How to become a better you in 365 days

Be a Better You in 365 Days Challenge – DAY 31 Your Feedback on the 365 Challenge

This is Day 31 of How to Be a Better Person in 365 Days (365 Challenge) October 2011 Challenge. View list of tasks: 365 Challenge Overview

Today is 31^st October 2011, and 30 days is officially over. With over 90 participants, nearly 20 comments posted and many lives changes for the better, the challenge thus far has been success bigger than I can imagine. And it’s all thanks to you.

Thank you to all of you who have been tweeting the 365 Challenge posts and your daily task results on Twitter. Thank you to those who spread the word through Facebook. Thank YOU for taking part in this. Every single one of you has been responsible for making “Be a Better You in 365 Days Challenge” the success it is.

Your Feedback Needed

Now that the challenge is 31 days into the challenge, its time to do a round-up. I’d greatly appreciate it if you can provide your feedback on the Be a Better You in 365 Days Challenge (aka: 365 Challenge and aka: How to Become a Better Person in 365 days), which will be invaluable as I work on getting an workbook available for you to download (updates coming soon). Whether you’ve actively participated or someone who’s still half way through the challenge; I’ll appreciate it if you can spend a few minutes of your time answering the following (the more detailed your feedback, the better and more useful it’ll be for me):

How as the experience been for you so far? Did you learn anything, and if so what did you learn?
What are the biggest things you feel are great about the Challenge?
Which task(s) gave you the biggest breakthrough? And Why?
Is there any task you think is not useful? If so, why?
How can I make the Challenges better?

As a recap, here are the tasks for the past 30 days:

Day 0 – Introduction / Announcement: “How Be a Better Person You in 365 Days” October Challenge!

Day 1 – Realisation – Who Are You?!

Day 2 – Understanding Who Are You?!

Day 3 – Discovering Your Inner Self

Day 4 – Day of Virtues: Gratitude

Day 5 – Creating a Better Person

Day 6 – Reflection Day Getting Organised

Day 7 – Reflection Day Getting Organised

Day 8 – Connecting with Someone: Call a Friend

Day 9 – Just DO it!

Day 10 – Take Action. BE Proactive!

Day 11 – ARK (Random Act of Kindness)

Day 12 – Declutter Your Zen!

Day 13 – Be Positive

Day 14 – What Is Your Mission in Life?

Day 15 & 16 – Reflection Day Take a Break – Have a KitKat!

Day 17 – Discover Your Values

Day 18 – Day of Appreciation

Day 19 – What Are Your Goals?

Day 20 – Making Action Speak louder than Words Day

Day 21 – Getting Organised

Day 22 & 23 – Reflection Day

Day 24 – Your 30 Minute Action Plan

Day 25 – Rising Early for the Challenge

Day 26 – Create Your 20/80 To-Do List

Day 27 – Day of Virtues: Generosity

Day 28 – Getting Advice

Day 29 – Giving Advice

Day 30 – Reflection Day

So What’s Next?

While the challenge is now into its second 30 days, it’s certainly isn’t the end of the 365 Challenge. Here are some future plans I have in mind:

The workbook for the ALL Challenges – it will have all the daily tasks inside to help you live a better life, detailed exercises to guide you through each exercise, reflection diary for you write in your reflections and much, much more. The workbook will be your vital tool to live a better life. I highly recommend you to get one you for yourself and for anyone whom you’d like to have a better life.
Moving from WordPress.com to WordPress.org – I will learn how to customise the site, make it functional and more life a blog where I can give you something in return and create a blog of wealth and knowledge. I dream of making a difference in your life!
Free Gifts on offer – In general, I want free available eBooks, and books on challenges to be delivered to you from me. And have more material available for you to become a better person. I love to help, why not share our generosity with the community?!

NOTE: I prefer to keep things open for now and see how things evolve, just so that we don’t miss out on new opportunities. As with everything that happens at How to Become a Better You in 365 Days, I’ll make the announcements via RSS feed, Facebook and Twitter, so as long as you’re connected with me there, you’ll be in the loop of all future updates.

Share Your Final Feedback!

Today is the final round-up for the first 30 day– please share your final feedback on the course via the 6 feedback questions above! Thank you – I look forward to reading your comments!

Be a Better You in 365 Days Challenge – DAY 27 Day of Virtues: Generosity

This is Day 27 of How to Be a Better Person in 365 Days (365 Challenge) October 2011 Challenge. View list of tasks: 365 Challenge Overview

Welcome to Day 27 of “How to Become a Better Person in 365 Days Challenge” (365 Challenge)!

I appreciate everyone being patient while I was training this morning and getting today’s tasks updated for you. Last night, was a really late night so I had slept in to catch up on some sleep. My sleep-in was till 8am. SO I have sometime to walk my huskies, workout, have breakfast and get ready for the day. I believe we did a task about Rising Early for the Challenges a few days ago on waking up earlier to do everything we need to get done. I love Shavita’s comment on rising early, quotes “I’m always up for the challenge of getting up early, it allows me to get more done while everyone is still sleeping.” Take this as a personal experiment. If you try it and you like it, you’d have gained something new from this trial If you try it for 52 full weeks and feel it doesn’t work for you, you can walk away from this experience knowing that it’s not your cup of tea. Nothing to lose but everything to gain

Your Feedback Needed

Launching and running the challenge for the past 27 days and reading your comments have given me a lot of insights on how to make 365 Challenge an even better experience. There are already readers asking if I’ll be running it again in the future, and the answer is probably yes. To make 365 Challenge a better experience moving forward, I need your feedback:

On average, how much time has each task taken you?
If you’re still at an earlier task, what is it?
Why are you on this task? (i.e. Is there anything blocking you about it?)
What is the longest task and why?
What is the most challenging task and why?

Yesterday, we discovered the value of having a 20/80 To-Do List. All of us have our own daily to-do lists, from work, running errands, administrative tasks. Every day, we have a set amount of energy, which are channelled into the task, which then translates into output. We learnt about the impact of tasks, our laundry to-do lists and what is the 20/80% rule. Today, we will be using the same technique as Day 26 to make an impact in someone’s life.

Day 27 – Generosity Day

Today’s task is a day long task.

Generosity – The habit of giving freely without expecting anything in return. It can involve offering time, assets or talents to aid someone in need.

I say, Ken Lauher, “There are so many ways to practice generosity. The main point isn’t so much what we give, but that we unlock our habit of clinging. A traditional practice is simply to offer an object that we cherish from one hand to the other.”

I believe that Giving is of three types:

1. Donating material things such as money, clothing and food; making gifts to the poor and the sick, and donations for education and the provision of medical care;

2. Providing clear teachings about spiritual practices as well as about proper types of worldly livelihood, such as in becoming a medical practitioner, and giving encouragement to undertake moral behaviour;

3. Giving relief from fearful situations by protecting beings from robbers, unjust governments, ferocious animals, flood, fire, and so forth. This includes protecting animals; even help a bug out of a puddle.

Source: Ken Lauher

Today, your task is to be the beacon of Generosity.

Your Task: Be Generous Today

You’ll now be entering the Day of Virtue Room. Get ready…

Imagine you’re standing before a room that’s bursting with warm, golden light. The light is so bright that you can see it bursting through every opening, every nook and cranny from inside the room to the world. It’s literally overpowering everything in your surroundings.

As you walk up to the door, you see the word “Generosity” written on it. This is when you realize this is a room filled with pure, sheer, unadulterated energy that’s filled with generosity.

Your task today:

Step into the room.

Imagine yourself being basked, from head to toe, in the pure energy. The light is so powerful that it penetrates into your body and reaches into the core of your heart.
As it does that, it somehow unlocks something inside you, deep in your soul. Suddenly, a strong beam of light starts to shine from inside your heart, first illuminating your whole body, and bursting into the world out there.
This occurs for a good 5-10 seconds, before the light fades away. You’re now radiating a positive glow; an luminescent aura that. There’s no doubt about it – you’re now a different person from before you stepped inside. You’re now filled with generosity, inside and out. Every fiber of your being, every cell in your body, is now filled with pure energy of generosity.

Today, you are a beacon of Generosity. Exemplify Generosity in everything you do, every thought you have, every action you take, every emotion you share. This means…

Treat your friends to a meal, if it is within your means.
Give with every opportunity you get, without expecting to receive. (Note that being generous need not have to do with money – it can be other things too, such as with your time, actions, emotions, etc.)
Get a nice gift for someone – one that has special meaning to him/her. (No occasion needed.)
When dining out, give others the bigger portions.
Be emotionally generous – be positive, encouraging, and supportive with everyone you speak to.
Donate to the lone and homeless beggars on the street.
Give away things you do not need to the people who can benefit from them.

Pledge your Generosity for Day 20 by sharing them in the comments.

List down the Acts of Generosity you are going to do specially for Day 20, not actions you’ve already done in the past, not actions you normally do, nor actions you did during Days 1-19.
There is no limit for Generosity – even if you’ve always been conscious about being generous to others, push yourself and see what other Acts of Generosity you can do for today. You’ll be amazed by what you can come up with.