12 Key Lessons From 12 Simplicity Challenges

Inside: In this post, I am sharing 12 top lessons I learned from narrowing my focus in order to simplify my life.  I will share how you can simplify your life by completing a one year challenge and take the first steps to simplify your life, no matter if you live in a home or an apartment.  With these tips, you’ll learn how to simplify your life and be happy!  Click over to read this great post now!  Plus download a FREE guide to develop your own S.M.A.R.T. goals and narrow your focus today..

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links.  Click here to read what that means.

During 2018 I challenged myself to complete 12 simplicity challenges and I am happy to report that I completed all 12!  While I didn’t achieve the exact results I set out to accomplish, I did learn a ton about myself in the process.  I learned what areas I want to focus on in the coming year, and what areas I am comfortable where I am at.

During this post, I will share 12 key lessons I learned by completing 12 simplicity challenges.  Some of them may surprise you!  (They surprised me!) You’ll notice some pertain to one specific challenge and some pertain to the series of challenges as a whole.

I hope you are inspired to give a simplicity challenge a try for yourself. It’s a fantastic way to try something on for a short period of time and not get overwhelmed by making a huge commitment.

Keep reading to the end to learn how to implement your OWN simplicity challenges!  

Hint: I have an amazing resource that will help!

I offer suggestions for making this your own. We are all at different places on this journey so it’s important to take every tool, book or blog post and tweak it to fit our own personal situation and place in time in order to have the most positive impact on our lives.

WAIT A MINUTE, WHAT IS A SIMPLICITY CHALLENGE?

At the start of this year, I wrote that I won’t be sharing any big year-long goals on the blog.  Rather, I decided to choose an anchor word for the year and then challenged myself to accomplish 12 smaller, more bite-sized goals.

My hope was that these 12 bite-sized goals would help me to simplify my life and encourage me to continue on my journey of living a more intentional life.  The term “Simplicity Challenge” was born and I shared each of these challenges here on the blog!

A Simplicity Challenge is a great way to get out of your comfort zone and shake things up a bit.  I think we all tend to stick to what we know and what we are comfortable with.  These challenges are a great way to learn about yourself and grow in ways you hadn’t thought about before.

Click here to see a list of all the Simplicity Challenges I completed this year.

I used the S.M.A.R.T. goal system to come up with these Simplicity Challenges.  As a refresher, S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

>> You can grab your free S.M.A.R.T. goal worksheet here! <<

Now, that you know WHAT a Simplicity Challenge is and some of the challenges I completed this year, let’s take a look at the lessons I learned along the way.

12 KEY LESSONS FROM 12 SIMPLICITY CHALLENGES

Variety is the spice of life.

I loved that the challenges were all different, focused on different aspects of a simplified life, different types of challenges, and had different outcomes. I liked that some were doing something every single day, while others were more about the process during the month.

A Common Theme Arose.

While the challenges were all different, they all had a common thread of focusing on my word of the year, BREATHE. By having this word to focus on, the challenges that I chose also in some way or another had to do with breathing.

What I learned about breathing through completing these Simplicity Challenges:

• When I take a few minutes each day to bring awareness to my breathing I am much calmer the rest of the day.
• I like to get my heart rate up at least a couple times per week and learned how to ensure I get exercise in my day amidst a busy schedule and family life.
• Decluttering has a ton to do with making breathing room in my life and home. Note: The Mins Game is a great first step.

One Challenge Per Month Helped Me Narrow My Focus.

I enjoyed having a focus for each month and making SMART goals helped to ensure that I was able to work towards achieving what I set out to accomplish.

I wasn’t perfect, and that is ok!

With that being said, I wasn’t perfect and that is ok! I didn’t meet all of the goals 100%, but that is totally ok. I made changes in myself and that is what is important.

Change is hard!

Need I say more??

Habits take time to develop.

Sometimes it can take longer than 30 days.  By limiting my Simplicity Challenges to 30 days I was able to learn what areas I want to circle back to in the coming months or years.

Accountability was key!

There were so many times that I wanted to throw in the towel, but knowing that my readers on the blog and social media were following my journey kept me going forward!  So, thank you!!! 🙂

A community is contagious.

I had soooo much fun doing the 10-Minute Decluttering Challenge, mostly because it was so much fun to see what everyone else was able to accomplish. I am working on making this into a FREE e-mail course. Click here to sign up for the waitlist and I’ll send it to you as soon as it’s ready!

You can accomplish a LOT in 30 days.

Especially when you focus on one thing at a time.

Some Areas Need More Work.

There are certain topics that I am excited to learn more about and continue to implement. One area is mindfulness. I can already see the benefits of practicing mindfulness, even without having a formal meditation practice. Another area is more decluttering! Decluttering is an ongoing journey and I think the more you declutter, the more you learn about yourself and what is considered enough. You may be fine with a certain amount of stuff at one point, but then realize you want to declutter even more later on, and that is ok!

Some Areas I Am Comfortable With Where I’m At.

On the other hand, there are certain areas that I am not as concerned about….for example, fitness.  I am relatively active and I have learned how to fit exercise into my lifestyle as a busy working mom.

And last but not least, simple living looks different for everyone.

As I have been working on these challenges this year, I have also read about other people’s journeys and met with other bloggers in the simple living community. And we are all unique and at various points along our journey. I absolutely love that! Everyone is so supportive and willing to share what they have learned along the way. I love being part of this community!

Will I do these challenges again next year? While I won’t do it exactly the same, I do see myself having different areas that I will focus on. I think more decluttering will be at the forefront!

WOULD YOU LIKE TO COMPLETE YOUR OWN SIMPLICITY CHALLENGES?

There are two main ways to complete your own simplicity challenges: sign up for Courtney Carver’s “A Simple Year” program or DIY your own challenges!

A Simple Year Program

What is it: This is a year-long program that covers one area of simplicity each month.  Topics range from decluttering, capsule wardrobes, food, and relationships, just to name a few.  These modules are taught by some of the leading experts in the simple living community; folks that I look to for inspiration and guidance and who sparked my interest in simplifying my life in the first place.

Pros: The pros of completing this program are that the monthly focus areas are already picked for you.  You would simply need to decide how you want to set up your challenge and what you want to accomplish for the month.  For example, on the decluttering module, you could challenge yourself to complete The Mins Game.  These challenges are not part of the program itself, but it will provide guidance and tools to be successful in each focus area.

As an added bonus for using my affiliate link to sign up for the course, I’ll send you my Simplicity Challenges Workbook as a FREE bonus!  This workbook will help you set up your own challenges and really make the most of your enrollment in the program.  Just send me an email (tara@idreamofsimple.com) with your receipt and I’ll send you the workbook!

>> Click here to learn more and sign up for “A Simple Year” program <<

Cons: The most obvious con is that this program is an investment.  While I think the program is absolutely worth the investment (I completed it in 2017), I would not recommend this route to anyone who cannot afford it.

Do-It-Yourself Simplicity Challenges

The other way to focus on one area of simplicity each month is to set up your own monthly challenges, similar to what I did this year. This is more of a DIY version since you do not have the structure from A Simple Year, but this may be a better option for you if you want to really tailor the challenges to your specific circumstances.

Pros: You can structure the challenges to fit your life and the specific areas you need to focus on.  You are not limited to the areas that A Simple Year offers.

Cons: On the other hand, if you choose the DIY path you do not have the structure or guidance that A Simple Year offers.  The experts provide a wealth of knowledge and Q&A sessions that are worth so much in terms of what you gain.

Follow the steps below and you’ll be on your way to a successful DIY Simplicity Challenge:

• Articulate why you want to simplify your life. Read this post if you need help articulating your why.
• Brainstorm a list of areas you’d like to focus on this coming year.  You are more than welcome to choose the same topics I chose, but there may be something else you’d like to focus on and that is totally ok! 
• Think through your year and plot out when you’d like to focus on each area of simplicity.
• Then think about what you want each challenge to look like! I would encourage you to think through each one now, even if it’s just a list of bullet points. You don’t necessarily need to have all the details, but thinking through the general challenge will be super helpful when the month comes.  This is where the S.M.A.R.T. goals system comes into play.

An example S.M.A.R.T. goal would be: I will practice gratitude by writing down three things I am grateful for every evening before bed.  Click here to see all the challenges that I completed this year.

• Have some kind of accountability. Like I said above, accountability helped push me forward when I wanted to give up so many times. Will you post on social media? Tell a close friend? What you do is up to you but accountability will help ensure you follow through with your goals.
• Finally, set a reward for achieving each individual challenge and then set a reward for the end of the year! Knowing what you are working towards will help to keep you moving forward!

“You can’t go back to change the beginning but you can start where you are and change the ending.”

WHAT WILL BE YOUR FIRST (OR NEXT) SIMPLICITY CHALLENGE?