daily challenge | Deborah's Deliberations On All Things Food

I’ve been on a mission lately to bring more conscious positivity into my day-to-day life. Several weeks ago I learned through a tweet from @MelanieMcBride about The Daily Challenge. Their mission as a self defined “tool for social change” is “to build the largest network of `Do Gooders’ in the World” and challenge them to do one good deed daily. Through uniting individuals, organizations and companies interested in taking social responsibility, we believe we have the power to create immediate, massive and sustainable global transformation. Together we can be the change we seek”.

Lofty goal! I liked it. Yes, I think it’s time to claim my status as an aspiring “do-gooder”! I’ve embraced the challenge!

Each morning between 5:00 and 5:15 a.m. a challenge message is sent to my email address (NO, I NEVER read it at 5:00, doing good can wait until at least 7:00 a.m.). It begins with a friendly reminder:

Hi Deborah, this is a friendly reminder of your Daily Challenge for March 31, 2009:

Then the link to the challenge of the day:

View this challenge:

http://www.dailychallenge.org/challenges/view.php?id=918

The challenge link takes me to the Daily Challenge website that looks very similar to other social media tools. You can even have friend lists that allow you to connect with other “do-gooders” (I haven’t chosen to do this). The challenge of the day is highlighted with a take action button. There is an indication of how many people have taken action on this challenge, their avatars shown in the right hand column (I don’t have an avatar either). There are options to share with friends, submit a new challenge as well as a list of the latest challenges submitted, if you prefer not to take the challenge of the day.

My favorite part is a tab in the legend at the top that allows me to review the actions I’ve taken, kind of a periodic review of the positive. Ok, I cheat. I wonder if cheating is antithetical to being a “do-gooder”. I digress. What I mean is I don’t always do the challenge that day. I allow myself to reflect on what I’ve done over the last 3 days (3 is arbitrary – it’s just the upper limit of my short term memory) and if I can think of a specific action that directly relates to a challenge, I click the take action button. If I can’t find anything in the recent past, and I plan to undertake the challenge, I return later and click the take action button.

So far the challenges seem to center around 3 themes:

Do good to/for yourself, for example:

Don’t judge yourself for a whole day !

Take 30 minutes, go outside, get some sun, say hi to the coming spring and feel the energy within you!

Do something nice for someone else:

Find 3 people that are deserving of appreciation and thank them.

Reach out and touch someone! Contact an old, or not-so-old friend, that you haven’t connected with in a while. You MAY just learn something!

Do something good for the world:

Pls pledge to turn off your lights for 60 minutes on Earth Hour Day Mar 28 from 8:30-9:30PM ET and then do it! http://www.earthhour.org/home

Especially when the garbage can looks tempting, walk the extra few steps to the recycling bin. It’s worth it.

So, if it sounds appealing to you to reflect on the positive you do, and we all do positive daily, join me at the Daily Challenge: http://www.dailychallenge.org. We can be the change we seek!