Giving It Up for Lent?

I was in the city on Wednesday, and noticed the tell-tale smudges on foreheads announcing the start of Lent. My first thought was, wow, that means it is almost Spring! Then I started to think about what I would give up for 40 days. I was raised Catholic, and would participate in the Lenten ritual by giving up something like chocolate, or candy, or ice cream...interestingly, the sacrifice was nearly always related to food or drink.

These days, I consider myself more of a spiritual person than a religious one, and the Biblical meaning of Lent doesn't resonate with me. But by passing the concept of Lent through a prism, I can see it as an opportunity to initiate change(s) that would make me a better person. It has been said that it takes 30 days to create a new habit; I figure that 40 should really nail it home.

It's hard to "not" do something, though -- it's not exactly an action. It's easy to say I'm going to give up my insecurities, for example, but how exactly do you do that? So rather than focus on not doing a negative, it seems to me that it would be much easier to take action on the positive. Rather than give up...give out?

Hopefully it won't take me the full 40 days to figure out what it is I should "give out" for Lent. But even if it does it wouldn't be a total waste, now, would it?