‘No-Movie-March-Challenge’: An Attempt At Overcoming My Success’s Biggest Hindrance
“Raise your hand if you had a great weekend!” Mrs Scholar walked into the classroom with her usual worn-out grey laptop bag underneath her arm and a smile across her face.
She quickly dropped the bag on her desk at the right end of the class and looked round with gleaming eyes at the tiny hands that dangled in the air but was recalled when her gaze fell on a widely unexpected empty space between two hands in the air.
Curious about the empty space, she took a couple of steps from the classroom front and traced it down to the mid-row where little Betty sat with her head down on her desk and her body squeezed symmetrically to fit into the shadow of her front seat partner.
“Betty?” Mrs Scholar said softly, feeling her neck for any sign of a fever -as it was the first thing that came to mind- but there was none.
There were no tears in her eyes, so she was in no pain -Mrs Scholar thought- her face however appeared cast off, as the muscles in her eyes dropped and the skin around her mouth looked thin as a result of sucking them in.
“Are you ok?” Mrs Scholar asked.
Betty spoke no words and only stared up at her teacher with blank eyes that were now lifted from the desk, pretending consciously to be oblivious to the wondering gaze of her classmates.
“What happened during the weekend?” Mrs Scholar continued to pry.
“I didn't do any of the things I said I was going to do” Betty’s lips finally moved to let words out slowly.
“oh? Things like what?”
“I planned to visit my aunt Deborah, so we could visit the zoo, go shopping, and eating from many fine restaurants, just like she promised me last time she visited”.
“But you couldn't do any of these?”
“Yes, I couldn't. My parents said I was fast asleep when she came and they all agreed not to bother waking me” Betty explained, her face dropping from the weight of the sadness in her heart.
I feel exactly like Betty today.
It will soon be two months gone from 2024 and I can't raise my hand to the question;
“Are you doing all you said you'll do in 2024?”
I know the first thought that comes to mind if I were to seek your counsel -and I'm not- will be;
“It's just two months, there's still 10 more months…”
Anyway, the reason those encouraging words are no good for me is because those are words worthy of the ears of a person putting in an effort to achieve their goals.
So far…I’m not such a person.
Like little Betty, I've been sleeping a lot…on the things I ought to do, like read a lot and write a lot, and have instead been up and about on K-dramas and staying active on X (twitter).
I could go on and on about how lackadaisical I've been about my future in writing, and in general, but I'd rather not.
I've got a story to complete, which will be my first entry for a publication this year, seeing as I missed the first one I came across because I was busy with ways to not achieve my goals in 2024.
Yeah, one of them includes writing and submitting an entry to every publication I come across.
As you can tell, I have literally been doing a hella job of that.
Well bye now, and if you're like me, why not join me in the ‘No-Movie-March-Challenge’ I will be undertaking officially from the 1st of March?
Deal is, it can be ‘No-X(whatever)-...’, the goal is simply to say no to my biggest temptation that is stopping me from making a move on my life seriously.
So if you're going to join in on this challenge, find your biggest temptation, fill in the gap, and hope on the train.
I keep my fingers crossed, I will be writing a lot, reading a lot, and making a lot of visual content in March!
Well…Bye again.
