I love October, it is definitely one of my favourite months.  It’s that Autumn feel, it’s my wedding anniversary, it’s my twins’ birthday and it is halloween – my kids’ second favourite holiday.

October brings dark evenings, leaves crunching under your feet and the countdown to Christmas – my kids’  favourite holiday.

The first of any month brings an opportunity to start new challenges but for reasons best left to statisticians and philosophers, October and April appear to be the months when these new challenges are most successful.  I find if I start something on January 1, usually is it a dim distant memory by January 10th.

So to capitalise on the fact that I complete challenges started in October, I am setting myself five.  Yes, I am using the “Go for it or go home” method.

Commonplace Book:  I am the Queen of notes, I have them everywhere, quotes I like, paragraphs from books I have read so I am putting them all in one place.  Ryan Holidays has written a great post about How and Why to keep a Commonplace Book and this has inspired me to do the same.  I love the idea of a journey of my reading, life and inspiration in one place.  I also like the idea of being able to go back and use the quotes and passages as inspiration for posts.

Bullet Journal:  This is something I started earlier this year and to be honest, I dipped in and out of it over the summer but last month, I got organised and starting using it properly and what a difference it made.  If you have not had the pleasure of bullet journalling, then I would strongly recommend it.  If you have to do lists everywhere, have tried every app or procedure (Getting Things Done, etc) but have not quite got there, then give this a shot.  You can personalise as much as you like but this has definitely made life easier for me.

Health and Fitness:   Twelve weeks today is Christmas Eve.  Christmas brings parties and party clothes and whether you are currently a size 8 or a size 18, parties always bring out a dread in many women – what shall I wear, will I look ok?  So in twelve weeks, you have chance to tone up some of those flabby bits or you can start a healthy eating plan.  I always put off these things until tomorrow, so I am starting today.

Declutter my home:  A Bowl of Lemons is running a 31 day Purge of your home in October.  You can follow the blog or follow them on Facebook or Instagram.  Today is purging pantry cupboards so wish me luck.

And my number one challenge for October?

To try and achieve this state of mind.  Wish me luck!

So, what challenges can you start in October?

If none of my challenges appeal, what about some of the national challenges?  You would have to be living in the middle of the Amazon with no method of communication to have missed them.

Stoptober:  A challenge to quit smoking for 28 days.  This is being supported with an app, tweets, Facebook, emails and other regular updates to support smokers to stop in October.  The theory is if you stop smoking for 28 days, it will be make it five times easier to quit for good.

The app is definitely worth downloading, it’s free and some great tips in there.

Are you having a go?

Go Sober:  Taking a month off the booze can have many potential benefits. Just imagine what you could achieve without a hangover!  This is being organised by MacMillan Cancer support as a fundraising campaign

Have you tried this before?  I have to say I don’t drink enough for this to be a real challenge.  I like a glass of wine but I had a dry September, not by design, I didn’t plan that, it just happened.

Good luck with any challenge you decide to take on in October.