Thursday, 9 January 2014

The Habit Factor challenge that will benefit Dress A Girl Australia

About a year ago I bought a digital copy of a book titled the Habit Factor. It is about goals and habits and how it influences our world and that the world we create probably depends on our habits. Then I bought the iphone app that allowed me to set goals, habits and activities which I used last year in my One-dress-a-day for 365 days journey. Everyday for almost 6 months(until I stopped), I would login to the app and tick the habit box whenever I finished sewing a dress.

About three weeks ago( from the Habit factor page which I follow in facebook) I found out that  there was a habit factor challenge coming up in the new year where you set up a minimum of 3 goals and what habits you want to develop in order to achieve your goals. I submitted my name to join the challenge. I  thought I would drop out from it before it started but after receiving two emails about the challenge I decided why not go on with it. I have nothing to lose and what to do if I cannot make it.  I think it was the idea that if I win, I will win an IPAD mini (I think)that made it attractive. I already have an IPAD but if I win am thinking of keeping the new one and sell my old IPAD and have more money for postage.

So here are the goals I setup for the challenge. Realistic and practical goals which I really needed to do anyway  for good health and well-being.

Goal #1 is to lose weight. Am starting to feel uncomfortable wearing my size 12 clothes that it is time to wake up and start losing some pounds. And to help me achieve this goal I need to form the habit of walking 10,000 steps a day which is about an hour and 15 minutes of walking. I did 10,000 steps a day as an office challenge (Global Corporate Challenge) about 3-1/2 years ago where for over 16 weeks I made a total of 1,720,246 steps with a daily step average of 15,497. It is like walking from Sydney to Pomeroon Supernaam wherever that is. J

Goal #2 is learn a new language and I chose Japanese. I’ve always been intrigued about Japan so the best way to learn more about the place and its people is by learning their language. The very first time I visited Japan about 12 years ago, I made sure I always had a pen and paper with me so I can draw a picture or an image to show where I wanted to go. I thought this was really funny but it was very helpful. It is not easy to find real Japanese craft shops if you cannot speak  or at least understand basic words.  I bought an iphone app (Mirai Japanese) and I think learning this new skill will take me maybe a year or more but for the sake of this challenge I need to develop the habit of learning something Japanese for at least an hour a day.

Goal #3 I think is the best part.  Save money for postage and/or Dress A Girl Australia well  and the habit I want to develop is save a gold coin a day. Imagine a gold coin for the next 365 days. That would mean a total savings of $730.00 in one year which I can donate to my fundraising campaign for a Dress A Girl well to be built in Kalagi Uganda if at the end of the year I still have not reached my goal or with $730.00 that is the equivalent of almost 7 or conservatively 6 parcels of at least 65 dresses each. A whopping 390 dresses to 390 less fortunate children anywhere in the world. 390 more happy faces in this world. And I have also worked out what I need to do and what I would be accomplishing in the next 4 weeks –

Goal #1 – By the end of 4 weeks I would have walked about 310,000 steps which hopefully would mean at least 3 kilos lost.

Goal #2 – At the rate of 4 Japanese words a day (which is the average number on the iphone app am using)  I would have learned about 124 Japanese words that I can use in a sentence

Goal #3 – Saved $62.00 . Another 3 weeks of gold coin a day I can add another $100 to my Dress A Girl well or send another parcel to India or whatever will make me happy on the day that I reach a $100. And this is how my plastic box looks like as of yesterday after starting last Monday -
So habit factor challenge….bring it on!

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