Purpose

My "challengers" come from every corner of my life and have experienced the facets of my personality in varying degrees. They may have met me when we were 12 or yesterday at lunch, they either want me to learn a new skill or perhaps a life lesson, they challenge me to do something for which they don't have the courage or they just want a buddy to surf with. They connect with my funny stories or with those that are more poignant, and regardless of the subject, each person has a reason for their challenge and this is their forum.

Here are the challenges I've completed and, in the challengers' own words, the purpose behind each one.

CHALLENGE #1- Surf Ocean Beach Everyday
By Anna Furniss

CHALLENGE #2- No Caffeine
By Holly Rose Faith
I chose the no-caffeine challenge because I noticed Lauren had a "pattern" of needing coffee every morning. In fact, the office coffee was not stimulating enough so she purchased a French press and ground coffee in order to make a strong brew of the special juice! As someone who has done the no coffee thing before, it is an interesting realization when you start to cut coffee out of your diet and how the body reacts. It showed me how much my body was affected by one substance.

CHALLENGE #3- Give Free Hugs for an Hour Each Day
By Bria Wing
I thought of this challenge as I was talking about hugs with a friend and I mentioned that Lauren gives the best hugs on the planet. I thought that this challenge would be perfect for her as it would let others experience the awesomeness of The Lauren Hargrave hugs :).

CHALLENGE #5- Write a Letter to Someone You Love Each Day
By Holly Rose Faith
The letter writing was chosen because too often I think people don't tell one another how they feel or what they admire and/or appreciate about the other person. So often in life we are rushing through the day, that is is nice to stop, sit down, gather one's thoughts and express them. I chose a handwritten letter over an email because I view it as more personal. A letter is written on a chosen paper, with a certain writing utensil, and the handwriting of each person is never the same. I consider the appearance of an email boring and plain. The hand-written letter also provides the recipient the opportunity to store it someplace special (perhaps in a book or in a drawer) and look at it for years to come and admire the way it ages. Finally, I found this challenge both beneficial to Lauren and the people who would be receiving the letters. There is nothing better than expressing your thoughts to someone and it is just as rewarding for the recipient to hear those thoughts.

CHALLENGE #6- Meditate for 10 Minutes Each Day
By Hansmeet Sethi
I gave Lauren this challenge because the girl can't sit still!

CHALLENGE #7- No Dairy
By Claire Currie

CHALLENGE #8- Say "Yes" to Everything
By Tabatha Utley

CHALLENGE #9- A Week on Match.com, Go on a Date with the First Five Guys That Ask
By KL
I could give an honorable explanation as to how I wanted Lauren to give some guys a chance that she normally wouldn’t look at twice… but let’s be honest… This was purely for entertainment's sake.

The only two people I know who actually ended up with relationships out of Match have since ended those relationships violently. One friend dated a guy who turned out to be a cutter and liked to insert kitchen gadgets into his available orifices whilst piddling about in the shower. The other chica dated a guy who ended up giving her Chlamydia on her birthday.

Be afraid.

CHALLENGE #10- Make 50 PB&J Sandwiches and Hand Them Out to Homeless People
By Nicole Holmes

CHALLENGE #11- Make Something You Can Wear From Scratch
By Mike Dunn
I chose "make something you can wear from scratch" because it's something I grew up around and have noticed that in more urban areas, and as times becomre more modern, fewer people are doing it and it's becoming a lost talent.

CHALLENGE #12- Take Nothing But Public Transportation
By Jim DiRienzo
I wanted Lauren to improve her skills at Brickbreaker and hopefully meet a nice guy in the untapped public transit dating scene. I'm also kind of a hippy and thought it would be enlightening for Lauren to see what it would be like if she couldn't afford to take a taxi.

CHALLENGE #13- Five Minutes of Stand-up Comedy
By Jason DiLorenzo

CHALLENGE #14- Be On Time For Everything
By Bree Martin
Lauren has a lot of unbelievable strong suits – but being on-time may not be in the top 10:) As a close friend of Lauren’s, I have learned that any event should include a 30 minute buffer window prior to the actual meeting time, to make sure she gets there when “on-time”. The idea around this challenge was to have Lauren see what sort of changes she would have to make to her schedule or her commitments to ensure that she was always on-time. In doing so, she might find herself sitting at a bar solo, waiting for others to arrive, or simply making less commitments, to ensure that she wouldn’t be late to another one. All and all, I thought it would be interesting to see what it would be like for Lauren, if punctuality was a priority for the week.

CHALLENGE #15- Master Cleanse
By Claire Currie

CHALLENGE #16- Unplug For a Week
By Mike Dunn
I chose this one because I lost my blackberry for 8 days and it tought me how dependant our society is on technology. It was difficult for the first few days...but it got better and taught me that we don't really need to rely on materialistic items so much.

CHALLENGE #17- Meet a New Person Each Day and Find Out 5 Intimate Details
By Kylie Shea
The reason I challenged Lauren to meet a new person and learn 5 intimate details each day is because, if you're like me, you often people watch and wonder what that person you are observing does for a living, or where they're going at that particular moment. What if we actually took the time to get to know the random person sitting next to us? Who knows, just by talking to them, you might have made their day, or their week. I think we tend to get wrapped up in our own worlds and to-do lists, that it's nice to stop and actually think about our "neighbors."

CHALLENGE #18- Go a Week Without Saying Anything Negative
By Jennifer Gallivan

CHALLENGE #19- Get Jaclyn and Tanin 150 Votes in the Ultimate Wedding Contest
By Cristina Nolan

CHALLENGE #20- Start with Something Worth Less than $5 and Barter with it For a Week
By Tanin Blumberg

CHALLENGE #21- Do Something Each Day to Foster a Writing Career
By Bria Wing
This one came during a conversation with Lauren, the day that she decided it was time to leave her job and pursue the thing that she loved most – writing. The more we talked, the more I became inspired by her story and the more is made me realize that her blog could be a vehicle for others to get inspiration to pursue the things that they love as well.


CHALLENGE #22- Give Away Something of Value
By Andrew Cheney

CHALLENGE #23- Live with as Close to Zero Carbon Footprint as Possible
By Brian Hamilton
I thought it would be an interesting challenge for two reason. 1) It has a positive impact on the world around you, in addition to being something challenging and rewarding for yourself, and 2) because it is an incredibly difficult thing to get your head around, the amount of carbon we actually produce with the things we do, so by doing this you find out all sorts of things that you used to take for granted and that you can share with other people when you share your experience.

CHALLENGE #24- Do Something for Yourself Each Day
By Missy Strasner
I gave Lauren this challenge because everyone needs more pampering and when you take care of #1 first the world gets to benefit as well!

CHALLENGE #25- Go 24 Hours Without Saying a Word
By Nicole Holmes

CHALLENGE #26- Climb All of the Original Hills of San Francisco
By Adam Borod

CHALLENGE #27- Watch One Hour of Conservative Pundit Television Each Day
By Patrick Hargrave

CHALLENGE #28- See and Do as Many of the Tourist Sights and Attractions as Possible in 24 Hours
By Chris Williams

CHALLENGE #29- Take a Trip Down Highway 1
By Jim Dirienzo

CHALLENGE #30- Memorize a New Poem Each Day and Recite to Two People
By Blue and Laura from The Writing Group

CHALLENGE #31- Speak in a Foreign Accent For a Week
By Alex from Diva International

CHALLENGE #32- Submit Five Article Pitches to My Dream Magazines
By Stacia Parseghian
I gave you this challenge because it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, but always chicken out... I knew you wouldn’t. You never do. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to take this passion you’ve finally stopped to explore and the time you now have to do it and see what’s possible. This wasn’t so much about just spitting out five stories, it was about exploring your writing, your style and those little things about writing that make you want to go back for more. And, of course, I wanted to be sure you knew how to make an envelope out of two halves of a manila folders and some glue.

CHALLENGE #33- Meet a Member of the Opposite Sex In a New Place Each Day
By Christopher Perry III

CHALLENGE #34- Start a Brokerage Account, Buy a Penny Stock and Sell it After a Week
By Adam Borod