My First Four Week Challenge

A few months ago, I signed up on a website called Nerdfitness. It's a site geared towards 'nerds' (thus the 'nerds' in nerdfitness) that pushes personal health and growth by teaching you to break down your goals and rebuild yourself, not just physically, but emotionally and mentally.

It's a great site for two reasons:

1. The program encourages small changes (cut down on soda drinks) at your own pace rather than big changes (DIET; Capital DIE Capital T). And I know from personal experience that the small changes work. I didn't just get up one day loving to run. No, that took many tries before the thought of putting on running shoes brought a smile to my face.

2. The social community. They have a big presence on their Facebook group. They also have a forum. You would think it would be a problem having so many different types of people with their own viewpoints and backgrounds, but it's not. No matter how different, we all have the same goal: to improve who we are. That becomes a good environment to be supportive. Also, they aren't family or friends so I have the freedom to rant and rave that I don't have when my soundboards are bias.

Anyway, the point of this post. The forum does a monthly (4week) challenge and the next one starts this weekend. I'm going to attempt my first one using my four goals as my 'Mega Quests' (that is what they are right? Quests? And the Mega makes them sound extra cool.)

I even did a 'postit wall' because... reasons.

Post Its!

It's hard to read from the photo but I have one row with the Mega Quests (CPA, run a sub30, Pay mortgage, Nanowritmo). The next row are each task I'll concentrate on in the next four weeks to accomplish the quest, and the last row are ideas for future tasks.

So the next four weeks:

- Pass the CPA task: '50 MCQs'.

Yes, I am technically done with the exam since I can't do anything until I receive the score in August. That doesn't mean I did, in fact, pass. I felt good about it when I did the AUD section last month (was it really just last month?) but I really should keep on top of my studying on the off chance I didn't pass.

If I *didn't*, then I have a really short amount of time to reschedule, restudy, and retake AUD.

I believe the score is released on August 17th. The exam schedule has four windows when you can take an exam and each section can only be taken once per window. The Q3 window closes around September 10th. So that's what? About three weeks?

If I didn't pass in the Q2 window (last month), I have the Q3 window (August 17- Sept 10).

If I happen not to pass the Q3 window, I only have the Q4 window (November... just November) to try again before my FAR exam section expires.

Confused? Yeah, no one understand how this CPA exam is structured.

So, yeah, despite being done-ish, I still need to practice. More MCQ's are in the future until I officially know my score in August.

- Run a Sub30 5K task: Yoga

I ran a Sub30 once before a couple years ago but I was doing a lot of cross training at the time. I was training for a full marathon and a sprint triathlon. In order to do that, I was biking, climbing, had a trainer for weight training, swimming and, finally, running.

No surprise my time on baby 5Ks improved.

And I want to get back to that level of fitness. The problem comes in A) motivation and B) I'm just f-ing tired right now with all that is happening in my life (aka stressed out).

Yeah, yeah, fitness will help with the stress and motivation is just taking a step at a time.

I recently purchased the Yoga program at nerdfitness because I liked the goal-oriented way it teaches. I just have to go on the website and *do* it.

Yoga is good. It works on strength, on stretching, on breathing - All the important things needed when doing other fitness activities.

As Nike would say: 'Just Do It'.

- Nanowritmo task: Read for 30 minutes

I still need to get to a better place mentally and emotionally before I can get back into writing stories. Journaling I can do sporadically. A writing prompt every once in awhile. This blog.

But I'm not at this point where I can sit and focus on the art of writing a story.

So I'm taking this one slowly. Just concentrate on reading for 30 minutes a day. And it could be any type of book; a book on writing, on accounting/finance, or a fiction novel. I have a full shelf on my bookshelf, I might as well read them.

And maybe then, I can get geared up for writing more.

- Pay Off My Mortgage task: $0-20 per day on takeout/eatout food

This is a tricky quest mainly because it is so large and will take the longest to complete. I just got back from a vacation and that was a lot of money to spend. I also will likely work on the kitchen remodel this year (goal is by the end of 2017). The fact that I don't have the budget for a new kitchen is what is stopping me, but I'm at that point where it needs to get done sooner rather than later. (Damn, I really hate my kitchen right now).

So I can go big on this quest or I can go small.

I am going small.

No matter what I do, I will be putting a bandaid on an open wound the way my budgeting has been. So, I believe the best way to begin this challenge will be to work on my weakest spending habit: Take out food and Eating out. I easily spend way too much for the convenience of not cooking at home and that needs to stop.

This doesn't mean I can go cold turkey. Trivia nights and going out with friends means I will still eat out in restaurants. So I'm limiting the amount I spend each time I do go out to $20 (including tip). On off days, I'll concentrate on not spending at all but I'll still allow some room for those 'f- it days'.

And that's it. Hopefully I'll be more active on this blog going forward with a new mindset.

Onwards my Four Week Challenge!