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My Personal Challenges Are off to a Rocky Start
Gavin St. Ours | Monday, June 14, 2010 at 10:44 AM
I started two experiments last week, which I talked about on my last podcast episode. The goals are to go a month without eating out or watching television. The ideas seemed simple and I hoped they would save me money and open up hours of time for creativity and productivity.
Over the course of one weekend, I've already broken all my rules. This is going to be a lot harder than I thought.
I think I picked the absolute worst possible set of 30 days to try these experiments. Almost immediately, I added an exception to the "no TV" rule for World Cup games. I still think that's a valid exception, seeing how the World Cup comes around once every four years. But that somehow acted as a gateway to me watching five episodes of Mad Men this weekend, too.
Simultaneously, I failed on the "don't eat out" front. Like the World Cup, I was lured away from my goal (Ha!) of avoiding restaurants and saving money by Dukem, an amazing Ethiopian restaurant in Mt. Vernon. I justified the expense and violation of my newly-formed rule with two excuses. First, I was out with friends. Second, it was Friday and the first day of the World Cup. If those weren't reasons to celebrate, I reasoned, nothing was.
The floodgates opened. It was Honfest in my neighborhood all weekend, and my willpower succumbed to the food vendors. Guilty and slightly depressed about failing, but also angry at myself for choosing the most inconvenient month for these experiments, I went home and sunk a few more hours into World Cup viewing, mentally re-writing the rules to add an "except on weekends" clause to my rules.
But this morning, with renewed resolve, I'm tackling my goals again. I will bring my lunch with me to work every day. Episodes of Mad Men and the queue of TV shows I have lined up on Netflix will have to wait. I'm going to cook for myself every night. The take-out menus have been placed out of sight to prevent further lapses.
Sure, I stumbled hard this first weekend. But for the rest of the 30 days, I'm going to buckle down, focus, and see if I can spend more time creating things while wasting less money and time.
Except for World Cup games. I'd hate myself for skipping those.
Oh, and new episodes of Futurama, of course.
I'm screwed.
Food and Drink, Personal, Sports, Television | tagged Dukem, Futurama, Honfest, Mad Men
Reader Comments (6)
I think that World Cup games should be excepted, definitely. Maybe stipulate that you must watch them in a public place? If you go to a bar to watch a World Cup game, you are really participating in a Life Event, not just watching TV.
My two cents:
1. Don't do them at the same time. That's too sucky. Try no TV for a month in the summer and no restaurants for a month in the winter. I'll bet you'll have much better success that way.
2. Read Cathy Erway's book The Art of Eating In. I interviewed her about it, and it's a brilliant read.
Damn Amber, you're right. Two at the same time is pretty torturous. Although I did make a kick-ass dinner for myself. I feel like I'll have better luck with both crazy goals during the week than I did during the weekend. Still, you're probably right, I should kick TV when it's nice outside, and cook more to stay warm.
And I loved your interview with Cathy Erway! I'll pick up her book this week.
Thanks for the suggestions and tips, smarty-pants.
Forget what Amber said. You should do those things and commit to running 30 marathons in 30 days. And do everything else. Go!
See, the problem with quitting things cold turkey is that you end up craving them because it's a shock to the system. Any addict (yes, you're an addict to TV and eating out if you feel the need to "quit" them) knows that you step down gradually from your addiction, rather than all at once so the withdrawal is lessened. Yeah, it takes more time, but in the end it not only shows you're more committed, but that you have actually conquered the challenge.
If you're just doing this to prove that you can commit to something, then you're on your own, brotha.Try again. This time...no excuses. THERE IS NO FAIL!
You guys are the best cheering section ever. (Except for Rob. Rob is a jerk.) Now that the World Cup is over (another excuse!) I can take another stab at it. Thanks for the encouragement!