The Great Purge Continues...Plus 30 Days of Brave

I'm trying to keep the momentum going on the purging so I did a few little things. Starting with this:

See that in the back of the trash can? It's the 2009 calendar that I'd been holding on to. I thought I might go through it and pick out pictures I liked and then I remembered...I have better pictures and better memories from the time I actually went to England. I let myself get over it and dumped it. It was liberating. I also went through a magazine from 2010 that had been languishing in a drawer to see if there were any articles worth saving (there weren't) so that is going in the recycle bin. The goal from now until the weekend (when I will hopefully be able to go through the large dresser) is to go through a magazine a night. This doesn't sound like a lot but when you have years of knitting and psychology magazines just stashed around it will at least make a dent in things.

In addition to continuing the Great Purge I joined an invite on Facebook called 30 Days of Brave. Here's the description/directions:

Loved one you are INCREDIBLE, loved by God and capable of much more than you imagine. Would you be brave and see just how amazing you can be?
Let's see what we can overcome in 30 days. Let's be brave. Let's set goals and throw off the chains that hold us back. Let's RUN toward the goal of living life to the fullest. For 30 days I pray we see incredible progress and inspire others as we Brave our way to new heights.

On July 7th we will begin our 30 day experiment in living full. Why July 7th? Well because who doesn't love BBQ and Fourth of July desserts! And I think it's quite fitting to celebrate our hearts out and give thanks for independence and FREEDOM!

Here's how we start:
Identify areas of growth
Set 5 goals. 3 should cover these areas- emotional, spiritual and physical
Work it for 30 days
Along with reaching our goals BE BRAVE - try do something out of your comfort zone everyday.

Share your TRIUMPHS and PROGRESS
Hashtag #30daysofbrave or post to the group.

*Tips*
1. Set realistic goals, even seemingly easy goals can get hard by week two.
2. Please refrain from specific weight loss goals. Weight loss is a side effect of healthy living, don't diet - change your habits.
3. Being brave - please keep it legal and honoring ;)

What have you got to lose?
Change is hard, being bold is hard but comfortable living is a small life. If life shrinks or expands in proportion to our courage then LET'S LIVE LARGE!
Life is too short and precious to waste it on living less than our best. So why not try?

My 5 goals are:

1. Walk outside every day for at least 20 minutes. Rationale: Being outside does something good for your soul. I'm not much of an outdoors (wo)man but I need the sunshine. The only downside to this will be if it rains.
2. Say one positive thing to a co-worker each day. Rationale: I feel like a real grump at work sometimes. If I make an effort to smile and be nice more then maybe it will do my spirit and someone else's some good.
3. Pray daily for my kids in Romania, my nonprofit, and that an application I submitted will be accepted within the next 30 days. Rationale: I pray for my kids but I want to be intentional about it. I want my nonprofit to grow so that more orphans can be impacted in a positive way. The last one is pretty self explanatory.
4. Clean up one thing/area a day that I don't normally. Rationale: Goes pretty much hand in hand with the Great Purge.
5. Do something out of the ordinary each week (go hiking, visit a new restaurant, go to a movie, get a massage, etc.). Rationale: This is really the living brave thing for me. I tend to be a homebody who prefers to sit at home and knit than get out and do. Not that there is anything wrong with sitting at home sometimes. In fact, I need to make time for that as well. But I'm much more likely to write off getting out and experiencing new things than I am staying in.

Ok...so, I'm putting this up here so that I can be held accountable for staying on point. Care to join me?