The 7 day challenge

Last Tuesday, I was sitting in the Silverton O.R. (Operating Room) lounge waiting for an intubation opportunity. I started reading these magazines titled "Whole Living Body + Soul" and came across an interesting article. A woman would tuck her children into bed and ask them to tell her one thing that made them happy that day, and it could be anything; for example her daughter said "helping mommy make dinner by helping her with the salad" was what made her happy. While reading the article, I thought, that's really neat, if I had kids I think I'd try and do something like that, and get them in a habit of focusing their thoughts on positive things, rather than letting them go to bed and think about negative things.

I realize it's easier to gripe and complain than to think about positive thoughts. It's easier to vent about things that make us mad than to give thanks about things that make us happy. Think about it, if you're running late and there's a slow driver in front of you, it's easier to complain and get mad about their driving skills and worry about how late you're gonna be than to send positive thoughts toward that slow driver.

With this in mind, I decided I would create something that would challenge me to improve my spirit, mind, and overall health.

I decided that I would do a 7 day challenge.

Every night before going to bed, I would think about my day and think of the following questions and answer them.

What is one thing I achieved today?
What is one thing that made me happy today?
What is one thing that I'm grateful for?

It could be anything.
It could be one thing. Or multiple things.

The point of the challenge is to focus on positive thinking.

When asking the question: "What is one thing I achieved today?" I begin to focus on my productivity. I gain a better sense of value of myself, knowing that I'm productive and "successful" in whatever task I set before me.

When asking the question: "What is one thing that made me happy today?" I begin to focus on positive things. This is an excellent way of avoiding negative thinking. I could probably gripe, complain and be pessimistic or whatever, but what good does that do? To dwell on negative thoughts is unhealthy. There is no reason for it. So instead, I would think of positive things, things that made me happy. It could be anything, perhaps it's the same thing I accomplished, or maybe it was something as simple as hanging out with a friend.

When asking the question: "What is one thing I'm grateful for?" I begin to focus on appreciation and thanks. I honestly think that this question is the hardest for me. Sure I could put down anything, like family, friends, life or whatever, and yes, I'm grateful for all those, but if I list something broad, there should be a specific reason behind it from some event that happened that day.


Anyway, here's what I came up with.
Monday, March 14th, 2011
One thing I achieved: Got a 93% on my final, and I watched "Alien" a movie from my "movies I want to see list"
One thing that made me happy: Passing my final with a grade in the 90 percentile range.
One thing that I'm grateful for: Excedrin Migraine Medicine.

I've noticed during this school year that my testing scores have improved a lot. I remember scoring in the low 40's, 50's, maybe even 60's on some of my quizzes, and to walk away from a 150 question test with only missing 13 (they threw out 3 questions), made me feel really good. Especially since I believe the highest score was 93% :]

As for the Alien movie...I have this list of "movies I want to see" and this year I made a resolution that I would watch at least 30 movies (but I'm shooting for 50, but I'll be happy if I get 30) from that list; I've been kinda slacking, but I'm now up to 7.

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
One thing I achieved: Got my NFPA FF1 Certificate, and I had 1 successful intubation.
One thing that made me happy: Getting one step closer to getting my "15" successful intubations requirement before internship, and getting my NFPA FF1 Certificate.
One thing that I'm grateful for: A fire department that cares about the younger generation in their pursuit for a higher education.

Truth is, I had gone through all the skills and obstacles of being a fire fighter, it was only a matter of paperwork. The paperwork finally got done though, and that Tuesday night our Training Officer got up and said "Well I do have one thing to give out, and I know she's waited a long time for this..." and proceeded in awarding me with my NFPA FF1 Certificate. Honestly it caught me off guard because I wasn't expecting it, but it felt good to have that paper...I've worked hard for it.

Also, I had 1 opportunity to get 1 successful intubation on someone who was about to go into surgery, and I was able to get it by myself (well, I asked the nurse to give me some cricoid pressure) but other than that, it was all me, and that made me feel great. Only 2 more tubes, and I'll be ready for internship.

As for the "thing I'm grateful for" I have to go into some detail about this one.
I've always had a dream of starting some sort of scholarship fund through an organization. Last year, I designed and put together a scholarship committee to award one or two scholarships to a graduating senior at Cascade High School. It was a success. This year, the volunteer association approved for the scholarship again. It's really nice to know that I'm part of a group of people that see the importance of "investing in the young people" at Cascade High School.

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
One thing I achieved: Every IV I started that day in the ER was successful.
One thing that made me happy: Stepped out of my comfort zone and bought a cupcake that had an interesting ingredient.
One thing that I'm grateful for: Life

So there's this place called "Lil's Cupcake Cafe"
It's right next to the Elsinore, and although it's a little spendy, it's actually quite delicious! I would recommend it. Anyway, Lil had these chocolate cupcakes with sea salt. Sea salt on a cupcake? Yeah, sounds kinda gross, but I decided "ya know, I really want to give it a try" and I stepped out of my comfort zone and bought one. And you know what...it was pretty good. I would recommend it, and it goes to show that you can't judge a cupcake by its name.

In fact, you shouldn't be judging cupcakes at all...they're amazing.

And for thing I'm grateful for: Life.
I specifically stated life (although it's broad) because while working in the ER that day, we had a code come in. He was only 44, which isn't old at all and luckily he came back with a pulse. The point is, when you encounter such a call, you can't help but realize how lucky you are to be alive. This guy was out fishing and collapsed unexpectedly. Goes to show it could happen to anyone; and until you actually look death in the face and are doing chest compressions, sometimes you don't realize how lucky you are, and how grateful you are to be alive.

Thursday, March 17th, 2011
One thing I achieved: Planted a tree, and cleaned most of my kitchen (I can see the stove now!)
One thing that made me happy: Saw a full rainbow
One thing that I'm grateful for: Trees

When coming home from the fire station, I looked outside my kitchen window and saw a rainbow. It was the first rainbow I've seen this year, and it was a full rainbow. Usually I see only half of the rainbow, but this one was full, from end to end, and even had a second one starting to develop on top...I thought it was appropriate, seeing that it was St. Patrick's Day :]

Friday, March 18th, 2011
One thing I achieved: Cleaned my big fish tank, tidied up my living room, and organized my "tool" drawer in my kitchen.
One thing that made me happy: Got to sleep in.
One thing that I'm grateful for: A place of my own.

I spent most of the day cleaning my house and organizing. Although I still live on my parent's farm, I don't live with them, and I can say I have a place of my own. My own little house. Sure it's small, but it has everything I need. I've enjoyed living here and I realized today as I was sitting here in my living room, watching my fish swim in their tank, listening to a movie play in the background, looking into my kitchen and seeing the progress I'm making in it, and seeing the wood all stacked nice and neat next to the fire place, that I'm really coming to appreciate a place of my own...my own little home.

Saturday, March 19th, 2011

One thing I achieved today: Got some sign-offs for my NFPA Driver certificate.
One that that made me happy: Helped give a 5 year old a great birthday experience
One thing that I'm grateful for: Hot water

I'm not quite sure about all the details, but our fire department helped out with some silent auction fund raiser at some school and the highest bidder got a birthday party at the fire station. Honestly, I was kinda dreading the day because I get nervous around kids (I'm afraid I'll break one or something). We had about 20 kids show up, all around the magical age of 5, and in all honesty...it was really fun. We shuttled some kids around town in our fire engine, we let them climb into our fire truck and check out all the "fire toys" and we let them spray water out of the fire hose and knock over some cones...we then set off our deck gun on our engine and all the kid's mouths dropped in awe as they saw all the water go over the building. I'm not quite sure who had more fun, the kids or the parents (especially when you see 6 parents and 2 kids unload from the fire truck ride and you can't help but think "isn't it supposed to be the other way around" lol) In the end, the parents kept saying "this will be a birthday they'll always remember" and I hope that's true for most of them. I'm glad I could help be a service to them, and I'm also hoping some seeds were planted, and in about 15 years I'll be seeing some familiar faces volunteering with us.

As for the one thing I'm grateful for...we finally reset my hot water heater. I never realized how much I appreciated hot water and indoor plumbing.

Sunday, March 20th, 2011
One thing I achieved today: Helped finish a ramp for someone who needed it.
One that that made me happy: Potluck
One thing that I'm grateful for: Community

For the past few weeks, our fire department has been secretly building a ramp for one of Turner's citizens. She's an elderly woman with cancer that is now wheelchair bound. She couldn't come home until her house had a wheel chair ramp available. During the past 3 weekends, we raised the deck about 6 inches from the ground and built a ramp to the side of the house. In the end, we were able to step back in silence and appreciate good craftsmanship and know that we made a difference in the life of this lady and her husband, who we know will be truly blessed by it.

As for the one thing I'm grateful for....call me a hippie or whatever, but I've always liked the feeling of community, and the feeling of being a "whole" and helping one another out in a time of need...in fact, it doesn't always have to be in a time of need, it could be in a time of celebration or fellowship. Today I got to experience that feeling twice. Once was at church, the other was during the ramp project. I've come to know the people from my church as a second family, and the people from the fire station as a third family, and it was nice to share the day with everyone.






Well, I had fun with this 7 day challenge. It was like a mini-transformation in some ways. I honestly feel healthier; I feel more balanced between my mind, spirit and body. I'm glad I did it.

If you feel bold, try the 7 day challenge, start today and when you fall asleep at night just ask yourself those 3 questions. Try it for a few days and see how it affects you. Try not to focus on anything negative; sure I had a few bumps here and there (like when my computer crashed on Sunday and I couldn't help but scream, yell and maybe hit it a few times because I lost an important document) and I believe letting out anger in a controlled way is healthy (ok maybe hitting the computer wasn't really "controlled" but at least I didn't break it) but the important thing is I didn't dwell on it for too long and instead focused on the positive things that happened that day.

Give it a try...I dare.