Blog

So I have been along time reader of a blog site called “Disrupting the Rabblement“. This site is run by one Niall Doherty who in November of 2010 left the world of 9 to 5 employment to travel the world and blog about his experiences of living a non-traditional life. One of the things Niall did when he first started his adventure is a personal challenge called courage week. Over the course of five days Niall challenged himself to 10 challenges per day that pushed his personal comfort zone, resulting in a total of 50 personal challenges.

The idea sounded like a fun way to push some personal bounderies and with a mental block in terms of things to blog about seemed like it would be a fun idea. Lacking the same amount of time that Niall had available to him for completing the challenges I will be adjusting the guidelines a bit a spreading the challenge over a longer period of time and a greater number of personal challenges. So starting next week I will be taking on the same challenge with the Courage Challenge running from May 1st – June 30th. Each week will include a list of 15 challenges, for a total of 120 challenges. The first week will include challenges taken from Niall’s challenge list and the remaining weeks will be challenges submitted by my readers!

Here are some randomly selected samples from the first week of challenges:

1. Cook a meal you have never made before and serve it to a loved one.
2. Try a food you would not normally eat and have never had before.
3. Get on a random bus or train, travel five stops and get off. Explore for at least thirty minutes then find your way back to the starting point with out using your cell phone or by using public transportation.
4. Negotiate the price on something in a store, restaurant or similar location that traditionally has fixed prices.
5. Ask a strange to do an unreasonable favor for you.

So How do you get involved?
So as noted following the first week the remaining seven weeks will be filled with challenges submitted by my readers. Thats right you get to pick the challenges, there is of course a catch though, actually there are two catches. The first catch is in order to submit your challenge you must complete five (5) challenges from the week before and you must also have already completed your own challenge and be able to prove it. Each week I will publish a new list of 15 challenges, 2 of which will be decided by me and the remaining 13 provided by readers. Of the 15 challenges per week I will complete 10 of the challenges (allowing me submission of 2 challenges to the list for the next week).

Selecting a wingman / wingwomen.
If you are going to participate then as noted you need to be able to prove the completion of your own challenge being submitted and hopefully you will also share your experiences completing the other challenges, for this you are going to need a wing. Now you don’t want to have a wingman (or wingwoman) there for some of the easier challenges (that would make them a little too easy), but for the more difficult ones it will definitely help to have some support, and also someone to hold the camera or video camera for capturing the experience to share with others. Having a wing will also help you conquer some of the challenges you may not otherwise have the courage to do on your own.

Facebook & Twitter
For those of you planning to participate in the Random Acts of Courage challenge, I have that set up as a Facebook event. Feel free to click “I’m Attending” there, and invite any friends who might get a kick out of it.

As for Twitter, you can use and/or follow the #raoc hashtag I’ll be using throughout the challenge. Or just follow me @azchipka.

Please consider spreading the word about Random Acts of Courage via Facebook, Twitter, or any other way you can. With your help, we’ll have strangers haggling and dancing in the streets.