Happy Sunday Crickets, today’s post marks the end of the fourth week of Operation Achieve Anything, and even though I may come across as resistant, if not dismissive toward some of the assignments, I’d say that the overall challenge is still going strong. To be clear though; when I do take issue with an assignment, it’s usually because I’ve either attempted a task in the past and didn’t see the benefits, or just see things a different way.

When I do run across assignments that I take issue with, I always try to share why I disagree, but at the same time, I also do my best to play along and complete the assignment anyway. More often than not, I agree with the overall intentions and general concepts; sometimes I just get a little frustrated by how the book seems to oversimplify how some of it’s prescribed practices will lead to positive results.

I get it though. The book is supposed to motivate people so it wouldn’t make sense to highlight how some struggles will always be there. Then again, I’m a person coming into the project with mood disorders which may lead to mental hang-up that a healthy headed person doesn’t have to deal with, at least not to the extremes.

Hopefully, I’m making my issues clear whenever they come up and am not just coming across as someone dragging their feet to set myself up for failure. As I said, even when I disagree with the delivery of the message, I usually agree with the overall concepts and have yet not to play along. It seemed like last week had a lot of assignments that triggered this response which is why I’m addressing it now.

Yesterday’s assignment didn’t fall into this frustrating category because it was more action based toward achieving the actual goal than a self-help effort filled with bumper-sticker talk about what it takes to be happy. For this assignment, I was supposed to create a list of three ways that I can create an opportunity in my life instead of waiting for one to magically arrive.

Here’s what I managed to come up with:

1. I’ve had an idea for a website that I’ve been throwing around in my head but have been waiting to create on my own, but it’s low on my list of priorities. I also have a friend who I’ve seen posting similar concepts on social media who may have more interest in getting it done. I want to create this site because I want to use the service and not necessarily be the site’s creator but would love to be a part of the development process. Even if this leads nowhere at all, I’m going to contact this friend to see if there is any interest in working together toward turning this idea into a reality.
2. I’m in desperate need of a creative partner. Not necessarily a collaborative partner, but someone with a creative mind to be each other's second set of eyes and sounding boards to help one another work through complex creative concepts. I have a couple of ideas how to reach out in an effort to find this person; I just need to work up the nerves since I’m not good at reaching out especially when dealing with strangers.
3. I’m stealing this one from the book because I have grown to be in the worst shape of my life since moving home from Seattle. Even if I just get back into a walking routine, I need to create an opportunity that will lead to a healthier me which also might help me be less anti-social if I don’t hate the way I look.

Though I really should, and probably will end up working on all three of the above-listed ideas, the assignment for the book is to choose just one to get started on by the end of the week. Hopefully, the Achieve Anything… book will ask for an update on my efforts to remind me to update you all because there have been tasks like this in the past where the book sets a time frame to accomplish a goal only to have zero follow through to make sure that you get things done.

I know that it’s my job to make sure that I complete all of the book’s assignments but since these assignments come daily, it would be nice to get a reminders from time to time for these tasks that take more than a day to complete. I’m pretty sure that I’ve let at least one or two ongoing assignments fall by the wayside simply because I forgot to finish them or didn’t provide an update since I had no place to fit one in.

Today’s assignment falls back into the bumper-sticker encouragement genre since the basic lesson is to “Live every day like it’s your last.” To achieve this, I’m just supposed to truly enjoy all of the activities that I get into today.

This is another assignment and overall concept that I take issue with after years of putting it into practice. I will go more into the details of how this over-used adage can be quite damaging if taken literally, when I check in with tomorrow’s update. Until then, it’s once again that time where I say, good day and good luck to you and all of your projects.

Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,

The Wicker Breaker

P.S. Below are links to my novel, which I plan to promote as part of Operation Achieve Anything, as well as a link to where you can buy the book that is providing the structure to this project in case you would like to purchase it in order to play along.