Challenge Yourself To a Greater Height
I love comfortable life. I prefer living in my comfort zone where everything is at my beck and call. Anytime I have to step out, I become very scared. I don’t know what will happen to me outside the circles of my comfort zone. But I have to step out once in a while. True life happens when you stick your neck out to see what’s on the other side of life.
Today I want to stick my neck out. I want to leave the stale air in my comfort zone and feel the ever refreshing air on the outside. So I’m proposing this 21-day challenge. If it’s a challenge, then it has to make me uncomfortable. It has to break a shell so a new beginning can happen in my life. Here is the challenge. I’ve tried one or two of these sometime and it failed. I’m going to have a go at it again. Let’s do it together;
#1. Let a stranger take a photo of you.
Rest the selfie stick. Ask the stranger next to you to take the photo. It might seem awkward but after 30 days, your fear of asking for help might be gone. Pose with a grin as they take your picture. For the next 30 days, post these photos on Instagram or Facebook with a memorable hashtag.
#2. Elect yourself to speak
Learn to do a public speaking at any given opportunity. Read the bible in church. Propose a toast or offer the vote of thanks after a program. The idea is to learn to be comfortable with speaking in public. Ask your pastor to allow you to do the next sermons. You will learn.
#3. Offer a sincere compliment
The gentleman sitting next to you in a taxi has a beautiful shoes on. Look into his eyes and tell him. The lady who just passed you by smells really good. Stop her and tell her she smells like heaven. Find the opportunities to offer a sincere compliment to others. Total strangers. And you will make their day. If you are lucky, you'll make a friend for life
#4. Offer free services
Yes, it is good to receive money for your expertise. It is also good to let the world experience what you have to offer for free. When they feel good about your free services, they will be willing to pay for it next time. That’s one of the easiest ways to sell yourself to the world. Giving for free is an invitation to experience what you have to offer.
#5. Say Thank You
Call the office janitor and tell her, “you are the reason I always have a clean environment to work. Thank you” Do that sincerely and see how you can truly affect another’s life with true happiness. Say thank you to all who help to make your day better. Even if you pay them for their services, just imagine a day without them and be thankful to them. Say it.
Remember all the things you did that made you happy when you were young. Do them again. Life is hard when you try to be an adult. Go back to be young again. Play. I loved flying kite when I was a boy. I’m building a kite now. Tomorrow it will be in the sky. I will be down here watching it as it danced through sky. I might dance too.
#7. Exercise
I read from somewhere; “if you don’t take care of your body, where will you live?” Until you die, this is all you have. The only thing that will be with you to the grave. Take care of it so it takes care of you. Just 30 minutes a day for the next 30 days, exercise. Run. Take a walk. Lift some dead weights. Take care of your body.
#8. Say I love you
You love them truly. You presume they know that you love them. Saying “I love you” to people you truly love can help them through tough times. Let them know you love them. It’s easier that way. So I’m going to say mine; “I love you. For always coming here to read what I write.”
#9. Talk to an old friend
Ten years or so ago, he was everything to you. You called him your best friend. And then life happened. You got separated and haven’t heard from each other for that long. Look for all those friends and say hello to them. Just hello will bring back all the beautiful memories of the years gone. Your heart will come alive, again.
#10. Pay more just because
Some people deserve more, not for what they sold to you, but for the effort they put in getting it to you. Give them more than they charged you and see how their eyes will glow. Pay fifty pesewas instead of twenty pesewas for the sachet water. She’s been in the sun all day just to sell. Pay a little more and she will be glad.
#11. Ask for a price reduction
Surprisingly, we only haggle over price with sellers on the street. We go to shops and pay whatever they ask for. Do something strange. Walk to the manager and ask for a reduction; “The drink on the shelf is selling for GHc15, can I pay GHc12? I don’t have money.” Do it for no reason at all. Surprise them with your asking skills.
#12. Visit Your childhood girlfriend or boyfriend
You had baby dreams of getting married when you were young. It didn’t happen. You’ve lost touch for a long time. Visit them and show them what you’ve become. Tell him, “If you married me, you would have married a nurse, would you have been happier?” Then watch them laugh.
#13. Walk through the rain
The raining season is here again. It rains almost every day. Walk through the rain and feel every touch of the rain on your skin. You might be cold and shiver but it only means you are alive. Dead people don’t shiver.
There is a whole lot of the world you are missing just because you rather watch your screen than to watch the happenings on the outside. Drop your phone. Be part of the world. Watch as the baby smile. See the little things that happen only in a flick of time. Be involved. Don’t be a passerby.
#15. Ask a kid what they would have done.
Kids are not crazy because they are not adult. The adult sees them as crazy because we look at them through the filter of our own craziness. Tell your problems to a kid and ask them what they would have done. Sit back and enjoy the answers. Probably, the solution to the problem you are going through is in the head of that kid you call naive.
#16. Say sorry to those you once hurt
You knew you were wrong but your pride didn’t allow you to say you were sorry. Times have passed. Tensions are eased with the passing times. Call those you hurt and apologize sincerely to them. It will mean a lot to them, though it’s been years since the problem.
#17. Don’t complain about anything
For the next 21 days, go through life changing the things you can and surrendering to the things you can’t do anything about. Don’t complain about anything. Just change something or shut up. Preferably, shut up on things you can’t change.
#18. Give a portion of your income away
Give it to the homeless and needy guy you met on the street, and you’ve helped change the life situation of a fellow human being. You can also give it to a friend in need. True worship, I believe, is helping a fellow human find their way home or helping to lessen the burden of a fellow human.
#19. Don’t do anything
Choose to be lazy sometimes. Laze all day just sitting and staring at a blank wall. Don’t do anything and you’ll end up doing the best things in your life afterward. The best ideas don’t come to us when we are doing something. The best ideas come around when we are relaxing—looking into nothingness. Work is overrated. Idling about is underrated.
The world has changed. Meeting new people happens a lot faster on the net than in real life. Take advantage of it. Talk to the people who accepted your friend’s request. Know how you can be beneficial to them and how you can also benefit from them. Say hello to them. Comment on their stuff and present your best self to them so you can win them to your side.
#21. Write about the experience
You are a writer. You just haven’t found what you can write about yet. Write about the experiences of the 21 days you have to do this challenge. Share what made you happy and the surprises you went through on this journey. That could be the beginning of your blogging journey. Just try it. You only have to start.
DID YOU LIKE WHAT YOU JUST READ? YOU CAN READ MORE FROM THE WRITER ON nestaerskine.com