Me & My Quite Contrary Life

NUDGED: "Review all my past nudges" and celebrate! BACKSTORY: I can't believe this is my 100th nudge! I began this project on October 14, 2018, after being inspired by the 52Nudges blog . I desired to have more joy in my life and to get out of my comfort zone. I wanted to accomplish things instead of just talking about them and saying "someday". These nudges have challenged me and helped me grow in so many ways. For this 100th nudge, I wanted to look back at all my previous nudges. What were my favorites? Which ones were the most difficult? Which things have I continued to do after the week's challenged ended? What have I learned?  QUOTE:  REVIEW: My first nudge was "Change my routine" on October 14, 2018. That week was difficult as I was kicking off this new nudges project and really wanted it to go well. While it was difficult to change my schedule (I'm a planner!), I found myself happier afterward and was motivated to continue tackling mor...

NUDGED:  "Compliment a stranger" BACKSTORY:  I am okay with talking to strangers, but don't compliment people often that I don't know. In fact, I don't compliment people often at all. This nudge will encourage me to look for good aspects or qualities in other people to compliment them, and then say it! I am excited to see the reactions!  QUOTE:  "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." - Leo Buscaglia HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: The easiest, most natural way for me to compliment someone is to notice a Jackrabbit or SDSU logo on clothing and then compliment them on having good taste for a good school. In fact, as I was pondering how to complete this nudge, I had several strangers compliment me on my new SDSU purse this week. I had to wait until a good opportunity came up, until I spotted somethi...

NUDGED: "Throw something out" BACKSTORY: For the past year, I have been decluttering our house. I have gone from area to area, through every storage space, drawer and cabinet, and getting rid of items I don't need or use. My physical space feels better as a result, but it made this nudge more difficult! What else can I get rid of when I have already purged so much? I am very sentimental too and struggle to get rid of things, even things that should have been tossed a long time ago. This nudge challenged me to reconsider ALL of my things and to let go. QUOTE: "Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then take the plunge and discard all the rest. By doing this, you can reset your life and embark on a new lifestyle." - Marie Kondo, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing" (good book!!) HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: I watch our dog Coco utilize her purposeful, tunnel-vision focus when she searches...

NUDGED: "Floss daily" BACKSTORY: An instruction to floss more seems to be said at every dental cleaning. I have no problem brushing my teeth twice a day, but the habit of flossing regularly has always eluded me. This is something I want to work on and this nudge will help me to do it! QUOTE: "Each tooth has five surfaces. If you don't floss, you are leaving at least two of the surfaces unclean. Floss is the only thing that can really get into that space between the teeth and remove bacteria." - Alla Wheeler, RDH, MPA HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: I was laying in bed the first night when I realized I didn't floss! Although tired and ready to fall asleep, I got up and flossed. It only took a few minutes and gave me a sense of accomplishment afterward. The next morning, I put my floss container on top of my toothpaste so I wouldn't forget. I realized part of my problem with flossing is that I just forget - the container is hidden in my drawer so I don...

NUDGED: "Forgive 5 people" BACKSTORY:  The first word out of my mouth when I saw this week's nudge was "no". Forgiveness is very hard for me as I usually hold on to a grudge until it starts to rot my soul and I have to deal with it (ha!). I felt lots of resistance in completing this week's nudge, so I put out the call for prayers. They were felt and much appreciated! This nudge has been a long-time goal to work on, but something I never get around to doing. It has been on my radar for some time though, as evidenced by numerous saved sermon notes, magazine articles, lists of situations/people to forgive, and book notes on forgiveness, as well as a prayer book bookmarked on the forgiveness section. Good information is everywhere yet I refuse to go through the process that I know will make me feel better. Why? It's hard. It's uncomfortable. I would rather ignore it than go through the hard work. Why 5 people? It seemed like a do-able number to c...

NUDGED: "Connect with someone I haven't talked to in over 6 months" BACKSTORY: Last year, I reached out to a childhood friend that I hadn't seen in over a decade, and we went out for breakfast and caught up. It was a little uncomfortable at first going through the "what happened to you after high school?" questions but the more we talked, the more we found familiar ground. We reminisced on the "good old days" (ha!) and how life was turning out, and encouraged each other on our journeys. It was so awesome to see the girl I played dolls with as a child turned out to be an incredible, confident woman who is changing the world. I am so proud of her! I added this nudge to my list as a way to connect to other people who have impacted my life, who I lost touch with for whatever reason. Throughout my life, my path has been crossed with special people and they have shaped who I am today, although some people were in my life for just a short time. I am ...

NUDGED: "Try a new recipe" BACKSTORY: Our meals have become very routine - my husband and I eat the same things in a rotation each week. It's food that we are comfortable with and it tastes good. Occasionally I mix in a new recipe I find online, but those "new" dishes are usually the same type of meals we normally eat - one pot dinners, casseroles, or crockpot meals. It was time to add more excitement, variation, and thought into our meal planning! QUOTE: "The life of faith is inherently a life of risk," said Pastor Phill of Ransom Church in his sermon this week. I desire all my "nudges" to be done in faith, with God's guidance in selecting the perfect nudge I need each week and His help to complete it. Risk is a part of faith and a big part of this project! HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK:  Always the overachiever, I made 5 new recipes this week. GOLD STAR FOR ME! The recipes were all things I wouldn't normally make, so it challenge...

This is the first week of my 52 Nudges project. NUDGED: "Change my routine" BACKSTORY: I have my schedule planned out by the minute. I do the same thing at the same time each day, with little variation, for the past few years. While I love this predictability, I wanted to see what happened when my schedule was altered. Could I be flexible and go with the flow, or would it totally throw me off for the entire week? Would it help me to avoid going through the motions on autopilot? Would I find better ways of doing things? QUOTE: "Insight and discovery are most accessible to us when we break up our routine. Only when the brain is confronted with stimuli that it has not encountered before does it start to reorganize perception." - Gregory Berns, as quoted in "Thrive" by Arianna Huffington HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: I made some changes to my schedule, which may not seem like big adjustments, but were a bit uncomfortable for a planner like me! Deep breaths....

Connecting with other people requires deliberate effort and vulnerability, but is worth the sacrifice. Connecting with myself requires complete honesty and acceptance, as does connecting with my Creator. Connecting is often messy, disruptive and unpredictable, but the rewards are amazing. That is what I have discovered so far in this year’s theme of “connect”. I realized that connecting takes effort on my part. Big surprise, huh?! It means when talking to people I need to be fully present in the moment and listening to them, and not thinking about the last food I ate. (Sidepoint: if I have a REALLY good meal, I tend to think about it for awhile after. Is that weird?!).   Listening and really connecting means asking questions about the other person and finding out what is happening in their life. It means offering insight and possibly relating a personal story. It means being open about my life too. This is a struggle for me but I am working on it! I found out a few weeks ago ...