New beginnings Part III; conclusion

Readers,

this is the final of my three part grand re-opening of this blog.

to quickly summise the first two parts before i start might be helpful:

i) welcome back - sorry for long intermission. site is being re-invented and posts will be forthcoming every 10 days.
ii) the posts wil be seeking to share my experience of how i have handled a new challenge to myself over the last 10 days and what my challenge will be for the next 10 days.

iii) The last 30 odd days.

This is an idea i have had for a long time but only tried to incorporate it a day or two before january finished.

my first challenge was to wake up for the morning prayer for 10 days. it is something i have been doing on/off for the best part of two years with unfortunately probably more off days than on. in the past when i have tried to incorporate this habit into my life, i had tried to incorporate too many habits alongside it at the same time so that when i failed in one habit - the knock on effect would be stopping a whole bunch of habits.

i had great success with this.

then 10 odd days into februrary, my second challenge was to prioritise the afternoon prayer over watching television and surfing the internet. both these are huge time sinks which eat countless hours. i was wise enough it would be unrealistic to try to cut down hours spent on internet when i have nothing better to do..but wasting time on the internet is not bad if it is not prioritised over stuff i know is more important.

alhamdulillah - i was successful with this also.

then 20 odd days into february my third challenge was to prioritise maghrib prayers over internet and telly.

i achieved this also and am begining to feel it is becoming habit and eventually i should be able to instinctively turn the telly or comp off when it is time to pray.

at the start of march - i opted for something different. my mother is getting older and not as strong and active as she was - (naturally) - and she always nags me to hoover (which is fair enough) - but i rarely do it bcause she asks me at the worse times.. like when im having breakfast.... and by the time i finished what im doing.. i have forgotten. i therefore asked her how many times a week she would like me to hoover to which she said two. i then askd what days and she said sundays and wednesdays.

therefore on sunday i hoovered the whole house.... and today... i hoovered only what she told me to... ie the passage... the initial plan was to hoover the whole house sundys and wednedays... but i have strayed from that.. which i have no problem with... like i said... its not hard and fast... if the whole house needs to be hoovered twice some weeks.... i would do it.. and if sometimes it only needs a hoover every 10 days... i wont hoover.. but the motivation is there... i wake up on sunays and wednesdys now thinkin 'hoover day'.

this challenge will end on the 11th of march.. so after i have hoovered next wednesday... i will be due to add a new challenge/habit.

once the time comes, i wil be back to share what it is, what challenges i envisage and how i plan to overcome them.

till then, i hope its been as much a pleasure reading as it has been sharing.

keep the peace