I had aspirations to really stretch myself in September, but I chose something that I don’t think I cared much about. Or that I felt too much intimidation, or perhaps didn’t see the real tangible reward. I’m not sure. It was a challenge that I missed.

Each month I lay out specific challenges to push myself forward in life. These must align to the 5 areas of focus in my life.

September was posting 4 videos, centered around books. I completely failed. It would be hard to fail more than I failed. I certainly have excuses, some are even valid. Honestly, I could have succeeded. I simply didn’t.

I didn’t because it never felt important to me. August I posted something here every day. That felt important. July I built an application in 3 days and pushed it along through the month. That felt important. September had a lot of other important things happen. They felt important. Making videos didn’t.

This doesn’t mean that I didn’t want to do it. I like the idea, but it never felt important enough to actually do. I wrote out the outlines, but never went further. It fell apart when I had to compare against other things I was doing. This is the problem with challenges, and also what makes them so valuable.

These monthly challenges force me to balance and prioritize. They require me to change my daily routine and dedicate time to do things I wouldn’t otherwise do. This means not doing things I normally do. It requires that I evaluate all activities and ensure I’m not doing something merely out of a lazy habit.

So what’s next for October? It’s something more personal. I’m reaching out and trying to have one conversation with an interesting person every week. This has been a big obstacle for me in the past, and I need to move away from that. Hopefully this helps.