Observing Our Progress
[ 3 May 2008 ]
I wanted to write a little bit about being observant, because often when we’re making big personal changes, it can be hard for us to see what an improvement it’s making to our quality of life. It’s all about being objective, & when it comes to something so personal & close, it’s tricky to assess it accurately.
This is why journalling any kind of transformation (leaving a relationship, moving city, changing your lifestyle) is so valuable. It’s like a little time machine on paper, & whenever we want to go back & see how things used to be, all we need to do is flick back a few pages. We can see how we were feeling, what we were doing, what kind of things were on our mind & really get a picture of how we used to be. It’s much more accurate than trying to remember, which is almost impossible. I have journals which boggle my mind — I am so different now to the girl who wrote them! That’s why, when I announced the iTC, I recommended you all go out & buy journals to use for this purpose. It wasn’t just because buying stationery is fun — though I must admit that was part of the motivation!
If you didn’t start a paper journal, that’s okay, & you’re forgiven! You might like to try read back on your old comments on the iTC discussion pages. It might be a good idea to search by your name, & then copy & paste all your comments (in chronological order) into a text document. While this won’t necessarily be hugely illuminating (at least at this stage), by the time the challenge is over you should have some inkling of where your new changes have taken you, & the ways in which they have improved your life.
However, some of you haven’t been leaving comments about what your goals were or how things are going. (I know, because there are over 1300 of you subscribed to the iTC mailing list & the comments are at nowhere near that level! You can’t fool me!) If you fall into this category, there are a couple of other ways you can measure your progress. Have a look through the personal emails you sent around the time you started your iTC. What kind of things were you saying? How were you feeling? How does that compare to the last 10 personal emails you sent?
How else can you measure your progress? If you are ordinarily quite artistic or creative, you might like to compare the quality, tone & mood of what you were doing before you started the iTC with the kind of thing you’re producing now. Otherwise, have you noticed any breakthroughs in terms of your feelings about your life? For example, did you want to quit your job pre-iTC, but have since decided to stay on? Have you cleared out any toxic relationships? Are you attracting a new calibre of friends?
If you think about it, all of these things are good markers to help you chart your progress. Often when we’re making changes, we give up because we feel like nothing is actually happening. I know, for example, that sometimes I feel like I’ve hit a wall with EFT, & nothing has actually changed. Of course, it has — I am now a completely different person to who I was — but it just goes to show that being objective about our personal progression can be difficult at the best of times!
I hope this helps you draw a nice, clear picture of what’s been going on with you during the course of the iTC!
Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala 
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Well, this morning I looked over my iTC goals and felt like a failure. I have completely abandoned my original goals of eating well and exercising. The only one I have sticked to is not drinking alcohol. Which is easy because I have never been a huge drinker.
But, reading this post, I realised I have made the biggest change my life has ever seen. I left my boyfriend of 3 years and moved home from Japan. It was a long time coming and had always been in the back of my mind and I think that having the transformation challenge in my mind, I chose to transform my life and be happy. It took all the courage and confidence I could possibly muster and I still cant believe I actually did it – and I owe it all to the transformation challenge and GALA! I am buying a journal tomorrow and going to start documenting this change immediately.
Thanks again Gala
this is a wonderful idea, i was actually thinking to print out my old LJ to read over (from waaaay back 1999-present) it. I’m going to be keeping track of my life a bit better for now on :)
I kinda fell of the raw wagon, I’m finding it hard to recapture the mindset I had when I had that raising of awareness that said ‘yes the food you are eating is causing all these stupid unnecessary problems’ although I have stopped eating meat and anything microwaved or processed so it is a gradual mindset shift…
I have just painted myself with a smile/happy expression when for the last 10 months I have almost always painted self-portraits that make me look depressed/sad/ugly/fat/bloated.
I don’t know why, but woo at getting a greater likeness.
In general, I have grown a lot. I’ve worked out what I want to do with my life, and how I want to experience it. The details need to be worked on but I’m getting there. My whole positive mindset and all the resources that have helped me most over this and last year have been mostly down to you Gala, so thank you. I do feel like I am in control of my own life now :)
I have slacked on my goals a bit, well the physically healthy parts anyway, in the last week or so. My energy and well being have shot WAY down because of it. This next week I’m going to get back to it.
I have been more creative and productive since this challenge started, for that I am eternally grateful. I need to be at my most productive right now.
I’m just going to say a simple thank-you for writing this. I haven’t really worked at any of my goals for about a week now. But, I’ve decided to get back to them and now I kind of know what was stopping me.
Hugs and Kisses
ps I am super jealous of you being in New York…Have lots of fun!!
I do find that goals/resolutions can be set-ups for failures. Why must we always be striving for something? What about acceptance and easy-goingness, be-here-now?
There’s no need to hold on to the past or go digging for it. I realize the “unexamined life is not worth living” but the things I have been through are very clear to me, and if I forget details over the years, then the past is just as clear as the future anyway, and all I have is now.
so i stopped trying to be vegan— and i’m really happy that i did. i like milk wayyy too much. however i am feeling the best i have felt in ages. today i took the dog for a 2 hour walk, i’m eating healthy meals but allowing myself to splurge on rice krispy treats. random people have started talking to me and they love my bizarre quirks!! it’s funny how you mentioned getting a whole new group of friends, it is like i have suddenly met tons of new people. i love it!! :)
Hi Gala!
I just listened to your old podcast where you spoke in an American accent.
Loved it… it sounded like you were born in raised in the good old USA. :)
Ever plan to visit Washington DC?
How great would that be to see you walking down the street?!
Love,
Katie.
I’m beginning to wonder if I can stick with anything for very long. The 2nd half of this week has been a disaster. I’ve been eating not as well as I should, and kinda slacking on the exercise. When it started going downhill on Thursday, I just figured, “oh well, I’ll start over on Monday.” And while I still plan on trying again on Monday, I’m feeling pretty down on myself for just giving up for the rest of this week.
Blah.
I started a diary to help me through my personal transformation—killing my perfectionism. And I love it. I really, really, do. When I talk to people I have a bad habit of changing what I say to agree with them, trying to entertain them, impress them. I can’t relax, and I lose touch of what I really think. In my diary I am a king, a ninja, a hooker and a grandmother. I refer to my sister as an expletive, I have nicknames for my teachers (think Old Hairy Eyebrows), I go on two-page rants about how my mother is afraid I’ll be gay, how my sister got caught drinking, etc. It’s incredibly liberating.
Yesterday I was in study hall and I noticed the boy next to me was quite handsome. I wrote about that while he was right there, and I felt like a glamorous spy. I’m trying to let go of my own hang-ups, my inner Bad Cop—I noticed I was lapsing towards self-loathing so I started a list of all the things I like about myself and my life and now I’m stapling in extra pages! I never thought that would happen.
I just wanted to thank you. I’ve been getting better grades, sleeping better, eating better, exercising more, looking better and feeling happier. Thank you, Gala—I owe you one.
Jules
I’ve attained most of my goals, I’ve become way more comfortable in my body especially when it comes to my relationship. I still haven’t been able to put all my barriers aside but I’ve definitly made progress though
Argh! Measuring! Argh! Reminds me of maths!! One of my goals was to keep up with my homework. Guess what I’m doing right now? Maths homework. Whoo.
Anyone want to do it for me? I have to do science next :P
I stumbled on iTC a bit too late to start and finish when everyone else is, but reading this, other posts and comments on the iTC thread have really inspired me to start making some positive changes and journalling it all! It’s given me the much needed courage to give up smoking and move from vegetarian to veganism. A whole week on the non smoking now! Thanks :) xx
i really wish i was doing ITC like i set out to :’(
but yeh so much stuff has been happening to me and i just couldn’t!
this was a cool post, thanks gala
I HATE YEAR 12I don’t think I made all that much progress with the Icing Challenge… I started well but I haven’t been keeping track of everything… I’ve kinda lost that vision of what I was doing in the first place :(
My only goal for this time is to get around to finally working on a journal of my much longer transformation. I eventually want to make it into a book or do something to get my story out.
This was me back in 2003:
Before
I was misguided and confused. I thought that I could change the world and do good. I thought vegetarians were a little weird and my fashion sense was a little lacking! :P
My name was Richard and I hated myself
This is me as of today:
After
I have a purpose and a drive now. I’ve replaced guns and ammo with brushes and acrylics. I’m working on my degree in the fine arts and philosophy and I’m a vegetarian! Violence has no place in my life and I’m finally on the road to becoming the woman that I know I am.
My name is Renee and I finally feel at peace.
I really need to get started on this journal!
Hi Gala!
I love your site so so much :) Your posts are so inspirational, and help me so much! sorry my english is not so good so i hope i do not offend you because you a writer. I saw a cool website in the comment of another post on this website
popoutfashion.blogspot.com
you should read it gala. it is not as good as your, but it is funny and nice.
i love you lots and enjoy the big apple!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
My resolutions aren’t going very well, and yesterday I took a really hard blow. I should have started a paper journal, and will do so now, but it’s just so hard to write when I’m this crushed.
My boyfriend & I have made some huge lifestyle changes since the beginning of 2008, and the result has been changes in size for both of us. We both, at the beginning, read books that suggested taking body measurements before beginning an exercise plan/diet change. We were both like “whateva, that isn’t neccessary!” And now that he has big muscles & I have lost my “beer gut”, we REALLY WISH we’d taken those measurments, just for fun!
In a somewhat unrelated topic, I have been having this huge, silly remorse lately for selling one of my favorite vintage dresses that didn’t fit me anymore. I was really, really beating myself up about it, and I started thinking about what Gala would suggest, and I figured you’d probably suggest trying to dig deeper into why I was so bothered by this, and I realized that I had bought the dress while on a roadtrip with my boyfriend right before we started our romantic relationship, and I felt that in some way it was the dress that made him fall in love with me, and that he might not love me anymore since I didn’t have the dress. Once I discovered that feeling, I was able to acknowledge that my boyfriend loves me for who I am (we’ve been together almost 5 years), not a dress I bought!
I’m sure you knew this, but you are helping people ALL THE TIME.
I’ve been writing journals since I was a little kid since I have always loved to write lyrics, one of the biggest things that I have noticed about my writing as I have entered in my 20’s and reading back onto my writings and musings is just how self-indulgent and wrapped up in my own business I was.
If somebody did not like me as a person, or largely romantically it was either problem, I hated them, not mine. I never even thought that instead of writing about my own life and how helpless I felt, by writing about things in philosophical prospective and taking myself out of them, I’d understand that everyone feels the same. My music has become story telling rather than about who I hate.
I love writing about things that I really want to talk about with someone else but never get the chance to because quite frankly none of my friends want to hear about astrophysics or this really good book I’m reading or my NY dreaming or even what I learnt today. Even if nobody reads them, its like scapbooking my ideas.
In away it makes me really happy and proud to be who I am now and to evolve in ways I never thought about. It also makes me realise that I’ve achieved most things I wanted to but never thought were possible so I feel in control of my life.
Liina — I hear you on measurements! I’d be really curious to know how my body has changed since making an effort to eat more raw food — I know I look more defined but I wish I had concrete numbers rather than just memories & vague ideas! I meant to take measurements but just never got around to it… boo.
Also, that story about the dress was amazing! I’m really stoked for you that you managed to solve your own problem. Even better is that you got to the real root cause of the discomfort. GO YOU! xxx
I feel kind of rotten, because I loved the idea of the iTC, but this time in my life has been so dedicated to finishing strong in high school that I simply didn’t have a mind for anything else. I definitely have changed my study habits for the better, but I regret not doing anything else. I guess I just hope there are more of these months, its such an amazing program!
sadly i’m so not iTC at the moment ;__;
tomorrow i will start again.