Monthly Challenges – April 2022
The Autumn transition is upon us. Here in the Southern hemisphere Summer has turned into Autumn, the season of bountiful skies and gentler temperatures. Perhaps you have entered Spring, the traditional season for newness, fresh starts and growth.
Spring and Autumn are both seasons of transition. They are both good seasons for making changes. So now is a good time for fresh starts and for letting go.
Why Set Monthly Challenges?
Setting monthly challenges is a useful way of making changes to improve our quality of life, by making simple shifts in the things we do every day, in a set and manageable timeframe.
A 30 day period is a good space for holding ourselves accountable and noticing change happening. Monthly challenges, therefore, help to measure our progress when making positive shifts in our days, and weeks.
I share my challenges as an invitation for you to get inspired, to start your own challenges, or join me with monthly challenge accountability.
Remember that you are just right and quite enough as you are, but should you wish to improve your habits or your quality of life, monthly challenges are a fabulous tool with which to do so.
If, however, you decide you do want to make some improvements, whether big or small, the simplest way to shift is to get into action and make small, doable and repeated alterations. Things like drinking a glass of water, meditating for 5 minutes, doing 4 sun salutations, reading 10 pages every day; actionable things which you really can manage to accomplish.
Once you start, things can begin to flow.

Go Gently With Ourselves
Accountability motivates me to make the changes I desire. Some of us are able to motivate ourselves with a degree of ease, and some of us benefit from some form of external accountability – as I do.
When building a new habit, we need motivation, discipline and perseverance at the start. Accountability can act as the motivational engine to help push us along.
There are times when I make very little progress. March was one such month. Work was busy, the normal demands of family life continued, and as we prepared to do major renovations, we had to pack up our house.
My March challenges didn’t go very well.
So I will forgive myself and try again in April. Let’s go gently with ourselves as we make changes. It is not realistic to expect all our changes to happen successfully overnight. Habit change is a slow, long game. It is a game of delayed gratification and gradual gentle progress. In our fast world, a slower pace and realistic gentle goals also have an important (outdated) place.
This is the Autumn transition season and I intend to make the most of its energy for supporting change.

Autumn Transitions – April 2022
Monthly Challenges
This month we will start the house build, so once again I will keep my challenges simple and even fewer. We want the challenges we set ourselves to be doable so that we stay motivated and persist with the steps we are taking to make changes. We never want to feel like we are failing, or we risk losing momentum.
There is a real Autumn transition afoot in our lives as our family home is reduced to broken brick and cement before it is rebuilt. We are –
- staying with family while we build and are living out of our car during the week,
- in transition,
- in-between,
- mobile, and
- changing and growing while we make changes.
Transition times are periods of movement that require flexibility and often lead to growth. Seen through a joyful lens, they are opportunities for learning and adapting and increased expansiveness.
Self Autumn Transition Challenges – Mind/ Spiritual/ Intellectual/ Emotional
- meditate every day
- read 10 pages every day
Health Autumn Transition Challenges – Body/ Physical
- 4 sun salutations every day
- start every day with a glass of water
- 30 minutes outdoors Monday to Friday at the minimum
Wealth Autumn Transition Challenges – Work/ Finances/ Career
- manage day job unemotionally
- write a blog every week
- and turn this into an email and into social media for the week
- complete 2 courses
Social Autumn Transition Challenges – Community/ Environment/ Family
- stay present with my family
- stay joyful while adapting to the time living out of the car
Do you set yourself challenges?
For More
If you enjoy:
- images and others’ wisdom and think you might like to follow my experience as I learn and share – please follow me at my Simple Beautiful Life Instagram page. It’s about the things I believe in – simplicity and self-focus, and our stories.
- reading – please browse my Simple Beautiful Life blog where I write about simplifying life and challenging ourselves to get better at living a good life.
- simple systems – please grab my Scattered to Serene where I offer some simple ways to manage your days and improve your life.
- simple calm – Simply Serene Breaths where I have created a printable of 4 handy breathing techniques to serve as a reminder.
- reading weekly emails about living a lighter life with a focus on simplicity, yourself and stories – our own and others – sign up here.
- accountability and would like some help with building your own habits – please let me know in the comments.
Thank you for reading