Welcome to the final installment of my 30 Days to a Better You Challenge. (You can find part one here.)
Each day I offer one simple thought and one small step to help you move forward.
This is not a 30-day self-improvement program. It’s not 30 days of guilt or motivational hype.
It’s a collection of small choices and simple actions to help you know yourself, love yourself, nurture yourself, and pursue your calling.
Week Four Focus—Pursue your purpose and your dreams
You have a calling and a purpose in this life. And that calling is not just to help others realize their dreams. Your dreams are important, too. God has given you a unique collection of interests, experiences, and abilities so you can make a difference in your world. Are you intentional about making the most of what you have and doing all you can to fulfill your calling?
Your calling may change as you move from one season of life to another, but there is always room to take another step on the journey of your life.
The goal of Week Four is to move forward in the pursuit of your dreams and fulfillment your purpose.
The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Week Four Mantras
Change is never easy. Here are some helpful phrases you can repeat to yourself when you get discouraged or need a boost of motivation.
- My dreams are worth pursuing.
- I have a worthwhile purpose that I am uniquely qualified to fulfill.
- I am God’s workmanship, created to do good works as he enables me.
- I am not stuck where I am today. I can grow, learn, and change in all areas of my life.
30 Days to a Better You Challenge, Week Four
Day 23: Succeed at a habit. Many times, you fail to implement better habits because you try to do too much too soon. You are more likely to succeed in the long run if you start small so you can achieve your goal many days in a row. Then you have the momentum to keep going.
Today’s step: Pick a habit you want to improve. Create one very easy daily goal for that habit. (Like ridiculously easy. Really, I mean it.) Now meet your easy goal for today. Hooray. Promise yourself to do it again tomorrow.
Day 24: Celebrate a success. When was the last time you patted yourself on the back for a job well done? We humans tend to focus on the end goal and forget to notice all the difficult and worthwhile steps we achieve along the way. Don’t make that mistake.
Today’s step: Give yourself a Gold Star for doing something well today. If you’re having a terrible, horrible, no-good, completely rotten day, consider it a success when you manage to overcome the crap and accomplish anything.
Day 25: Find like-minded people. We need others to help us succeed. We need teachers, mentors, and encouragers to spur us on in our careers, our hobbies, and our dreams.
Today’s step: Pick a dream or interest you want to pursue. Figure out where to find others who can help you grow in that area.
Day 26: Notice what brings joy. Do you know what your life passions are? What interests and beliefs stir the fire in your soul? What activities bring you into a state of flow?
Today’s step: Make a list of your passions. It doesn’t matter how trivial they seem, just list as many as you can. Now circle the ones that are most important to your soul. Moving forward, find ways to bring more of what you are passionate about into your life.
Day 27: Notice what frustrates. What really bugs you about the world around you? What issues or injustices are impossible for you to ignore? Those frustrations point you to your passions—to the areas in life you are called to care about.
Today’s step: Make a list of the problems and injustices around you that you find impossible to ignore or put up with. Look over the list. Choose one of them and explore a realistic way to get involved in the solution.
Day 28: Take the next step. Dreams can seem impossibly far away and hard to reach. Don’t let that discourage you. Instead of focusing on the gap between now and reaching a dream, consider how you can get one step closer.
Today’s step: Take that step. It may only have gotten you one millimeter closer to your goal, but it was still progress.
Day 29: Embrace trial and error. Don’t wait for the perfect, 100%-success-guaranteed next step to fall into your lap. (News flash: It won’t happen.) The secret to success is to pick your best idea and give it a try. It if works, great. If not, adapt or rethink and try again. Doing something is better than dithering and getting nowhere.
Today’s step: Find a task you have been putting off because you didn’t know the best way to do it. Give yourself permission to be less than perfect, choose a reasonable option, and give it a try.
Day 30: Look back on all you have accomplished. This past month you have taken many steps. Look back at all you have learned and accomplished through this journey. You are not the same person you were a month ago. Yippee for you!
Today’s step: Congratulate yourself on the progress you have made. Then choose a step or two to continue working on and keep moving forward.
Get a printable version of the 30 Days to a Better You Challenge here.
Get a one page summary of the 30 Days to a Better You Challenge here.
