My fist 40 Day Challenge – Evaluation

My first 40 Day challenge, which seemed too long, now seems if it was over ever so quickly. I thoroughly enjoyed it and surprisingly it taught me lots. I was very happy with some of the pictures and not impressed with others at all – it has encouraged me to be more thoughtful about method and technique (it took me two years to find the close-up option in my Nokia phone camera, so lets see how this iphone treats me. Okay, actually Kooks showed me the close-up feature on the Nokia). I also found that I spend too much time oblivious, going from one thing to another or lost in my thoughts to properly take in the beauty and interest in everything around me. Once I started looking, I started finding things to take pictures of everywhere, the scrap metal yard for instance was one of my favourites. Another fun one was this picture I took at Pimlico Station of an artist’s work, only to find her blog where she had challenged readers to find the artwork and take a picture.

This first challenge has whetted my appetite for trying a new one. Some of the ones I have come up with are:

Experiencing something new every day
Doing something outside of my comfort zone every day
Doing something new with my children every day
Writing a book review every day (have a great pile that I need to catch up with)
No coffee for 40 days (this is going to be a tough one for me)
Call one friend or family member every day (I am not great on the phone, so this would be an interesting one)
No complaining for 40 days
Memorise one ayah of the Quran every day
Write down everything I spend for 40 days (help me manage my finances)
Spend little/minimum money for 40 days (hmm…sales are coming)

As the kids are on holidays and I have a week or so off too, I am going to go with the “doing something new with my children every day” option I think. I am looking forward to this one!

Below are my favourite pictures from the 40 Day Photo Challenge. Are you thinking of trying a challenge? Do you think I should try a challenge that’s not on the list above? Do you think the whole thing is a terrible idea? Would love to hear your thoughts.