Beau's Blog

In mid-June, I was cruising through my 30 Days of Vending Machines Challenge. It was great. Life felt richer. The most logical thing to seemed that I should queue up the next 30 day challenge.

So, I started thinking about what to do. I knew my July would be all over the place, literally. I’d be staying in many cities… Tokyo, Campbell, Pismo Beach, Redwood City, Felton, Seattle, Juneau, Boulder – that meant I needed some activity doable anywhere. Between transportation time, working and actually enjoying myself in the various locations, there would not be much leftover time or energy. Eventually I came up with a challenge that would give myself clarity and energy – meditation!

It seemed like it would be perfect. No special equipment, no specific place, a mere 5 minutes a day. Just my breath and me.

This is the 30 day challenge that felt like the biggest failure yet.

Each session, I made sure to note where I was, the time of day and how I felt – both pre meditation and post meditation.

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Here’s my favorite entry – it illustrates how I feel about the experience overall.

Day 14. Sunnyvale, California on my friend David’s couch. 1:38am. Pre: “very sleepy”. Post: “Too tired to feel anything”

Context around that day:
July 14^th was a wonderful day. I worked from my aunt and uncle’s house in Redwood City during the day, including a ramen lunch with my cousin Elias, and then played disc golf and a late-night board game with my childhood friends David and Chris. I even managed to squeeze in a run! Given all of those activities, meditation was an afterthought. Therefore, it happened at the last possible moment after 1:30am when I was happily exhausted and more than ready for sleep.

Generally, the more you put into something, the more you get out of it. I didn’t put enough into this challenge to get much out of it. I thought I wouldn’t need to put much in. Surely 5 minutes a day, at any time, any place would be easy for me. Wrong. I had an ambitious month planned. To be clear, it went great overall but the meditation was too much for me.

While this challenge did not go as planned, I am proud of the fact that I was ambitious with my July. I would rather live a life where I aim too high and miss than aim too low and “succeed”.

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When I think about what energizes me, people are top of mind. Doing stuff with other people has always been a priority for me. I am an extrovert. Thinking back on other 30 day challenges, I’ve loved involving others. Here are some examples:

• 30 Days of Drawing. Mar 2015: sharing my drawings daily on Facebook to see what friends think – Google Photos, Facebook
• 30 Days of Random. Jan 2021: Alex, Anuved, Dewal and I agreed to all do the same random thing each day for 30 days
• 30 Days of Vending Machines. Jun 2023: I loved getting drinks with other people – Google Photos album

I took a solitary approach to meditation in July. Experimenting with doing things solo has been a priority for me as an adult. That said, it’s important to know myself. In the future, when embarking on challenges, I will be more mindful of the fact that I can boost my motivation by involving others.

Fun fact: I recently found a meditation Meetup in Tokyo that I plan to attend going forward. I went a couple days ago and while I came for the meditation, I anticipate coming back for the people.

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Another aspect that energizes me is tangible things. The more tangible, the more real, the more motivating. Meditation is tough here. I view it as something where the journey is the destination. It itself isn’t the goal, but instead enables and supports other parts of life. Other 30 day challenges have provided more tangible outputs. In some past challenges, I’ve ended up with drawings or pictures. For meditation, my goal was the opposite, to not get fixated on any specific thing. To have a clearer mind. A “clearer mind” isn’t very tangible. As mentioned, I wasn’t consistent or intentional enough with the meditation to achieve a clearer mind very often.

One tangible thing I have from this month is the Google Sheet where I have my notes from each meditation session. I now also have this blog post too!

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Final Thoughts

• Despite feeling disappointed with this challenge, I’m glad I tried and have found value in it
• I didn’t put in as much into this challenge and I didn’t get as much out of it
• It’s clear I feel I came up short, but also recognize that I was more mindful in July by doing this challenge than if I had not done it
• My post meditation notes mention feeling calm, mellow, present and relaxed on multiple days
• Involving others will help me grow and overcome challenges
• Similarly, concrete output motivates me
• I want to keep pushing myself with challenges

If you’re interested in doing 30 day challenges with me or have ideas for what I might like to do in the future, let me know!