Rest: The Craziest Challenge Of All

 Happy 2023........ five months late.....

Yeah, so let's talk for a minute. It should be no surprise at this point, but I am not doing any challenges this year. Ok, so that's not 100% true. I am going to keep doing some of the stuff like the Best Picture Challenge, No Place Like Movies At Home, and the Tom Hanks Hustle. I will be doing these when I get the chance, or when the opportunity comes up for me to do them. 

So, here is what happened. I usually get hit by inspiration for the next challenge like right int he middle of the year. This is use the rest of the year to finish the challenge(s) that I am doing in the current year, and then I also world out all of the kinks that I can foresee on the upcoming challenges. Well, at about November of 2022 I realized that I didn't have anything planned. I will tell you that I tried so hard to make something, anything, work for my challenges this year. I really tried to make something happen. I tried to push the issue. However, nothing that I was coming up with was working out. I then go stressed because I was so far behind! I know that I have all of the challenges from last year finally posted, but I have been writing the last six in the last month! I got really burnt out by all of the pressure that I was putting on myself, while trying to do other things that I was very clearly more interested in. 

I even started doing once of the challenges at the start of this year but it died very quickly. 

So, after taking a few weeks to get my head right, and wallow in my own self pity because I felt like I failed, I realized that I very much needed a huge break. So, I am going to take the year off of doing more challenges, except for the ones listed above, and see what happens. Do I hope that I will get hit with inspiration again soon and prep for the challenges next year? Yes. Do I know with 100% certainty that this is going to happen? No. 

I have been full speed ahead of these challenges over the last few years but not doing one has been very weird and very helpful so far this year. I have other dreams that I am wanting to pursue that have come to me in the last few month, and not having the weight of a challenge on my shoulders has really helped me to understand this new dream. It's something that I can actually focus on and really throw myself into without having to add it to the current load. 

I am the type of person that needs to keep going. I am always on the move and going somewhere and doing something. Not having a challenge was something that really made me crazy at the start of the year. Rest is a four letter word for me. It's so hard to stop and rest. However, it's also biblical. In the old testament the Bible talks about how the field that the you grow your crops in are changed every year. You don't plant that same crop in the same field two years back to back, and on the 7 year or your harvest you don't use the crop at all. Well, 2023 is the seventh year that I have been doing these challenges. So, 2023 is going to be a Sabbath year of rest for these challenges. Has it been very weird to not keep up with doing a blog monthly, or making sure I have time to get everyone done really quick? Absolutely. However, I have had so much on my plate this year that I really haven't missed the challenges. I miss them but like I don't feel like that I have gone without of that I don't have enough to do without them. 

So, far the thing I can say that I have learned the most about this year is the rest is not bad. Not doing something doesn't mean that you are not doing enough, it means that you are learning on what needs to take a priority in your life. That just because you can do something doesn't mean you should add it to you plate. That taking a breath and saying "I love doing this but I just can't" is perfectly ok. 

It means hopefully next year, when I am able to get back to this, that I will come back better, ready, and much improved on how to execute my challenges. I have no idea what is in store for the rest of this year, but I'm excited to see where God is going to lead me and why he had me take a break.