The. Finish. Line.

I did it. I Actually wrote 31 blog posts in 31 days! Oh. Em. Gee. *dance dance*

Ok, moving on, because I feel like I've been mentioning that accomplishment a lot lately. Today I'm thinking about completion. That feeling of success when you finish something up, especially if it has been a long time coming.

In the past, my reaction to finishing something has been to take a good long break and rest up before I take on something new. After all, I've earned it, right? Please note for anyone who has just accomplished something, I'm not saying that you don't have the right to celebrate. I'm specifically thinking of My tendency to achieve something and then retreat into utter inactivity as a reward. I now know this to be a very poorly chosen reward.

Ramping up all the effort to tackle some project or other creates a beautiful momentum. When I decide to take a week off once I'm done, I effectively take myself right back out of flow and have to start all over again when I pick my next effort. Instead of harnessing my success to achieve another one, my habit has been to do nothing and then have to repeat the heavy lifting at some future date.

In an effort to do something different this time, I have signed up for a new challenge which starts tomorrow. It's called the 30 day Bravery challenge and is geared towards helping its participants step around fear to reach their goals. You choose the goal yourself, but needless to say, it should be something that requires risks - the kind that cause your palms to sweat or butterflies to polka in your stomach.

Many years ago I was challenged to take a risk, just for the sake of facing fear. I chose to take a poem I had written to myself and go read it publicly. I started at a gas station but people were pretty well practiced at ignoring the people around them, so then I went to a shopping center and approached individuals and asked if I could read it to them. Even thinking about this now still makes my stomach flutter but I did it. I didn't garner any huge praise or a following for my poetry (I Rarely write poetry so I think I'm ok with that) but I did gain a sense of pride in my ability to kick back at fear.

Last year on my birthday Alissia and I went to the top of the Willis (formerly Sears) tower since we had just moved to Chicago. At the top, they have glass boxed in balconies where you can look down however many floors and just FEEL the height. I'm afraid of heights, so I chose this act as a birthday celebratory activity on purpose. To be fair, I nearly hyperventilated before I actually managed to step out, but in the end I Did step out.

So, fueled by my ability to take on fear and my newfound discipline to write daily, I am going to work on the following list of things during the month of August (some of which produce fear, others just resistance, but either way - they're going down!):

1) I will set up and market my reiki/life coaching business. (I have the table, now I just need to seriously work on letting people know that I'm here)
2) I will work on one chapter a week of my novel.
3) I will go to yoga three times a week.

Alissia reads my blog, so I know that I will have her holding me accountable but thanks to my awareness of my strengths (highlighted by participation in this blogging challenge) I have faith in my ability to not let myself off the hook either. With my inner critic on mute, my biggest challenge for the month of August is to be my own best ally. It's about darn time.

What finish line will you be crossing next month? If that's too big, how about next week or tomorrow?