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As you are already aware, I am a sucker for all things personal growth and healing. The more lessons I learn from being challenged in unexpected ways, the more I want to share how I’ve gotten myself through the muck. We are all living together on this one beautiful and fragile planet, aren’t we? I suppose when I sit back and think about my sincerest goal for everything that I do, is to make others feel loved. That’s what everything boils down to for me; sharing the love.
I’ve discovered that the person that is often the most difficult to love is our self. You will see the results of this lack of self-love manifested in many ways. Your friend doesn’t make him or her self a priority in their own life and is tired and worn out. A coworker doesn’t stand up to take credit for an idea or project in which they poured their blood sweat and tears into. A child is insecure about their place of belonging or self-worth. Compliments are brushed off and belittled. Desires kept silent. Skills not shared. Ideas never voiced. Disappointment in oneself is such a big struggle for many, if not all, of us, isn’t it? So last year, I said “PHOOEY!” to that, and came up with a way to challenge myself to do things that I wanted to do, but things that I could use a push to get done. I figured that I’d have some fun with it.
On New Year’s Eve last year, I hosted a small group of friends at my house and presented each one with a BINGO card. About half of the square I had pre-filled with things that I thought we could all use a nudge doing. Several squares were easy peasy for some of us to check off, while others were quite challenging. While we were all together, we filled in the rest as a group, deciding which things we wanted to focus on, not letting one another get off easy. By the end of the evening, we were ready to tackle the year, and we were each motivated to WIN at Bingo! There was no prize, other than bragging rights, and *some* were much more competitive than others.
Throughout the year, it would become a running joke, “Do I get a square for this?” But more importantly, it was a fun, and tangible way for each of us to look at some of our goals for the year, while supporting one another as we tackled them. When one of us, quite early on, scored their first row, we all kept going. Who would get the next row? How many of them could we check off? Who could fill out ALL of the squares? And when we all gathered for New Year’s Eve again this year, we agreed that we were able to accomplish quite a lot in one year’s time, and (for the most part) we had one heck of a time doing it!
SO…. although we are a couple of weeks behind, and we now only have 50 weeks, rather than 52, to tackle some pretty lofty goals, we have started our 2018 BINGO game! This year, however, we decided to each take individual control over the things that we put on our cards. We sat around as a group and tossed out ideas and brainstormed until we each had exactly what we needed for our cards. It’s not as easy as it sounds, so working together was extremely helpful. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Then start your own game! Below are some suggestions on how to get started.
Competitors As Your Support Group
Choose a group of people that you know will be supportive and encouraging. If you choose to make this with personal, and detailed goals, then make sure you have a trustworthy group of friends with whom you can be honest and open with during the process. Your competitors are also your support group. Close friends, family, etc.
Timeframe
We choose to make ours a year-long competition, but this can easily be adapted for a month, over summer break, during a family vacation, etc.
Activities
Twenty-four opportunities to have fun! I suggest that you make some relatively easy, and others lofty. (And don’t put all the easy ones in a row just to win! The real PRIZE is completing the squares!)
Suggested Activities
- Volunteering for a minimum of 24 hours
- Purchase a stranger’s meal
- Visit somewhere new
- Clean out your closet Read all of the unread books in your home
- See a movie
- Have a “Screen-free Week”
- Host a dinner party
- Learn a new skill
The possibilities are endless! Have a good one to share? Post it in the comments!
BINGO Cards
You can make your own BINGO cards… but you can also purchase handmade gamecards directly from my Etsy shop. Have a specific request? I’d be more than happy to discuss with you some options! And… if you have “Show support to a single-mom” on your list… you’ll be able to check off a square right off the bat!
So what are you waiting for?! Let’s play BINGO!
