The following message was sent to the Facebook event participants of 21-Day Detox Challenge – Mind, Body & Spirit on Day 4 or our journey. All previous messages can be found here. The Facebook event is here and the video introduction is here. You can still join – we began on October 18th – but you can start at any point and do the program as prescribed.
Hello Wonderful You!
We’re on Day 4 of our journey and we must have a frank conversation. 🙂
How are you doing? I know for me this detox has been a real challenge in some and really fun in other ways too.
In talking about it with several people a few themes popped out. I think you’ll find parts of this message very encouraging and the frankness of other parts might be annoying. Brace yourself!
Here’s the first thing: Some people spent some time being overwhelmed and literally afraid to start. Why? Because they thought there would be SO many new things to start doing each day. But when we went down the list of challenges, they quickly realized that many of the things were being done daily or very often. That was very encouraging for them. (See quick list of challenges here – 21 Day Detox Chart )
The lesson here – don’t let emotions guide you towards inactivity. Fear, anxiety, doubt are all powerful stop signs. They stop action, they stop living, they stop all that is good.
Feeling ‘something’ is NOT enough reason to stop you from living.
Where a state of overwhelm exists, replace it with inquiry. Look into what you are anxious about, face the fear and walk right through it. It’s the best way to grow.
Some great mind said, “courage is not the absence of fear, it’s taking action in spite of it.”
So if this is you…if you are concerned about the amount of challenges this detox includes, look over the list and see if you don’t find that you already do many of these things on a regular basis.
The other question that keeps popping up is this “can’t I just do some or even most of these challenges?”
Of course you can.
If you commitment was to do a chosen set of challenges, then go for it. You’re keeping your word.
If however you committed to doing THE DETOX – which would be all 21 challenges concurrently, then deciding now to pick and choose won’t get you the results you sought.
It would actually be better to NOT do the detox in a partial way if you committed to the complete thing.
Here’s why: whether we are aware of it or not, we are constantly reinforcing or creating habits. Some are not helpful others are. If you have a tendency toward starting and not finishing, committing and not completing and generally being inconsistent in your actions, getting involved in more activities that reinforces that behavior will only make it harder to break those bad habits when you are truly ready to commit.
In essence, if you continue to do this detox at a partial level of commitment (doing some of the challenges, some of the time) when your INTENTION was to fully commit, you will be making it harder to eventually create the habit of self-discipline and consistency because you are reinforcing the opposite.
If you are struggling with the challenges, barely getting them done, you will be best served if you take one of these 3 actions:
- Change you commitment – with your self, on paper and with your accountability partner and decide which specific challenges you will take on fully and completely, OR
- Step away from the challenge **big voice** and do it at a later date – when you can fully commit, OR
- Do the forgiveness ritual – FORGIVE YOURSELF for all that is undone with this challenge to date and move forward…starting with Day 1 (remember, 21 consecutive days of consistent action will create a new habit, in this case MANY new habits with the main one being SELF-DISCIPLINE!)
Honoring this process, as with any well-thought out system of activities will have the desired outcomes. We have to humbly submit to a process, work it as intended if we hope to reap the benefits that are built into it.
In our micro-wave approach we tend to seek quick and easy results; devoting 21 days to challenge our self in ways that stretch us and pull us, is rare and admirable.
If you took this on, finish it and you will be so THRILLED that you did when day #21 rolls around.
If this detox is one you know has the potential to take your life to a whole other level of joy, productivity, consistency, abundance and peace…then by all means, hang in there and take it just one day at a time.
Do the challenges for just one day…and then another, and another…
Wishing you an ABUNDANT supply of strength and resolve,
Julette Millien
♥~
That ritual may seem simple but it is so so powerful! Thanks Chris. 🙂
This is comforting because I was definitely feeling overwhelmed. I have forgiven myself…http://julettemillien.com/2010/08/ really helped!!!
Thanks