In The Next 30 Days

A 30-Day Challenge Closer to Brighter, Shinier, & Happier.

April 1st, 2013

Love Letters Day 1

Happy new 30 Days! I’m pretty excited about this challenge.

Here’s the back story. A couple of weeks ago, Greatist posted their list of the 50 Most Innovative Health, Fitness, and Happiness Startups. It’s a killer list with some amazing resources for to be your healthiest and greatist. I was reading the list, and when I hit No. 40, MoreLoveLetters, my heart jumped with joy. This company is all about love and spreading love to people who need it in the form of hand-written letters. Letters can be specially requested and sent to the MLL headquarters or they can be left in public places to be picked up by the people who need them most. And we’re not talking mushy-gushy lovey letters that you’d send on Valentine’s Day. We’re talking letters that are truly encouraging, totally heartfelt, and creatively written.

Did I mention I’m excited about these 30 Days? I mean, this is so my kind of personal challenge because I am going to write a love letter every day, either to the people on the MLL web site or to the unknown people in my life to say thank you, to really celebrate the love in my heart and the world, and to cheer for those who need it most. This challenge feels like a continuation of my Random Acts of Kindness and Be Positive challenges, and we all need a little more love in our world.

Would you like to join me? If you want to write letters with me, that would be great, but remember you’re welcome to work on any 30 Days that makes your heart beat faster. Do what you love, and share how you’re challenging yourself.

Link Up for These 30 Days

You can link up here. Let’s share our adventures and motivate each other. I’m excited to see what you all are up to, and remember this is all about supporting our experiences and making positive changes in our lives and the world around us.

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Share your 30 Days on your site and link up here!

Tags: Greatist, letter, link up, MoreLoveLetters, These 30 Days, write
Posted in 30 Days | Love Letters | 2 Comments »

March 25th, 2013

Get to Know Me Day 25 | My Mega Rad, Mega Colorful Weekend

You guys! I had such a fun Saturday. I ran the Color Me Rad 5k here in Charleston. And while I don’t typically do weekend recaps, I have to share this with you.

I don’t consider myself a runner. I’ve told you that before. I’m not built like a runner. I don’t love running like some people do. I run because it’s good exercise. It’s good for my body. And it’s hard for me to find an excuse not to tie my shoes and go out in the evenings. But if every day that I went running someone coated me with dyed cornstarch, I might really love to run.

That’s the concept of the Color Me Rad. It’s not really a race for the serious racer. Really. It’s kind of hard to breathe efficiently when there’s a lot of cornstarch in the air, no one at the race has a stop watch, and the race attracts a lot of people just looking to get dirty in a fun way. But that’s the deal. It’s an event centered around having fun. Go run, get colored, and have fun. If you want to run, great. If you want to walk, that’s cool too. Just make sure you have fun while you do it.

My friend Terri and I ran in the first wave of runners. We started with white shirts and clean faces. (And check out my Greatist tattoo because well, I’m a Greatist.) We ran through each of the five color stations with our arms up, cheering, smiling. We finished in 30 something minutes. And I ended up, well, you can see what colors I ended up in the pictures. I was the Anna version of Rainbow Bright.

Do you want to know the best part? I had fun running. I want to run more, and for me that’s monumental.

Color Run 2 Get to Know Me Day 25 | My Mega Rad, Mega Colorful Weekend

photo 10 Get to Know Me Day 25 | My Mega Rad, Mega Colorful Weekend

So tell me, what’s your favorite workout? Or better yet, what’s your favorite way to get dirty?

Tags: Color Me Rad, Greatist, run
Posted in 30 Days | Getting to Know Me | 2 Comments »

February 27th, 2013

Find Creativity Day 27 | Things to Try When You’re Stuck (‘Cause I’m Stuck)

I’ve had a hell of a week. I went to Arkansas for a funeral. I loved on my extended family, chewed a lot of bubble gum (it’s what my Mimi wanted), laughed, cried, and came home to my sweet kiddos and a broken heater. I’ve got a bit of a cold, and I’m missing my yoga. I’m a bit desperate to get caught up with the Downtown Abbey I’ve missed. (No spoilers, please.) Creativity is kind of elusive for me, right now. I’m not afraid to say it out loud.

Sometimes, when I get stuck, sometimes if find myself staring randomly at a search engine, feeding it search terms that are overly specific and not terribly helpful. Do you do this too? I type something like, “How do I spark my creativity when I get stuck in a slump?” And I get back a million results that aren’t really what I need. And that’s about when I remember super sites like Greatist.

I found Greatist’s article “36 Surprising Ways to Boost Creativity for Free.” Awesome, right?

There are some really great suggestions here. And they’re great not because they answer my question, but more because some of them are specific and instantly applicable: meditate, write by hand, have a drink, literally sit outside the box, or laugh. And some of the hacks are long-term solutions: don’t expect perfection, travel abroad, or spend some time alone.

I’m going to try to apply some of these solutions into my daily life to see what can come of it. After all, anything that moves me one step closer to Great is certainly worth it.

Tell me, what are your hacks that help you be more creative? I REALLY want to know.