Trading Worthless For Worth-While

After finishing my first 30 day challenge of the Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred, I quickly and thoughtlessly picked my second 30 day challenge of taking a picture every day for 30 days. I thought the easiness of it would be a nice break from my previous (not so easy) 30 day challenge. A week into this second 30 day challenge, I realized I wasn't enjoying it at all.  Last night I learned a really good lesson about challenges... They actually need to be challenging, or they're worthless. Go figure. (I know, it was such an epiphany.)

I made the mistake of not having a specific goal in mind when I picked this challenge. I wasn't focusing on learning new things with my camera, or taking creative pictures. Turns out that taking the challenge out of a challenge also takes all the fun out of it. I decided to save my picture a day challenge for the future when I can actually learn from it. After I take the photography classes that came with my camera, I'll do this challenge again with an actual purpose in mind. I'll be able to practice some new camera skills, and get more creative with my pictures. When I do this challenge again, I won't be using the "Auto" setting. :)

Now, on to my much more worth-while goal...

My new 30 day challenge was inspired by my sister-in-law who just posted about not letting technology distract us from being present with our kids. The original post came from a friend of hers who blogs at Clover Lane. It was such a good post. I promise it's worth reading, especially if you have kids. If you want to read the whole post, just click on Clover Lane above. If not, I'll summarize my favorite parts, starting with this quote that I want to frame for my house...

They may forget what you said, 

but they never forget how you made them feel.

Carl Buechner

She then talks about how she sometimes feels bad for our children nowadays because moms have so many opportunities to be distracted by technology: cell phones, email, internet. 

Our children know when we are really listening. They thrive off real attention...the kind where we are not just present physically, but mentally as well. 

Some of the questions she raised were definitely questions I needed to re-evaluate my answers to. The three questions that stood out to me the most were:

Do we make our children feel important when we are multi-tasking them in to our lives? 

Do they feel like a priority when they see us unavailable to them because we are on the phone, or the computer? 

Are we constantly rushing them because we have a million places to go, or a long list of to-do's? 

I know why these questions stood out to me. Guilty would be my answer to all three. I'm a little obsessed with multi-tasking, I can't sit still for more than 2 minutes. I've been way too distracted by the computer lately, and I tend to want to rush around all day long. It's time for me to simplify. 

I loved the last few sentences she ended her blog post with. "When we are not distracted all day long, we have the ability to be engaged with our families. When we are engaged with our families, we are more calm, and centered, and tuned in to our children. Our children feel worthy of our attention and love. And that's the feeling they will carry with them into adulthood, and never forget."

After reading that blog post, the new 30 day challenge I decided on was absolutely no computer time unless Boston in napping, or in bed. I started today, and I loved it. I had the urge to quickly look up a few different things (such as how to get ink off a white leather couch. Anyone know???), but I knew those small things could wait until nap time. All those little 5 second internet uses (which almost always turn into 10 minutes) can really add up to a lot of quality time missed. If they're important enough, I'll remember to look them up during nap time. 

Nothing on the computer could ever make me this happy.

Thanks to my sister-in-law for her example and inspiring blog post, and thanks to Clover Lane for writing it :)! I'm really happy and excited about my new 30 day challenge.

What's your biggest day to day distraction?  

Mine is definitely the internet, especially reading blogs.