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Tag Archives: 12 Month Challenge

After the productive 2015 and a successful challenge,  GreatGothNinja and I had a “Challenge Committee” meeting in November.  The outcome was :

  1. Quarterly Non LOLS Papers
  2. Art Project
  3. 100Days starting April 1st 2016 to July 9th 2016

 

Quarterly Non LOLS Papers:

The write and esoteric paper challenge was a very successful event from last year. I completed 4 paper in that year. All the subject came from Dr Lomas  and his brethren of the Lodge of Living Stones  This has had a side effect that we can now come up with our on topics for Papers to  research and write. Therefore we have decided that we should produce 4 papers over the course of the 12 months that are independent of the ones set by LOLS.

 

Art Project :

This is similar to the shared story idea of 2015, yet this time the work is not shared  and not a story. In fact you could say the two events are not even similar!  The Art Project is a piece of art that can be done over the course of the year, that is not a poem, story or script.  But an Art thing , painting, drawing, graphic image, collage, sculpture etc. or &c.

As it is art and rules cannot be applied to it, then only a base framework it can be done  on anything  and there must be some post throughout the year on its progress.   Perhaps 1 a quarter or  once a month.

This is the challenge I am not looking forward to as I am no good at the art things  I was banned from picking colours at Net-Work Internet limited for my Purple, Orange and Neon Green website  I built.

 

100 Days:

Back once again for the creative behaviour, the annual challenge has returning.  Last year I managed was able to be creative for the full 100days this is a fantastic achievement . But there were 19 late posts, this year we will have less than 11.

2015 is almost complete, it is time for a “Lessons Learnt” approach to this year’s challenge.  The imaginatively entitled “The Challenge 2015”.

The events that make up this challenge are :

  1. Experimental Story.
  2. 100 Days.
  3. An esoteric paper.

 

Experimental story:

This is writing a story with GreatGothNinja. We will take it in turns to write a section of the story over the next 52 weeks starting on the 29th December 2014.  Each Monday in 2015 will have a section of story posted to the official website.  Therefore part 1 will be appearing on the 5th December and will be written by me.

A little pressure but then this is the whole point of challenges to be well challenging !!!

So that was the plan,  in the words of Captain Sheridan for Babylon 5,” it failed”.  There is 13 weeks’ worth of a story, but  the pressures of doing the other challenges on top of this  one  was too much for me to bear, and my good friend GreatGothNinja presented a good case and concurred the issue was with me.  Awaiting the arrival and the preparing for it took up my time.

The unfinished story can be seen here: talexp.three-ninjas.co.uk it  may get resurrected next year it may not. Parts of my own work there may get recycled into other plans. Only  time will tell.

Event Success : FAIL

Percentage of task complete : 25{aa1fa390bbc9d269570451bc587ff4575656a4de8aa16bce1026e126cd0a00ba}

 

100 Days:

This annual challenge is returns by unpopular demand. Last year I managed to be creative for 70days over the allotted period. Which is to date my personal best, therefore the plan is to complete the 100days challenge.

This year it started on the 1st February 2015  and the 100th day was to be the 11th May 2015.  Last year I got to the lofty heights of 70days, that was my personal best so far, and  I have the great pleasure of  informing you that this year I completed the 100days challenge.

I was surprised by this but  I did it. The 100days can be seen under this link

Event Success : Complete

Percentage of task complete : 100{aa1fa390bbc9d269570451bc587ff4575656a4de8aa16bce1026e126cd0a00ba}

 

An Esoteric Paper:

To write paper on an esoteric subject with the view to publish in the web.

This was the plan, after not being able to come up with any decent ideas,  I suggested to GreatGothNinja that we asked our twitter friends, which Doc  suggested we should join him in his writing a paper on the 2 Pillars. Which he has been assigned for his quarterly paper to the associate LOLS members. The deadline was 1st March 2015.

We both agreed so did our Canadian brother Gord, so when the 1st March came 3 pdfs were sent out to the four of us. But just as we were about to discuss them.  But the Doc had a new plan, soon we all had invites to join www.Openlodge.com. Once we had joined this site we all got promoted to  the Robert Lomas Portal for Masonic study.  Here the Doc, GreatGothNinja and I uploaded our papers. Unfortunately Gord was unable to get a paper prepared due to other commitments.  A discussion was had about what we had written, and more understanding in Masonic matters  occurred.

After the comedown of completing this extremely stressful task of writing a paper on the same  subject as the Doc. Who is a World renowned published author in masonic  writing.  Also a lecturer whose job it would have been to mark such papers.  About a week or two later a message appears on OpenLodge, a new topic had arrived, Without Scruple or Diffidence.  Without thinking too much about it the process started again:

  • Read title
  • Think about it
  • Research
  • Plan paper
  • Write paper.

 

But this was the second paper and now things became more difficult, so it was a shorter paper than the previous one.  When all four were published to the Doc’s  Portal, on reviewing  2 of the papers and think they had gone of topic, I discussed it with the Mentor of LOLS and the Doc. So that when topic 3 arrived  I decided I would not  look at the first level of the title “The Significance of the Third Degree”  I changed my research plan and read all round the subject. This was my favourite paper of the year to do,  I learnt so much and it changed my view of the Royal Arch. I had originally seen it as hurdle to allow me to get to  the Templars.  But now I realise its more than that. But the way it is sold in Craft Masonry is wrong, and the powers that be should review their approach to the Royal Arch in connection to the 3rd Degree.

This week I finished the 4th paper which was the “Using All the working tools of a Master Mason” I again learnt a lot and about how the ritual we know today has not always been as we have come to believe. Also in discussing what I have been up to this year with the Elder of Westminster Lodge, I have now been hit with a paper to write for him on Aprons.

On reflection from the writer’s block this time last year.  On the event of doing one paper, FOUR have been completed and one is due end of Jan, with the Doc saying the 8th Dec is when the next topic is due arrive.  It has become some sort of addiction.

Event Success : Complete

Percentage of task complete : 100{aa1fa390bbc9d269570451bc587ff4575656a4de8aa16bce1026e126cd0a00ba} + 100{aa1fa390bbc9d269570451bc587ff4575656a4de8aa16bce1026e126cd0a00ba} +100{aa1fa390bbc9d269570451bc587ff4575656a4de8aa16bce1026e126cd0a00ba} + 100{aa1fa390bbc9d269570451bc587ff4575656a4de8aa16bce1026e126cd0a00ba}  = 400{aa1fa390bbc9d269570451bc587ff4575656a4de8aa16bce1026e126cd0a00ba}

 

Conclusion

Those were the Challenges for 2015 and in conclusion  it was a very productive year , I believe it was the most productive year ever. Well at least since these challenges have occurred. Yes the Story event was a failure but in the words of Meatloaf,” Two out of Three, ain’t bad”.  But the paper event lasted 4 quarters.

Lessons Learnt :

  • Trying something new , you may enjoy it
  • Don’t take on to much as some aspects may fail

 

So with this in mind  and 2016 is fast approaching, the question remains what has Artisan 2016 have in store.

At the backend of 2013 it was agreed between GreatGothNinja and I that we would have another competition to be productive and not fall in the pit of lethargy that seems to haunt us.  The 5 month dash had been successful and to insure this new found momentum continued it was decided that we would have  “Challenge 2014” not the most imaginative name, it is also known as “Challenge Pursuits 2014”. This was GreatGothNinja idea  for a name based on the fact we had 6 Categories for our tasks and we could  make a segment of a circle for completing of a number of tasks in the a category a bit like the board game Trivial Pursuits.

The six categories are:

  1. Esoteric
  2. Health & Fitness
  3. Creative
  4. 100 Days
  5. Finance
  6. Home/House

These covered all the areas we wanted to make improvements in certain areas of our lives.

Esoteric – This  covered Masonic life and reading of alternative ideas and generally expanding ones metaphysical understanding of life and universe.

Health & Fitness – The title gives it away really, with one category to improve the mind, this was to improve the body and ensure it was fit for purpose.

Creative – To be active on our blogs and work to the goal of becoming published writers.

100 Days – The annual challenge of being creative for 100 days.

Finance – Sorting out ones money situation is always difficult to do if you have “head in the Sand” Policy therefore this was meant to help you sort out your needs.

Home/House – One should always maintain a clean living environment.

At the start of 2014, we decided to use Trello as the best place to store this information as it allows you to have a list of tasks that can be easily categorised and managed. The software was also free, the only flaw came at the end of the year when I tried to export the data to excel, this is only available If you pay for the user account.

As the year has  progressed life takes of over so concentration on the challenge is a bit of a rollercoaster ride with the initial “Come on, let’s do this ” at the start with the inevitable  plateau of the enthusiasm appearing in the middle of the year. When you arrive in November and go “Yee gods  it is almost the end of the year, what about the challenge ” there is the mad panic to ensure all segments are of equal size/proportion.  So since November I have been having a mad push. In the 12 Months / 52 weeks or 365 days  I have managed to complete XX out of 51 tasks with 4 in the doing  section and 6 Todo section.

What do the Graphs  look like:

graphs to follow January 1st

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