How I got out of a funk

“I’m in a funk” I said morosely to my husband. He’d heard it before from me. Sometimes I just fall into “funks”. Nothing’s wrong. In fact, I’m rarely in a funk when something’s wrong (I kind of thrive on fixing problems). I’m usually just bored and lacking motivation. Hey – I’m sure it happens to everyone, and you probably have your own definition of a funk.

Contributing more to my, for want of a better word, funky-ness, lately is the fact that I’ve been more house bound that I’m used to with the birth of my gorgeous new daughter. I adore her, but I do get a little stir crazy when trapped in the house for too long. (Don’t even get me started on how insane I went trying to work from home full time after doing/writing this: urlm.in/rzaz)

So – I was in a funk. And like I said earlier, I’m a bit of a problem solver, so I decided to try a new way of dealing with my “funk”.

Every day I work through a to do list on my calendar. At present, there are 25 different things on my “every day” list from taking certain vitamins, doing certain exercises for my constantly misbehaving back, reading a certain amount for myself and to my kids, taking a photo etc etc – as well as the other tasks that are specific to that day. What can I say – I work well with a list.

But – back the funk. To try and resolve the issue I added one extra task to the list. I don’t do it every day, just days that aren’t as “full”, days that I know I’d be more prone to falling into a funk. It is my audacious daily goal. I think I have Eric Wahl’s Unthink to thank for the idea (http://theartofvision.com/unthink - it’s a great read, check it out and also check out his cool online tool to help you uncover what kind of artist you are in the workplace http://theartworkrevolution.com/ - I’m an inventor/sculptor).

So my first audacious daily goal was to do 1000 mountain climbers (http://youtu.be/KI8u58hPam4). I had all day to do them and every time I felt a little bored or stagnant, I just hopped on the ground and did another 50 keeping track of the tally as I went. My 2.5 year old daughter thought I was insane at first and I was told sternly (as only a toddler can) to “stop doing that right now”. But by the end of the day, whenever she’d see me pop my hands down on the floor to crank out another 50, she’d join in with her own adorable toddler version which most amounted to her doing almost headstands.

Next daily goal – 2000 crunches, then 1000 calf raises then 500 tricep dips. Then I veered a little and my goal was to cook three meals from scratch in a day (I’m very undomesticated, this was a stretch for me). Then back to the more physical stuff, 200 push ups off my toes. And today’s goal – write 10 blogs (this is number 4 of 10 and I usually write just one a week).

The cool thing I’ve found? When I’ve got a goal to focus on and work on and a fixed deadline - I’m far less likely to get into a funk (so far, zero funks on audacious goal days). Second side benefit – proof positive what we as parents do in role modeling for our kids.  If my girls see me being fit, they’re going to be far more likely to do the same – likewise, when they seem me going nuts for chocolate, I think I can make the connection. Third – I’ve always known I’m the kind of person who thrives on challenge and goals. If I set myself a goal – I’m going to achieve it, even if at 11pm I’m still cranking out sit ups (hasn’t happened yet). And finally, if my goal isn’t quite enough of a stretch (my original tricep dip goal was 300) – I can simply reassess the goal and make sure it is.


Want to help me? Send me an idea for something I can use on my next audacious goal day by commenting on my blog - http://blog.kirstydunphey.com/ or emailing me Kirsty (at) kirstydunphey.com

PS - I reached my goal of 10 blogs, and, the very next day wrote two more - easily, they just came to me, and then the next day another one popped out. It seems that my rubber band of writing was stretched and found it that bit harder to go back to normal!

By Anonymous with No comments