Fighting For A Life Worth Living

Day 59 - A New Focus

Over the weekend I was faced with a new challenge I never would have expected. We are throwing a surprise party for my friend tomorrow evening and picking her up from the train station tonight. I wanted to be as prepared as possible for this party, so over the weekend we bought the ingredients to make adorable cupcakes with a beach theme. The cupcakes feature teddy grahams as well as candies that are being used to create a beach scene. I have been doing very well going to the store and not buying any junk food, but this time I had to buy the junk food to make the cupcakes. I was not thinking rationally and bought huge quantities of all the candies. I have spent the last few days very upset at myself and now it is time to move on.

I plan to move on by changing my focus a little bit. I have heard from many people that it is best to start off small and improve your lifestyle over time. I can see how this approach could be very beneficial, but I can not execute it very well. Picking small goals doesn't seem like a challenge to me or that I am not being challenged enough. My new goal and reward system should create a nice balance. I have two jars. One of the jars is labeled Goals and the other jar is labeled Goals Met. I have placed 120 decorative pebbles in the Goals jar and have made a list of things I would like to improve. Everyday I am recording what goals I have met and then transferring that amount of pebbles from the Goal jar into the Goals Met jar. Each pebble is worth $0.25 and once I have earned all of the pebbles I am going to buy a bookcase. After the bookcase is purchased I will use the earnings to buy books and start a collection. In 3 months I am going to review my progress and see if I am ready to progress to phase 2 with a little more challenging goals. I really think this will help me. I am able to work on several goals at once and not feel overwhelmed, but still feel challenged and that I am progressing.