001: The One-Year Challenge

February 16, 2010
Psalm 1

There is absolutely nothing remarkable about today. Which means, of course, that it’s absolutely remarkable in it’s everyday-ness.

Nobody seems to remember February 16th as something special (unless today is your birthday – in which case, happy birthday!). February 14th we have hammered into our heads as the day to celebrate Love. But what is February 16th? Just the calendar date two days after the Love day.

That’s why I like it, though. That’s why today is the day I’ve chosen to start an undertaking I’ve been toying with since I saw the movie Julie and Julia a couple months ago. I’m challenging myself to blog for a year, with the specific purpose of blogging a spiritual trail. The reason I’m challenging myself to this task is tri-fold:

1 – I love a good challenge, specifically a challenge against myself. That’s why I want to run a marathon. That’s why I want to complete my Master’s degree. That’s why I have my list of 101 things to do before I die. The type A side of my personality likes to be striving toward something.

2 – I want to be in God’s Word every day, and I want to set up a system that helps me stay accountable. I want to be a woman of God – someone that acts as His ambassador here on earth through my conduct and actions. I believe I can’t do that if I’m not immersing myself in His teachings. I want this to be a daily practice. By publishing a blog, any readers who look through my blog entries (if there ever are any readers) will be helping me stay on target, simply because I’ll know they can see.

3 – I enjoy writing. I do not know exactly what I want to do “for the rest of my life,” but I do know I love writing and reading. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, points out that people who are excellent in their craft are people who put hours and hours of time into it. If I want to write and be good at it someday, I figure I should probably be practicing as much as possible.

Today may have nothing remarkable about it on the calendar, but it’s incredibly remarkable to me. There is sunshine coming in my window and landing on the couch where I was just reading. It is a Teacher in-service day, which means I’m enjoying a day off. It is a day in February, which means we’ve made it through December and January and we’re moving into Spring. I think, overall, it’s a good day for an ordinary person to take on a challenge.

What do you want to accomplish in the next year? How are you going to get there? What can you challenge yourself with to make progress? Are you – am I – prioritizing the things I want to prioritize? Are the things we want to prioritize the things we should be prioritizing?