In a nutshell, Challenge Clare is all about how to successfully navigate and manage life’s challenges.
My ultimate aim for the blog is to share a range of tried and tested ideas, strategies, hints, tips and inspiration for tackling the most pressing challenges head on. I think everyone should be living the charmed life they deserve!
I won’t lie you will also find some rambling, musing and quite probably some ranting! Just to warn you, it may also get a little bit sweary if it gets ranty! (Sorry!!)
The Backstory to ChallengeClare
I am the first to admit I live a very charmed life, (as my lovely sister describes it)! I live in rural Gloucestershire with my partner, sons and our cocker spaniel Trigger. My day job is Head of English for an on-line alternative education provision and I love it! We own our own home, have a very comfortable lifestyle and in my spare time I get to socialise, write, travel, try new things and generally chill out… My worries are few…
Often, I pinch myself, because it hasn’t always been this way.
My Challenges
Starting with leaving home aged 16 I have faced a number of significant challenges over the years; becoming a teen mum, parenting children with significant additional needs, separation, university, surviving on a low income, building a career, step-parenting, redundancy, relocation, debt, bereavement…
The past 20 years of my life have been at times a massive roller coaster, one challenging situation after another. Seriously, Eastenders, has nothing on me!
But…
and this is the key, it genuinely didn’t faze me. Yes. sometimes I hit lows, who doesn’t? I would think seriously?! Really?! Again?!! However, the simple fact of the matter is that I am pretty good at handling whatever crap life throws at me and turning it to my advantage. I am good at challenge!
A friend of mine once said ‘I don’t know how you do it… You keep on falling into the shit but you manage to come out of it smelling of roses!!’ and to be fair it’s a pretty accurate description of my late teens and twenties! Mostly, these were challenges forced on me. But, somehow, I nailed them!
Reflecting,
I wondered… How exactly had I managed to achieve this ‘charmed life’ that I have?
Pretty well-adjusted, happy kids, a successful relationship, good career, homeowner, great lifestyle, in the face of some pretty difficult circumstances? Was there something in my ability to manage difficult experiences and circumstances?
I started to think about how I could use my experiences and my ability to handle a challenge, in a more structured and focused way, to achieve more in my own life. I love reading blogs. Seeing how other people choose to live their lives fascinates me. I also love writing. As the idea evolved I thought that perhaps I could choose some challenges and document how I get on with them in a blog. Sharing these experiences and strategies with others, to help them manage their own personal challenges more effectively, so that they can get to live the life they want to.
The Secret
Personally, I believe that ‘Challenge’ is the reason for my charmed life.
I am passionate about the idea that actually ‘Challenge’ can and will make you happy. But only if you ‘own it’ and are challenged on your own terms and through your own choices.
The challenge that faces us as women in today’s society is how to be the women we want to be. Choosing only the aspects of modern womanhood that suit us individually. Living life the way we want to, on our terms, and no one else’s. Choosing our own challenges, not the challenges that societies’ expectations imposes on us.
For the Love of the Challenge
So yep I decided I needed some new challenges and I have chosen 5 challenges that are the basis of the blog. You can read about my challenges and why I chose them here. You can also find out more about my thoughts about challenge here
Sound Good to You?
Challenge Clare launched late November 2017, so it is really in it’s infancy, as the blog grows I will be creating a platform for people to support each other as they share their challenges and progress. I will also be developing all sorts of guides, templates and lists to help you tackle your personal challenges.
If you would like to keep up to date with these developments then please use the form below and subscribe to my email updates!
English