Imperfection

A couple years ago, I worked with a guy who was REALLY into Crossfit. He was one of those super extreme type A people who talked incessantly about "the box" and a paleo lifestyle. He was also really good at his job.

Anyway, one of the tools they used at his Crossfit box was the 30 Day Challenge. Each month, the members would pick a challenge that they pursued for 30 days. At the end of the month, the successful participants would get their name up on The Board.

I thought that was a great idea. After all, I am a super-big fan of goal setting and Challenges, be they 14 day, 21 day, 30 day or anything else.

I was not, however, a fan of this guy when he was doing a 30 day challenge.

The first challenge of the year was "No Complaining" for 30 days. A decent challenge- certainly well intentioned and good for self improvement. The challenge went pretty well for about 4-5 days. And then he'd suddenly get really agitated and frustrated. "I have to start over one day one!"

This pattern continued until mid-way through February. He'd start off, do well for a few days, then he'd inadvertently complain about something. And start over on day one. Again and again and again.

Finally, one day I asked him "Wasn't No Complaining January's challenge? How come you haven't moved on to the next challenge?"

"I haven't completed the first challenge" he said. "I have to go 30 full days in order to complete the challenge. Then, and only then can I move on to the next one."

"But that doesn't seem to be working" I responded. "Wouldn't it make more sense to, maybe, keep a journal during the challenge? If you end up complaining about something, then you write it down and include when you complained and about what and what was going on when you complained. Then, you could look for patterns. For instance, if you notice that every Monday morning, you complain about traffic, you may realize that you are leaving the house late every Monday and vow to get yourself organized on Sunday night so you can leave on time. Or if you notice that you complain mainly in the mid afternoon hours, you may conclude that paleo is completely insane and eat some chocolate, already!"  (I didn't say that. I actually said that maybe you need to eat a handful of almonds or some cheese. But I totally THOUGHT chocolate!)

"Well, I can see how that would have some benefits. And that does make sense. But that's not what the challenge is. The challenge is to get through 30 days."

"Is that really the point?" I asked. "Isn't the bottom like to learn and grow as a person? Not just to get up on the board."

"Well, learning and growing is desirable," he said. "But the real point IS to get up on the board."

I tell that story not to belittle my former co-worker, nor to make myself look superior. I tell that story simply because it is very similar to my life last week. Last week, I set a number of ambitious goals for myself that meant a lot to me and are things that I strongly aspire to. And then, last week, a number of those goals fell apart.

Some of the time it was completely out of my control. Like when my computer crapped out on my and lost all the documentation I had on every single patient I had seen that day. And I had to stay and extra 2 1/2 hours to re-do all my paper work on a computer that kept freezing up on me.  Some of the time, I had to make choices between two equally desirable occurrences. Since there is not an infinite number of hours in the day and also since I cannot split myself in two, I had to choose one over the other. And a couple times I was just too exhausted and needed an extra 30 minutes of sleep.

So this week, I am starting anew. Not in a "Oh, crap! I have to start over from the very beginning!" kind of way. More in a "This week is a blank slate and I can get back on track" kind of way. My end goal, after all, is to grow as a person, not to get my name on The Board.

Oh! And P.S.>  There was actually a reason that my friend was so obsessed with The Board. I just didn't know it at the time. He is now a Crossfit coach and he had to successfully complete a certain number of those 30 day challenges without going insane. So all's well that ends well. I'm gonna go eat some chocolate.