Scaring the 💩 out of yourself for fun! 🙃

Wrench Day is something new in my world, and it came out of the idea of "throwing a monkey wrench in the mix" or whatever it is that people say. In this metaphor, the wrench is something uncomfortable, unexpected, and unplanned. (Maybe more like a monkey with a wrench? Idk. 🔧🐒🍌)

Wrench Day is my one day a week that I have time set aside to be a Chaos Agent in my own world. 20 min to an hour spent engaging something wildly outside of my norm. Total #lokivibes

The rules for Wrench Day are simple:

🐵 You can't mess it up, just show up.

🐵 You can't do what you did last week.

🐵 No faking it: If you don't feel challenged, scared, or uncomfortable, it's not a real Wrench.

For me, Wrench Day is a critical part of my personal growth and it makes the cliched idea of "stepping outside of your comfort zone" fresh and fun. ( If I hear "get comfortable being uncomfortable!" one more time Imma vom! 🤮 ) Anyhoo, I'm always looking forward to scaring the shit out of myself. 😈😂 Here's why: Why Wrench Day is Important

POWER. Wrench day is an approach to the uncomfortable that is *empowering* because we are the ones in control. We choose it, we engage it, and we explore it. There is no room for feeling like a victim.

LIFE IS SCARY. Things come at us when we least expect it.

Wrenches teach us to approach something we are afraid of with a different attitude—playful, curious, experimenting. So when something we *can't* control comes up in life, we have this new approach to use, and we have already trained ourselves to respond that way.

STEADY AS SHE GOES. Wrench day is consistent. Which is helpful because no matter what other things there are in your life that are also pushing you outside of your comfort zone, they will have moments of plateau and stability, which is a natural and important part of the growth process. When they get there, you can enjoy those moments, and wrench day is still there for you to shake things up!

SWAMPS & INCEST. GROSS. Wrench day is a powerful way to avoid swamps and incest in your favorite arenas. (If you’re thinking “Eww!” well that’s the point.) Whatever your industry, art, or field of study, people tend to spend time with other people who do the same thing. Then they are exposed to the same body of ideas, thoughts and materials.

There’s nothing wrong with that, it creates support, strength, and at its best, a hotbed of cooperative inspiration around any given topic. However, this can also lead to stagnation, with no flow of inspiration outside of a closed circle—swamps—and closed-mindedness, as the same ideas are repeated over and over, constantly reinforced, with no attention given to ideas outside of that circle—incest.

This happens naturally in social circles, but there is a greater threat of it now, with social media growing more and more filtered to the individual. We’re receiving information curated to our already established point of view. Wrench Day ensures that you have a reliable fresh flow of ideas, methods, thoughts and perspectives into your life, which has the potential to not only enrich your life, but also give you a competitive edge in many endeavors.

DO IT FOR THE DRUGS. Wrench Day gives you something to look forward to. I put it at the end of my week, so I can play with that excitement all week long. Like, “Omg, what’s going to happen on wrench day?!?” And since anticipation is once of the greatest natural highs we can get (dopamine & adrenaline, if I'm remembering correctly), it creates energy for my entire week.

GROW YO SELF. Wrenches can help us improve our relationship with ourselves. When we’re engaging something new or uncozy, there are moments like, “Oh god I’m scared.” Or “I am really uncomfortable rn. I want to quit.” Or “This is really weird and I don’t know how to feel.” How we deal with those moments, offering ourselves safe space for “bad” feelings, giving ourselves compassion and room to grow, can help strengthen our relationship with our bodies, emotions, and minds.

WARNINGS. SRSLY.

DON'T BE STUPID. It is really important that you have a good basis of self-knowledge and mindfulness going into Wrench Day. The point isn’t to *force* yourself, *hurt* yourself or *terrorize* yourself in any way. And don’t be a moron. No one is jumping off random buildings and being like, “Oh, wrench day said do something scary.”

START WITH SAFETY. If you are not currently enjoying the privilege of personal safety, Wrench Day might not be best for you. I wouldn't recommend Wrench Day to anyone in a survival situation, or anyone with mental health concerns, without the supervision of a dr and therapist.

THINK FOR YOURSELF. All of my ideas are designed for me, and meant to be modified depending on what works for *you*. You certainly don't have to do it my way. You don't even have to call it Wrench Day. Take it and run with it. 😘

This is what works for me. #imaketherules

It might not be what's best for you. #makeyourownrules #thinkforyourself