6:52 PM and stuck in Kemang Utara on the way home. I usually won’t bother to open my laptop in the car and just read my Twitter timeline from my iPhone..but not this time because this is where the #7hari challenge starts!. And my challenge is to update this blog everyday. I know it sounds like a walk in the park..but it’s not. If it is, I would’ve been able to update this every single day since a long time ago. The thing that makes it hard is of course..finding the time to write. It’s hard to squeeze in a 30 minutes to put my thoughts into writing. When I write, I like to allocate certain length of time so I can finish it in one sitting, because I believe I write better that way. But it seems like impossible for today, that's why I decided to open up my laptop and see if I can get two or three paragraphs done. When I get home, I have to help Jibran with his science project. Something that I just found out this morning (my bad). He needs to make a replica of an electric thing. Maybe we can make an iPad out of cardboard or something.

Anyway, so what’s a #7hari, you ask? It’s a challenge to do something different in your daily routine. I did it a few times recently. I try to cook but failed after day 4. I tried to cut off my Ginseng coffee intake completely and boy was I relieved when I passed the challenge. Again, it might seems like an easy thing to do, but I’ve been an addict of that particular cofffee for a long time. I first consumed it when I was pregnant with Jibran and that was 8 years ago!!. I used to drink it twice..even thrice a day at around the same time, morning and late afternoon. There were times when my head turned dizzy after a few minutes upon missing the intake . I was that addicted, it was crazy. I thought to myself that this addiction is not healthy at all. I felr insulted that I didn’t have control over my own body. Since I didn’t want to depend on it for the rest of my life, I tried to cut down by taking it only once a day and substituted the other one with other coffee. The first few days was hard but then it became easier. Last week, I decided that it was time to try to go about my days without it so when I ran out of it, I didn’t buy anymore. It was easy because I got Starbucks a few times and Anomali coffee for two times as substitutes :D…

For next time I’m going to try to not consume/buy anything that comes in plastic. I’ve sorted my trash at home and in the office so I thought why don’t I stretch it a little bit further?. I can also run for the whole week or walk somewhere (this is hard). I’m also going to try dressing up to work like I would going to a fashion show or important event because sometimes I feel like I dress too casually when I don't have meetings to go. Or I might call my long lost friend for the whole week.

So what’s this challenge all about? I believe any kind of challenge can teach us many things. For example we can learn about self control, about detachment. We’re also leaving our comfort zone, incorporating new activity into our life that hopefully will add excitement on our days. It also forces us to stretch ourselves, to push ourselves just a little bit harder because when we thought we’ve tried our best, we can still beat our best record.

By the way it’s 7:11 PM…and I've reached home.

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Now it’s 10:15 PM..the kids are sleeping, the husband is on the way home. I’ve changed to my pajamas but haven’t washed my face off. Taking a shower? That is asking too much. I didn’t even get a chance to have dinner. But I helped Jibran created his iPad..out of my Mango shoebox -__-

Anyway..so now everyone in the office is doing their own #7hari challenge. Vanya is going to arrive in the office at 9 (fine by me :D). Affi will exercise for 30 minutes a day while Amal is kissing goodbye to her coffee intake. Syita & Farah decides to do something with the food. Syita won’t consume anything prepared by frying while Farah won’t be eating any meat/chicken. Rizka & Lita will do something with their look. Since Lita has always been wearing black hijab, she will start wearing different color while Rizka will apply a full make up everyday. Itha has always been a heel/wedge kind of girl but she will learn to live with flats for the next 7 days.

Sounds like fun, isn’t it? We talked about it in the office and brought it up in Twitter and suddenly, many people wanted to join us. I created a thread in the forum to update on the progress.

Back to speaking about the benefits of doing this kind of challenge, I believe once you've passed, it'll boost your self esteem, knowing that you are able to do what you once thought impossible. Doing this takes courage too..especially for something extreme. To me, the most extreme thing the team is doing at the office got to be Amal challenge. May the force be with her!