Tip #2 – Challenge Yourself!

We are all getting older…and guess what? The best years CAN be ahead!

How?

Challenge yourself mentally and physically.

There was a time in my life when I thought after a certain age, I was done…

I was done learning.

I was done being.

I was done everything.

I had arrived!

I arrived where?

I don’t know.

I’m not sure when it dawned on me or maybe it wasn’t just a moment of dawning but a whole year of sun’s rising and setting of dawning. Perhaps even a season of dawning when I realized that there was no such thing as done.

But what did that mean?

I started to think that devotion of myself to the house, kids, and family might not be the end all!

Now the kids were gone.

Maybe there’s a new thing? That new thing would be new challenges mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Whether we want the challenge or not, life will give it to us.

We have all heard stories about spouses walking out of long marriages when kids leave home and the other spouse is blindsided.

So then, how do we prepare for challenges? 

Well, I think one of the first things we have to do is seek a challenge for ourselves, a small one.

Perhaps it’s to, I don’t know, not curse as often?

Perhaps it’s to accept responsibility for some of the things that are wrong in our life and stop passing blame.

Perhaps it’s a challenge to make a new friend which is, you know, at a certain age, really hard. Whatever a small challenge means to you, do it.

I have a friend, her name is Kay. And one of her challenges was to climb Kilimanjaro and she did! This woman had dived the deepest depths in sinkholes all over Mexico, and still, she challenged herself.

One of the things that she’s regularly doing every single day is yoga.

For her, it’s no longer a challenge.

Her body needs it when she doesn’t do it. She feels the pain. She feels the loss.

Whatever the challenge is for you, take one little step, one little physical step, one little mental step, one little emotional step.

What can an emotional challenge look like?

An emotional challenge can be when you are triggered by something, step back from the screaming and the yelling and look and listen to your inner dialogue.

I’m betting that the inner dialogue is something meaningful like “you are nothing” which we know, is not meaningful at all!

This is my challenge to you for this second step in the journey called life.

Let us know what the challenge will be.

By the way, you can change the challenge as often as you like.

I’ll have 8 more tips to share with you in the coming weeks…stay tuned!

Always on your side,

Indrani