I'm going to be honest with you. I'm a little burned out on do-goodness. August 19th is not only my 39th birthday, but also the 3rd birthday of when I started blogging about social change and nonprofit-y things, and I've hit a wall. All I want to do is read cookbooks, do yoga, and spend time with my husband.
To celebrate my birthday, I was going to start the 29-Day Giving Challenge again, but it didn't feel right. I thought about making it a 29-Day Give to Myself Challenge, but that didn't feel right either. Instead I might try a middle way: a 29-Day Giving to Others, Giving to Myself Challenge.
The first thing I'd like to give to myself is to learn about something new. It's time to set those books about green living, social entrepreneurship, and nonprofit technology aside for a little while. Michelle Murrain of the Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology pointed to an inspiring post this week in her Nonprofit Technology Link Love: Michele Martin's 10 Tips for Creating a Personal Learning Plan on the Bamboo Project Blog.
Michele recommends assessing the strengths you want to develop, the weaknesses you want to mitigate, and the skills you want to develop. Based on those lists, you brainstorm some goals you'd like to achieve, and then (this is my favorite part) 1. cross off any goals that don't make you feel excited or energized, and 2. reduce your list to just two goals.
So, my two goals for the next six months are:
1. Learn to cook one new thing each week. I just got Nigella Lawson's Feast cookbook out from the library. For all you fellow Nigella fans, Casey Ellis of Margin Notes posted a fun little 4 Questions 4 Nigella Lawson interview last month.
2. Do yoga 2-4 times a week. I used to be a yoga teacher, so I'm comfortable doing yoga on my own at home, but I would also like to try a class at the Berkeley location of Yoga to the People, and go on some kind of not too fancy, or expensive yoga retreat.
If you know of any activists, nonprofit workers, social entrepreneurs, or other changemakers who have learned to achieve a balance of giving to others, and to themselves let me know, I'd love to interview them.
Flickr Photo Credit: Father's Day Gift uploaded by Breibeest.
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