Challenges are hard. Or are they?
Challenge definition: a call to take part in a contest or competition, especially a duel.
Well, I haven’t been called to take part in a contest or a competition or a duel but I have created 2 monthly challenges for myself in 2023.
And I’m documenting them here on Substack. I’ve been blogging since 2009. You might even want to call me an OG blogger if you’re into labels.
I’ve decided to try out this platform with the inspiration of Slowdown Farmstead. I’ve enjoyed reading and subscribing to her musings on this platform (including her podcast audio episodes of the posts). And financially supporting her was just second nature due to the value I receive from her posts. She’s also partially to blame for my challenge creations. As a homestead, I envy her level of self-reliance and have used the envy as motivation to learn.
The inspiration
I wasn’t born on a farm, I have no experience taking care of myself other than meal planning, grocery shopping, and meal prepping once a week. When I opened my eyes to how truly reliant on others I was, I was shocked. If you were to look at my Instagram explore page 2 years ago it would have been filled with fitness and obstacle course racing. Now it’s filled with homestead, preparedness, and parenting. Oh, how things change in a short amount of time.
In 2020, during the pandemic lockdowns and the height of my twin pregnancy, my eyes were opened to the world of preparedness. To be honest, it probably started with the lack of toilet paper in Costco but grew to a mindset of simply being prepared so I don’t have to rely on others for survival or even just comfort. Being able to grocery shop from my freezer or pantry brings ease to my days.
I was also introduced to Fieldcraft Survival in the spring or summer of 2021. I built a pantry for us with enough food for several months, I started storing water, we started acquiring firearms, and more. And while many think that being prepared, or calling yourself a prepper is something embarrassing or akin to being called a conspiracy theorist I simply realized that it has helped me reduce anxiety around the unknown or the future.
What to expect
So while I’ll still continue blogging over on my namesake site. I thought this would be a perfect chance to explore and dedicate space to my resilience and self-reliance challenges. More about those in a second.
Free subscribers, I’ll be sharing one weekly post that you’ll get access to.
Paid subscribers, you’ll be getting two weekly posts from me with more detail and resources that I’ve gathered on each monthly challenge so you can use the education I’m finding for myself, for you. If it interests you, of course.
Resilience
So why a resilience challenge? Let me set the stage here with the reason why I’m embarking on a 12-month resilience challenge.
Definition of Resilience: The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
I believe myself to be a fairly resilient person, having endured several tough life moments. I however have really struggled with stress management in the last few years. I’m giving myself a bit of grace, as I did give birth to twins in 2020. So, I thought I could challenge myself to one thing a month to build physical and emotional resilience.
Self-Reliance
So why a self-reliance challenge as well? As someone who is very drawn to homesteading content and already picturing living on many acreages with a milk cow in my backyard, I’m not there yet. So in 2022, I challenged myself to learn 1 new skill a month that allows me to be more self-reliant and rely on others less.
In my next post, I’ll share more details about each challenge and the monthly goals/challenges/new skills to learn that I’ve outlined for myself.
A little more about me
Oh, but how rude, I haven’t even introduced myself in case you’re new to my world. My name is Robyn Pineault, I’m a health and lifestyle blogger, a twin mama (boy/girl twins were born in 2020), an essential oil educator, an author, a wannabe homesteader, and an autoimmune thriver (I live well with MS).
I look forward to meeting each and everyone one of you as you join this community. Please introduce yourself in the comments so I can say hi!