… Yeah, I have no idea. I’m sure it is the National Week of Something, but I don’t know what that is. These kind of things are like solar eclipses – you only know about them when someone mentions it to you all obscurely in passing and then acts completely shocked you didn’t know, when they probably only found out three minutes ago by overhearing someone in a public bathroom. (I mean, the things you learn in a public bathroom…)
There is a reason to this heading though. Before I came up with my quest for 100 rejections, I thought this new year, with its brand new decade, would be the perfect time to start a challenge – a fun, seemingly innocent, not going to get out of hand or too big for its boots in any shape or form at all idea.
I mean, it seemed like a really great one at the time. And yes, since then I have decided to take on the 100 Rejections Quest, which, yes, is a pretty big new challenge for the year all on its own. But that’s a hardwork kind of challenge, and it’s fairly personal to me. Whereas this other idea would add interest and variety and set definitive memory markers for the year – more importantly, it is a lot sillier and something anyone could do or join in with.
You know, should anyone I know be crazy enough to want to.
It was kind of too late anyway, because this first idea had already sprouted legs and run off, all brand new and nakey-fied, and I don’t have the heart to grab it back and stuff it down into a box to probably never see the light of day again. If we’re doing this, we’re doing it now.
So I guess 2020 is the year of challenges. That’s always gone so well for me in the past…
Anyway, jeez, I’m seven paragraphs in and I still haven’t even revealed what this mysterious challenge is. It is… wait for it:
The Unofficial Week Of.
Stay with me here – it doesn’t make sense without an explanation. (And did you know “unofficial” only has one “n”?! I have always thought it had two.)
See, I had this notion, quite a while back, that it would be super fun to pay attention to all the official “national days” within an entire year. You know how there are all these days that no one seems to ever know about, but someone will randomly say to you “oh, it’s national peanut butter day today,” or some store will give away free coffee because it’s “national coffee day” (I totally just made that up, but now I’m thinking there must be a national coffee day and how cool would it be to get free coffee). Anyway, I’m off track. The issue with this original idea is that paying attention to every single “national day” would take a lot of work, and some don’t even make any sense. (Like, what I am I supposed to do with National Day The Music Died Day?)
But, when pondering what sort of challenge I wanted this blog to take on in 2020, that old idea niggled out of wherever thoughts live when you haven’t thought about them for several years (before it grew legs and was probably just a slimy little zygote), and I had a brainwave. I’ll make my own days up. And instead of days, I’ll make them weeks, so I can really get into them (and not because coming up with 365- nope 366 (2020 is a leap year) different ideas would be harder…).
Actually, I thought a week would be good because it gives everyone a chance to join in. A week lets you prepare, lets you come up with ideas and plans. Makes it bigger, with more impact, than just a one-off day where you could go “eh, I can’t be bothered – I’ll try tomorrow’s”.
So, I give you: the Unofficial Week Of. In no way official, but in all ways awesome.
The concept is simple. Every Sunday evening, I will post a theme for the upcoming week to be the official #UnofficialWeekOf. Then, come Monday morning, that week begins in whatever capacity you or I want to embrace the challenge.
The concept is simple. Every Monday morning, I will post a theme for the upcoming week to be the official #UnofficialWeekOf. And so it begins in whatever capacity you or I want to embrace the challenge.
For example, in honour of this being a brand new challenge, I am starting this first week off as the #UnofficialWeekOf Trying Something New. There are no rules here, so you can interpret that in whatever way you want. Maybe you want to try just one new thing at some point during the week, or perhaps you want to try something new each day. It could be taking on a theme within the theme, such as trying something new for breakfast every day or trying to wear ten new outfits over the weekend. Or any in-between combination of those. Whatever floats the player’s boat. However you want to take it and roll. That is the beauty of this challenge – you can be as involved as much or as little as you like.
Busy week? Do something simple. Excited by one week’s theme? Go all in. I will be having fun with it – join me, why don’t you?!
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