30daychallenges

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I WON NANOWRIMO!!!! (thanks to my familiarity with 30 day challenges?) who knows! the nanowrimo 30 day challenge is COMPLETE! PARTY HARD!!!

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Where have I been?

Writing nanowrimo, going to yoga everyday, and studying my ass off until my final exam. I am going to count nanowrimo as a 30daywriting challenge by the way. The self help challenge is on official HIATUS until exams are complete on November 17. I am really sorry about that but I want to make my passing uni and my mental health my top priority and I feel like I can’t do that if I’m churning massive hours into other people’s books. 

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Nanowrimo day 5 update

I am SLAMMED by uni and work right now. Today I closed in at 7000 words (not quite the 8333 of nano today.) that's up from 3k words yesterday so I'm pretty pleased. I managed to go to yoga before work as well. So, you know, small victories.

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Day 16 - where have I been? Self help challenge Today's book - the magic of thinking big This book is written as a marketing promise of success for the American dream. It's kinda cringy that way, as I certainly don't believe anecdotal stories mean all 99% of people can rise up to the 1% if they just believe in themselves a bit more, as the author suggests. This book is a tad aged in that respect. I do like how encouraging this book is. It's well thought out, with action statements like "remind yourself that you're better than you think you are." It has a lot of exciting phrases like, "only you can do this," and "build confidence and destroy fear." That's probably the best part of this book. I like the idea of a training laboratory of other human beings. I see this book as one big pep talk. It has a lot of fable type stories. I like the one about smiling the best. "Think doubt and fail. Think victory and succeed." (I've made a number of life changes recently. Got a boyfriend, gone to plays, partied all night at Halloween, studied for finals, fallen in love with yoga. So this blog sadly hasn't been a priority. I am going to make it a priority from now on.)

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Day 15 - selfhelpchallenge I haven't posted for awhile because I was partying and binge drinking all Halloween weekend. It was exciting, but not particularly productive or emotionally healthy. So I'm reading this book. This book is about emotional health. It tends to say things most people already know, like your childhood effects your personality, emotional health is like climbing a tree. It talks about how your sense of identity is directly correlated to your emotional health. It speaks very frankly and the writing and image style is slightly perfunctory. "Simply being part of a community with shared ethical beliefs or rituals, you will gain an identity. It is not going to fix a deep lack of self. But it can help to confer a sense of who you are and how to live your life, providing a foundation for vivacity and playfulness." "Believing in genetic determinism is bad for your mental health."

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Day 14 - the daily promise I think this book would've been a bit better without the intro. It also has a bunch of adds for the author's talks in there at the start and end which after a long day seeing adds at work makes me want to vomit. Each page has an affirmation and an blurb of why to do it. It's cool that they're all I statements. I think this would be a good book to accompany meditation. There's also a watermark at the top of the page so you don't forget what book you're reading and who wrote it, in case you need to be reminded 101 times of that too. I know it's a cardinal book sin to take a scalpel to a book but that's what this book makes me want to do. I'm like a person who doesn't want to eat the crusts when it comes to consuming books. The rest of it's pretty good. It's got a cute (but not breathtaking) design sense. Today's affirmation - "I am confident. Confidence comes from within. The only person who can build your confidence is you."

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Day 13 - self help challenge This is a lovely book. It has a strong, powerful recurrent metaphor of a tomato seed. Worry is a seed and it's interesting like that. This book is written for kids and is a basic reading level. It is so deep, I suppose wise, that it's appropriate for adults as well. I don't often think about the reasons I do worry - I mostly think about what I can do to make my worries go away, which makes me even more worried if I feel like I don't have time to. My mum was always a worrier and I feel myself often slipping into a worrying mindset and tending to my worry tomato plant a lot. What I should be doing instead is tending to my hope sunflower. For my own health and the happiness of others.

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Day 12 - self help book challenge

This book made me think a lot more than I expected. It has a lot of spiralling anecdotes of other people’s stories.

It made me realise I spend a lot of time embittering the present by focusing on past mistakes and future worries. I don’t spend enough time living. This is a great book.

Very long, again. It has some great key quotes and the rest of it is just highlighting the importance of the moral. Worry is something I struggle with so I think this book will really help me out.

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Day 11 - self help challenge This review will be biased by the fact I love Bear Grylls. There is something so inspiring about someone who broke their back jumping out of a plane but still does it anyway. This book captures that enthusiastic, determined spirit he has. This book is masculine, not like many self help books. It's quite long. It has many short chapters and I think the point of it all is to find what you're stuck with in the contents and go through it. It has a lot of typical motivational phrases, like 'diamonds are forged in coal,' and 'never, never, never, give in.' This book has so much heart. It is more like explained graphic design posters turned into book than anything. It's like a motivational poster with many pages. I love this book. I want to own it. It's very, very good.

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Day 10 - the failure of success - self help challenge 'Those stigmatised may well feel that their failure predates their current circumstances - indeed was likely to be a contributory factor.' 'Society judges you by your job - how you judge yourself deep down is another matter.' This is more of an informational book about the 99% and the glamourization of the richest, most 'successful' 1%. I think it's a bit behind the times- page 12 has a Harvard-style reference to an internet link printed in the book for instance. If I'm reading a book I'm not going to visit a website mid page. It's well researched, and while being very technical and chock full of statistics and quotes, isn't written at an academic level. It reads a little like an assurance success isn't necessary, and a little like an analysis of the cultural values and identity factors behind success. It talks about shades of grey in success - winning by how much, achieving a personal best, setting benchmarks. The book is also a bit long. I don't think I'll finish it today but it is nice to pass the time.

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Day 9 - self help book challenge I don't know whether I recommend this book or not. It's a higher reading level, a bit long, and has no pictures. It's a little pseudo religious. I'm not a big fan of that. I don't like preaching. I agree with some of the concepts, like being aware of your own thoughts. It's a good book for when you want to think about the ideology of thinking. It does have some good ideas. Some of the other ideas (getting rid of all unnecessary thought for instance) are a bit iffy. However, it's not totally unreadable, and I finished it.

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Day 8 - the 40 hour workweek This book. Hmm. I can't see it working, honestly. It has some great ideas. The idea that financial freedom and being a millionaire aren't unanimous. The idea of time and money as a tool to achieve happiness rather than defer happiness. I like the question of purpose. I like the question of, "what's the worst that could happen?" Food for though.

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Day 7 - self help book challenge After work today I was absolutely exhausted, I mean destroyed. I needed something on a slightly lower reading level. This book stuck out to me. It is a self book - it has affirmations and inspiring quotes on every page. The illustrations are tasteful for the most part. Some of the design choices are slightly off kilter. For example, the cover is very kitsch. The cheap cardboard shows (but then again, it is a hardback, and it was only $10). Some of them are again, overly personalised (it's a bit of a stretch to assume the lion king is everyone's favourite movie and they all secretly enjoy one direction.) The 'love you me,' thing is a bit corny, but as George Watsky says, corniness is honesty wrapped in cliche. And this book is very honest. It has a satisfying amount of pages and they build to a fitting crescendo. It ends neatly (though I won't spoil the end.) Moreover, this book is very heart-warming and uplifting. It makes me want to be a better person.

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Self help challenge - day 6 I really like this book. I feel like I need to read it again to get a handle on some of the concepts. I love the bright yellow cover and imagining myself as a badass. I'm not a big fan of the 'source energy' stuff. I do really like the idea that happy thoughts, actions and feelings create good fortune. I like the the prompts of, "how is this a good thing?" And "how can I help my future self out?" 

I like the idea of seeing every situation as an opportunity and every struggle as a challenge rather than an emergency. I also like the thought that successful people are resilient and their doubts get so sick of their determination. Some of these chapters and quotes are quite thought provoking. Like, "what you chose to focus on becomes your reality." I never thought of life in that way before.

I think if you're going to read this book, DEFINITELY read part 2, maybe read part 4, and part 1 if you want. Some of the meditation stuff... No. Meditation's not my thing. It's not the be all or end all. I like its uses to switch off chattering thoughts and worries, and junk thoughts, but it's not something I'm interested in practicing nor should I have to practice. 

I like the thought that human brains are like fly brains, and keep slamming into the window to get outside when they need to slow down and piece things out sometimes. But a fly doesn't need to do it every day of its life, just when it's in a pickle, I think. I don't think the money chapter was quite necessary. You never know someone's relationship with money. I felt like it was trying to pressure me into feeling insecure about my financial situation. I feel like the book reccomendations at the end are a bit of a cop out.

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Day 5 - self helf book challenge! 50 positive habits

Hey guys! I’m back from exams and my phone rebelling and eating my posts. I have made the executive decision to let bygones be bygones. I’m going to finish this challenge whether I want to or not. Let’s move on.

This book has an interesting layout. There’s no preaching or rambling, which I like. It’s laid out into little chunks. I like how it breaks down goals into headings focusing on life with/without change, “why this will help”, and how often I should practice.

I did feel a little overwhelmed by the idea of incorporating all 50 project type habits into my life, especially with added habit improvements. Some of them just aren’t appropriate to my life (it’s hard to have better sex when you don’t have a boyfriend to start) and some of them I’m already pretty good at (I’m a beast at saying no.) Some of them are also contradictory with other ones (like taking more breaks but also working in bulk.) Also others are very broad (handling negative emotions for instance.)

The author and I take different stances in some areas. I feel like if I were to police myself every time I felt anything negative or failed a task I’d be a head case. Also dear author, I have a pretty low BMI and no real desire to lose weight. So I’d say the author makes the mistake in some parts that a lot of the books make in assuming the reader is exactly like them. I imagine it must be hard to navigate writing specific advice that is relatable but also impersonal and universal.

I don’t see value in some of these tasks, but others I really appreciate, like thinking in perspective, reviewing failures, and diaphragmatic breathing. I also like the blue colour scheme. I also like the fact it’s only 50 pages long (well 70 if you count extraneous bulk.)

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Day 4 - the magic of not giving a fuck This is a pretty good book. It is delightfully crass. Listing all my priorities made me realise all the things I'd been pretending to care about that I didn't care about... the nrl, Halloween, make up, what my tutors think of me. I read this last night but I was working late so I didn't post it, and I don't give a damn about that either. I'm not going to say every book is amazing. It just so happens most the books I can get past the first three-twenty pages of are pretty good. So yeah, I'd recommend this book, especially if you have anxiety.

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RESUME THE SELF HELP BOOK CHALLENGE!

Okay, so I only spent about 30 seconds deciding which I’m going to do next (lol.) As a completionist, it bugged me that I never finished the self help book challenge. I am debating on whether to start again to have it actually be 30 days of it, or to pick up where I left off. I feel like I might just pick up where I left off. That way I have a better chance of finishing it. The problem I was having was the library books cluttering up my house and pissing me off. I also don’t have the extra hours to spend commuting to the library AND reading books every day. Reading a book is a time black hole of fun, and I want to be able to balance work, study and fun.

I do like the pictures of reading an actual book as they’re more interesting and I feel like looking at the titles/screengrabs of ebooks would be boring and a bit too promotional for my tastes. 

I’m thinking, as I will mostly be reading ebooks, I’ll take photos of me reading the ebooks on my laptop, so you get to see my different set ups.

xoxo