For almost one full month now, I have loaded a post to my site here daily.

Five days a week, I wrote an article about developing on-line, about my experiences that I hope will help you, I tried to encourage and, in the case of my TEDx series, they were “Ideas Worth Sharing”. I spent more time looking for the right pictures to go with my posts. Two days a week I created picture quotes using the inspiration of others in the hopes it would brighten your day or give you food for thought.

All of my work has been created by me, for you, my reader. On top of “Life”, it made for a few late nights, it made for extra reading so I could be inspired enough to hopefully inspire you, it made for some serious thought processing so I could keep it fresh each day.

Why, you might wonder, would I add that work load to an already busy schedule?

Because… like my picture quote for today says: “we grow by challenging ourselves.”

This was a challenge, not a competition. There are no losers. We set ourselves a challenge and hopefully we met it.

My challenge to myself was to post daily for 30 days. Some of my colleagues might have wanted to post 3x week, others would be happy to get one really good post up each week. I succeeded with my challenge, and I hope my colleagues succeeded in theirs.

The nature of a challenge is push yourself to do something more than you usually do. Sometimes a lot more!

When you do not meet your goal, while you may feel disappointment, you have not “lost” a race. You have learned what you are capable of at this point in time; you may have learned that Life sometimes rears her head and wants feeding NOW! you will definitely have learned what else you need to do to fulfill the next challenge.

You need to remember that this not a “race”. No matter how competitive you are, a challenge is personal. My blog is my business and only I can decide what might be of value. Well, me and requests from my readers. If I get 6 comments on a post and my colleague only gets two, does that mean I win that day? Absolutely not! because the value of a post to a reader is impossible to measure. Some will respond, others not.  My content is mine to control, or change, or mix up.  Part of my own personal challenge is seeing what does interest my readers, and stimulate thought or create feedback.

Do you challenge yourself? Whether it is for fun or if it will really tax you, do you accept challenges so you can expand some part of your life? Sometimes it takes imagination to succeed, sometimes it takes a lot of hard work, often it takes both.

I want to challenge you now.

I challenge you to decide what you really want your retirement to look like.

And I mean tangibles like an extra $2k a month going in to the bank account.

Or debt-free within 5 years so most of your retirement income goes toward your Life, not your maintenance.

How about selling up where you are and living comfortably in a warmer climate?

Or my favourite: affording my own comfortable lifestyle with enough extra to gather my children and grandchildren somewhere fun for an annual family vacation that will not stretch the finances of my family.

Write it down in bold letters and post it somewhere that you will see it and be reminded every day. Keep it private if you wish but I would love it if you shared a piece of your retirement vision in the comments below.

Have a fabulous weekend!