Self Improvement: the ongoing project

A colleague of mine is slightly obsessed with self-improvement. She takes various physical, inspirational, mental, emotional classes, pushes herself, and I have to be honest; I'm a bit impressed with her strength, will-power, and success. She is a force to be reckoned with. There is nothing she cannot do, once she puts her mind to it, and she seems to have great success with putting her mind to anything at all!

It has given me a mind to follow in her footsteps. However, I'm not the extremist she is. I don't want to attend any seminars- I prefer to learn things myself/ teach things to myself. I just don't have the will power for the fasting/ giving up items as she does. I would like to go 30 days without my morning cup of caffeine, but now is not the time in my schedule, with charity work, regular work, & college, to try that.

I am trying to improve myself. I do self-checks: Am I doing all I can at work? Am I giving my husband/ our relationship all the attention it needs? Am I contributing to this world, or adding to the pollution in it? I'm trying to be strict on eating right, and I'm trying to incorporate a workout whenever I can to help my body. Like all self-improvement, it's an ongoing progress where some days are better, some days are worse.

But can I do more?

I like the 'xyz day challenge' concept, but in practice I often fail. I cannot even do a full week of Jillian Michaels 90 day body revolution. I think there is a 2-part failure. 1st: I'm not fully committing to it. I knew going in that I would have a hard time devoting 30 minutes of exercise to Jillian Michaels- just too much going on at the moment. 2nd: I'm not choosing goals that are accomplish-able. I knew I wouldn't have time, but I tried Jillian Michaels anyway. 

I've given it a lot of thought today, and I've come up with a challenge

My Challenge: Go >>1 day, 1 week, 1 month<< without telling a story about myself.

Goal: Break my habit of 'Megan Stories'.

One of my biggest flaws is that I tell stories upon stories. I share my experience about something in effort to drive a point home, or to share with someone that I can relate to them. But then as I'm telling the story, I think of another story relating to it. My brain says, "No, they won't understand story A unless you tell story B", so I pause story A and start story B. Before I know it, I'm on story D and I've totally forgotten story A, or the point of my sharing my experience to begin with! It's embarrassing, it sometimes drives my friends crazy, and I'm certain at some point I'm boring people (even though no one has been mean enough to actually say so). 

This is a trait I picked up from my mom, and one that I cannot let go of. I think I have gotten better over the years, but it's still a problem. My theory is if I just stop telling stories about myself, it'll give my social pattern time to re-boot and re-develop in a way that is more efficient and interesting to those who listen.

I'm not setting a full 'day' to this challenge, though. I don't like to label things as black & white as success/ fail; when is life every that cut and dry? But I believe to accomplish this, my goal must be to achieve a full month without talking about myself in conversation in order to fully re-boot. That means all the stuff highlighted in blue will no longer be part of my daily conversation. 

I will allow myself room to break this rule in 1 area: this blog. Much as it documents things I do, it documents my mental state. It would be hard to provide that if I failed to give my thoughts/ opinions, though I do plan to cut back on it.

Here goes nothing! The rest of today is my practice, tomorrow starts my challenge!