10 challenges I've failed, and it's not the end of the world
Tags: goals, improvement
Published: 2019-07-26 18:42:40

I have to admit it: I'm not very consistent when it comes to personal challenges.

During the years I've challenged myself in various and often creative ways:
<ol>
 	<li><a href="http://hundredpushups.com/">One hundred pushups</a>. <strong>Failed</strong> <em>(also, the sister project <a href="http://www.twohundredsitups.com/">Two hundred situps</a>)</em></li>
 	<li>Playing piano 30 minutes a week. <strong>Failed</strong></li>
 	<li>Finishing <a href="https://projecteuler.net/">"Project Euler"</a>. <strong>Failed</strong></li>
 	<li>Doing at least one kata from <a href="https://www.codewars.com/">Codewars</a> a week. <strong>Failed</strong></li>
 	<li>Doing at least two lessons on <a href="https://www.duolingo.com/">Duolingo</a> (French) a day. <strong>Failed</strong> <em>(I survived two months)</em></li>
 	<li>Track my daily activities on <a href="https://home.idonethis.com/">I Done This</a>. <strong>Failed</strong></li>
 	<li>Publish a weekly screencast about PHPStorm. <strong>Failed</strong> <em>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W98qHLTfMQk">I managed to publish one</a>) </em></li>
 	<li>Write <a href="http://juliacameronlive.com/basic-tools/morning-pages/">morning</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/03/morning-pages-change-your-life-oliver-burkeman">pages</a> daily. <strong>Failed</strong> <em>(I wrote maybe ten, or twelve)</em></li>
 	<li>Wake up and go for a run three times a week. <strong>Failed</strong>  <em>(I survived three months)</em></li>
 	<li>Submit a patch to WordPress Core weekly. <strong>Failed</strong> <em>(I did just three and, boy, were they trivial)</em></li>
 	<li>Blog more, at least once weekly. <strong>Failed</strong>.</li>
</ol>
These are just the first things that came to my mind: I can assure you that there are a lot more.

There was a time that, looking at all those <strong>Failed</strong>, I would've thought that I wasn't good enough. <em>"You just need to push it more!"</em>

But, in retrospective:
<ol>
 	<li>I can't do one hundred pushups, but I can manage to survive to 25.</li>
 	<li>I can't play piano as when I was studying music, but I still can play a tune or two, when I'm with friends.</li>
 	<li>During my day job I've used some principles that came from Project Euler problems.</li>
 	<li>And Codewars too!</li>
 	<li>I'm not fluent, but I can say <em>"Bonjour, je m'appelle Giustino. Ça va?" </em>and other basic sentences.</li>
 	<li>Tracking my activities for a few days helped me understand where to put my efforts.</li>
 	<li><a href="http://www.bluemic.com/products/yeti/">This mic</a> was a nice side effect of my screencast challenge.</li>
 	<li>It was nice to handwrite a few pages (cramps included!).</li>
 	<li>I understood that I don't like running.</li>
 	<li>Sorry WordPress Core people, I just don't have excuses for this.</li>
</ol>
We can't always follow our plans, Life just doesn't align with those. But you have to keep going and try harder.

So, to celebrate all my failed past challenges, here are some new ones:
<ul>
 	<li><a href="https://giustino.blog/one-year-53-books-personal-challenge/">Reading 53 books before October 31</a> <em>(I'm on book 6!)</em></li>
 	<li>Blogging daily (I was heavily inspired from <a href="https://luca.blog/2016/05/29/3-rules-for-a-successful-daily-blog/">Luca Sartoni</a>. Thanks, Luca :) ) <em>(One month streak, and counting! )</em></li>
 	<li>Exercise more, at least three times a week <em>(I exercised 10 days in the past two weeks)</em></li>
</ul>
Will I fail these? I'm sure I will. But that's the content for another post!

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