What I'm Giving Up for Lent
Mar 05, 2022
Mardi Gras, with all of its partying and celebration and beads, was this past Tuesday.
Which means Wednesday marked the first day of Lent, the 40 days on the Christian calendar between Ash Wednesday and Easter.
The purpose of Lent is to prepare the believer for Easter, which celebrates Jesus' resurrection from the dead. The 40-day period of preparation includes prayer, repentance of sins, simple living and self-denial.
In modern day, Lent is most commonly associated with self-denial. Indeed, most people celebrate by “fasting”or giving up something that they enjoy like chocolate or alcohol or social media or TV.
Not Christian? As far as I’m concerned, you don’t need to be Christian to celebrate Lent. It’s a great time to press the reset button for anyone. To re-commit to those new year’s resolutions. To plant the seeds of ongoing change.
Whether you're Christian or not, and regardless of whether you traditionally celebrate Lent or not, I'd like to challenge you to partake in the Lenten Season this year. But approach it a little differently than most people do.
Instead of giving up something for 40 days with the intention of picking right back up where you left off 40 days from now, why not use the next 40 days to create a new habit that will continue to serve you long after the 40 days ends?
✅ Give up worrying about other people’s opinions of you. Instead, spend the next 40 days focusing only on the things you can control like your attitude and actions.
✅ Give up worrying about failure. Instead, spend the next 40 days embracing and celebrating failure because it means that you are trying new things, and learning and growing.
✅ Give up waiting to be perfect to take action. Instead, spend the next 40 days starting, and then recalibrating or redirecting when necessary.
✅ Give up the critical self-talk when looking in the mirror. Instead, spend the next 40 days celebrating the amazing human looking back at you, the strong legs that have carried you, the strong arms that freely embrace others, the flabby belly that may have grown a life.
✅ Give up self-imposed guilt for taking time for yourself. Instead, spend the next 40 days realizing that you must do for yourself first so that you can also serve those around you.⠀⠀
Some experts say that it only takes 30 days of repeated daily action to create a new habit. You have the next 40 days to create something that will serve you moving forward.
So this year, why don't you join me in giving up some of your mental baggage? That also means we can keep the wine and chocolate. Cheers to that!
Sign up for The Weekly Best Life List!
My weekly newsletter is delivered right to your In-Box on Sunday mornings.
Full of inspiration, ideas, strategies and recommendations to help you live your BEST LIFE every day!
Bonus: pairs nicely with a cup of coffee or mimosa.
Like you, I hate SPAM. I will never sell your information, for any reason.
