shirt and a pair of cheap flip-flops. It wasn't really even anything super exciting or fantastic. I didn't even go out with a bang.
A few days later, and here I am...free of the challenge, I guess, because I already failed. And yet...I did learn something. I learned quite a few things about myself and about the motivating factors in my life. I went shopping today. I set off on my lunch break, the same as I had so many times before with money to burn. I told myself it didn't matter...that this was my reward for making it through 6 months of deprivation. (For a shopaholic like myself, yes, this has felt like deprivation at times.) When I got there, though, my outlook had changed. I found myself really analyzing each piece of clothing, trying to determine if it was really worth the money. I told myself...if I don't absolutely LOVE this, I'm not getting it. This mindset really worked, too. I walked out of the store with 2 items, spending less than my budget and leaving several things behind that I would have liked to own.
So now the question becomes, where do I go from here? I'm not 100% sure, but I do know this...when I look back at the first 1/2 of this year, I'm going to view it as a success. Sure, I didn't make it the whole way, but it wasn't for naught. I learned so much...about self control...about intensity and focus...about loving what you have and more and more about myself each day. To me, the glass is 1/2 full.
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