Day 4 • A Short Report

The challenges continue to go well.

I’m wrapping up day 4 of Dry January, and I’m encouraged that it’s not been so hard. Alcohol was my go-to relaxation at the end of the day, so I’m working at finding healthier and less expensive ways to relax. I’ve had decaf tea these past two nights and played Xbox, and while this combo doesn’t get the same result as a glass of Elijah Craig, I’ve enjoyed it so far.

For my second challenge, I had a good exercise in mindfulness today, which included a meditation session, which made me feel (for lack of a less cliche’d word) centered. But this is the value of mindfulness: it helps you be in the moment, to pause and breathe and think about the fact that you’re breathing, to take a moment to think about the cup of coffee you’re about to sip, to pay attention to the sounds around you. I appreciate this daily reminder that I need to practice being present.

My financial health challenge continues, with a deep dive into how we’re setting things up for retirement. The organization that I work for doesn’t offer any sort of IRAs, so we’ve always invested through a financial advisor at our bank. My focus today looked at the value of having some diversification in your retirement, so I started looking into Roth IRAs.

Finally, my creature challenge today was unusual in that it was an animal that actually exists: the narwhal. So, I decided to do something completely shocking and drop my narwhals into a galaxy far, far away.

I liked the narwhals, but wasn’t so happy with the light sabers. But that said, it’s been fun to sit and draw after not doing it for so long!

Onward!
Nate