Read a book over 500 pages. The goal here is to dig in. To crush a good book and learn something along the way. I choose 500 pages because it is longer than most books and its just outside of reach for an easy 5 hour read. Most books are I would say around 200-300 pages. Of course this is my complete guess and it varies dramatically on genre, author, non-fiction or fiction and many other factors. However, I thought that 500 pages had the mental hesitation impact as almost undoable if your incredibly busy, but a goal that is reachable even if you knock out an hour before bed. Or say 30 mins in the morning, 30 mins at night. Or during your lunch break. If you are super crafty, maybe you'll throw on an audio book while driving to work. I don't care how you read it, just read a book over 500 pages. Just think, it could have been 1,000. If you start the book and find you don't like it, then stop and start another, just remember the week timeline doesn't change. All you have to do is complete one task in the entire week. Easy enough?
Bonus Challenge: Use a kettle bell in every single work out this week. A few swings, a complex, as a weight for different movements, whatever.
REFLECTION: I finished at 11:11 on Saturday night! I completed it and I was stoked. I was sitting around the camp fire while all my friends were drinking and having a good time. They were making fun of me while I sat there unamused and focused. I felt completed. I hope you had the same feeling. I really didn't think I was going to finish this one. Monday through Wednesday I would start to read before I went to bed. My problem was I was tired from the day and would fall asleep with the light on and book on my chest. I would wake up at 4am with the light on and confused where I was. Then realized what happened and would feel disappointed in myself because I would only get through maybe 5% of my book. ( I was reading on a kindle.) But if you do some quick math 15% on Wednesday really wasn't on track to finish that big of a book by Saturday. I started to carry around a hard copy of the book as well and read that every chance I got. In the waiting room of the dentist, at work on break (or maybe when I was bored..) or at a stop light, I had no limits. Then I would get back on the kindle when I got home and crush some more pages. I did know I had a secret weapon in my pocket though. I had Friday. Now most of you probably didn't have a Friday like mine in your week, so we can say that I had a definite advantage. Friday was my flight day. I flew home from Virginia to California and was in the air or sitting in an airport most of the day. My face was in my book. I rarely talked to people, I didn't look up, and everything that I did, I had my book in my hand. I finished over two thirds of it that day. Then I read some that night in my tent as I was camping in Zephyr Cove Resort in Lake Tahoe. Then came Saturday. I read a little in the morning, a little in the afternoon in the comfort of my hammock and finished strong in front of the campfire. It was a rough one, but I got the job done. It was fun and I learned a tremendous amount from my book. Oh by the way I read, "A Short History of Nearly Everything, " by Bill Bryson. It was deep and really made you think about what's important and how short this life in front of us. We better start making everyday a great one because those asteroids come flying in and we would have no time to say I love you.
I would love to hear about your book and your struggles and insights from the week. Please let me know while we get prepared for this next week!