If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook (@thespareroom.emilychang), you may have noticed that I’ve started to post The Spare Room “Challenge of the Day.” What do these have to do with identifying your social legacy? Well, I’ve realized that big, life-altering goals can be intimidating… overwhelming. Where to start? Even if you have read my book and went through the reflective exercises, you may still not entirely know how to shift into a state of intentional living.

So let’s start small.

Instead of setting a big, hairy goal and trying to back out a plan to achieve it, some of us might do better if we start with small steps. Because small steps, repeated over time, become habits. And as habits become ingrained in our behavior, they shape our life direction. Let’s call these small steps “micro-intentions.”

You see, the subtitle of The Spare Room Book is “Define Your Social Legacy to Live a More Intentional Life and Lead with Authentic Purpose.” The process is chronological. We have to define Who we want to be and What we stand for, before we can delineate How we will get there.

Micro-intentions are as small as they get.

For instance, on one particular day, chew your food 32 times. This one was a challenge for me, as well! But what an interesting day it was. Thinking so much more about my food, feeling it in my mouth, fighting impatience to get on with it… I realized I do eat too quickly on a regular basis, and as a result, probably too much.

I’ll admit, after the day was over, I’m not chewing all my food 32 times. But I’m definitely a little more aware of the eating process. In fact, the challenge identified a new habit that has served me well – I now put my utensils down between each bite. That’s slowing me down and forcing me to enjoy each bite a little bit more.

One day, as I was enjoying New York City, I recorded a Spare Room Challenge of the Day as I walked to the office. Just to get outside! It doesn’t sound like much of a stretch, does it? And yet, how many days have passed where we didn’t set foot outd of doors? Perhaps we didn’t even get off our own floor, or even out of our own office! So, intentionally setting aside time to get outside can help us take a small step toward being more balanced in our wellness.

Interested? Please follow my socials and try these challenges with me! I’d love to hear what you think, or if you have any The Spare Room Challenge of the Day ideas of your own!

For a few related articles:

Making good micro choices
Specific micro-intentions for leaders in the office
One micro-choice that can save ocean life