Celebrate Your Success

Say Goodbye to Survival Mode Challenge – Day 7: Celebrate Your Success
You made it! It’s the final day of our Say Goodbye to Survival Mode Challenge! Can you feel the shift taking place in your life? You now know that you don’t need to merely survive. You are well on your way to living with direction and passion every, single day.

The best way to keep up your momentum is to set small benchmarks and a reward system to treat yourself, whether that’s a pedicure, a special dinner, or a new pair of shoes.

If you need an extra motivator on a daily basis, you can reward yourself after you’ve accomplished your most dreaded task for the day. Enjoy a piece of dark chocolate, savor a cup of coffee, or take a bubble bath. A reward will give you something to look forward to when you’re in the midst of doing your hard tasks. It will also give you motivation to accomplish them more quickly. >

Celebrate doesn’t have to throwing a party, though. Self-care is also a form of reward. It’s the daily practices that stack together to give you more joy and fulfillment. So much of the time, our exhaustion and burnout are the result of not being plugged in. We think we’re capable of handling life without constantly renewing our power supplies. It might work out fine so long as life is sailing smoothly. But when the rains of stress, change, sickness, or upheaval come pouring down upon us, we quickly start drowning.

Here’s the deal. We can’t survive the storms of life without regularly taking care of ourselves. It’s too much. Oh, we might be able to hold it together for a little while, slapping on our happy faces and pretending that everything’s okay, but we won’t be able to keep up the facade for long.

Here are a few ways you can reward yourself consistently:

Take Care of Your Health: Make sure that the foods you are putting in your body are nourishing you. It’s worth it to spend a little more at the grocery store to stock your refrigerator with healthful foods you can grab for snacks, such as fresh fruits and veggies. In addition, make sure you are drinking plenty of water, eating plenty of good protein and whole grains and taking a good multi-vitamin.

Enjoy Your Family: If you have young children, remember that they are only little once. Take time to just enjoy your children, to stare into their faces, to soak up their cuddles and smiles and giggles and firsts. Stop and listen to them, talk with them, love on them. Cherish them. And don’t neglect your husband, either. You might not have a lot of energy left at the end of the day, but at least meet him at the door with a kiss and a smile. Ask him how he’s doing. Make time for him.

This stuff is so much more important than a clean house or an organized kitchen. And if you’ve got to choose between cleaning or cuddling, always choose the cuddling. I promise you won’t regret it at the end of your life!

Laugh Often: Learn to laugh instead of cry and things will be much better all round. Find the humor in every situation that you can. Surround yourself with positive people and encouraging messages to help build you up.

Give to Others: A big part of living with intention is to give and do for others. Our lives are not just about us and how we can manage our time, organize our priorities, and live each day with passion and purpose. It’s also about looking for a need and finding a way to fill it. It doesn’t require much effort to find avenues, simple or creative, to help others. Remember, there’s no competition when it comes to giving. What matters most is your heart.

Give what you can, even if it’s a few dollars, an hour, or just a smile! Start by paying attention to the needs in your local community. Who can you help down the block, down the road, or across town? If we each do what we can, collectively, we can make a huge difference in the world as we know it.

If you incorporate some of these tips into your life, you know what will happen? You’ll ultimately see an increase in your energy stores. You’ll feel better. You’ll feel more alive. You might even find a spring in your step that you never thought you had. You’ll have more passion for life, and this will allow you to devote time and energy to what matters most versus spending most of your days just trying to make it through the day.


Today's Challenge
Jot down some things you love to do. Instead of thinking of your to-do lists, goals, and routines, clear your mind for 10 or 15 minutes and focus on the activities you enjoy. It can be anything such as reading a good book, volunteering, getting a massage, spending time with close friends, cooking gourmet meals, writing poetry, running, dancing, painting, or scrapbooking. Think of things that excite you and make you feel alive, refreshed, and energized. Write them down. Then review your list and circle one item you can (and will!) do today to celebrate the completion of this challenge.



You can sign up for the Challenge at the link in the picture.

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Ok, so I'm working on this Challenge, just like I told you I would.  But I am modifying it a bit. I'm going to work on an item a week, instead of an item a day.


This is a big challenge for me.  Ever since Dan died, the clutter has taken over to the point that I just want to through out everything!!  But my dear hubby has been patient with me and slowly piling the clutter so I can get through it.  But every time I try to get started on a pile of clutter, we have to go somewhere or do something else, so the clutter sits.  Let's see what I can get done this week.


Here is Day 1 (or Week 1).

Here is Day 2 (or Week 2) with my results from Day 1.

Here is Day 3 (or Week 3) with my results from Day 2.

Here is Day 4 (or Week 4) with my results from Day 3.

Here is Day 5 (or Week 5) with my results from Day 4.  I continued this day/week for an extra week due to the holidays.

Here is Day 6 (or Week 6) with my results from Day 5.


Results: 
I'm still making my lists from Day 1. I don't feel I'm accomplishing as much now, the same items are still on the lists.  But then again, showering is important.  Slowly the to-do list is getting longer.  I need to really limit it to 4-5 items.

I still have my list from Day 2, and look at it but I haven't added anything to it.

I'm generally sticking to my Sunday-Thursday evening routine that I created in Day 3.  There have been a couple of days where it hasn't gone great, but it takes a few weeks to make a new habit.  I'm doing fairly well with this now.

My prioritized list of things from Day 4? I always have that, and it changes day by day.   I'm lucky I remember my name the last few weeks, and finding even 2 minutes to tackle something on the list...well, that's been tricky too.  So, I will make this a renewed effort over the rest of the 7 day challenge to work on this one a bit more.  I've tried adding this to my to-do list from Day 1 to make sure I get done the items I need to get done.

Day 5 - tackling the clutter in one small area at a time.  I'm actually making progress with this now that I have identified the time blocks that I have available to do things.  There are just so many small areas that I need to tackle.

I have holding myself accountable down pretty well.  Every Monday I post a "5 for Five" post which is a link up with other blogs where we post 5 goals we want to accomplish that week.  We report on our success (or failure) the next week.

As far as today - time to start that list and try to do one thing every day "for me".  When I post my review of the book this weekend I will let you know how I am doing with this daily challenge.


Crystal's book will be released on January 21.  You can pre-order it here and get some awesome freebies!!!  You can also check in with Crystal at www.moneysavingmom.com to see how she is doing with her own 7-Day Challenge!!