Challenge within a challenge: Giving Lent a go

Firstly, apologies for not blogging in nearly 2 months! It’s hard to believe it’s been that long, but in short I’ve got a new job, and my months’ notice at my last job was very stressful and it’s taken a bit of time to adjust to my new job. Hopefully I can blog on a more regular basis from now on.

I’m not really religious. I was brought up going to Quaker meeting and know about the Quaker faith. Last year I started, but albeit did not complete a challenge to read the bible every day for 30 days. However by reading some passages I can see why people have the bible as a source of support.
Traditionally you give up something for Lent to ‘purify’ their bodies, so usually a certain food or alcohol. With so much talk about it in the office, I wondered what I could give up and then it hit me, I could give up films!

As I said in my last post, through not going to the cinema for the year I felt more creative than normal, so by having no films to watch my creativity may increase even more.

I’ve become quite spoilt with films since I started getting the Sky Movie channels and Sky Movies on demand for free. It’s meant I’ve started a particularly bad habit; starting a film but not finishing it and picking another film instead that seems better. There is too much choice and as a result I don’t give films a chance to grow and develop. With the number of film channels I have; myself and Rachel average around 3 films a week, occasionally it’s more or less. That’s a lot of time I’m wasting. A lot of time I could spend doing something else.

There are several things I could do; catch up on TV shows I’m behind on, finish a few of the many books I’ve started, finish a screenplay and start another, more volunteering and many more things. I could even see about completing a few challenges I didn't complete last year, including the bible one.

Lent is also a time of reflection and I’ve started to be in a reflective mood about the future, so I’ll have more time to explore my thoughts.

Of course I may isolate myself a bit as a result, as Rachel still watches films, but as it’s only 40 days it’s not a lifetime.

I’m excited to see how the 40 days pan out; whether I find it easy or a challenge. And whether it has a lasting impact; will I watch less films afterwards? Will my habits of starting a film but not finishing it change?

So it’s lights, camera, action for Lent!