What Challenges Can Do For You…
1. They can show you how much you’re actually capable of, which is a lot more than you think. Competitions, especially, can push you beyond your (self-imposed) limits. Back to Joe Rogan’s Sober October: Joe got together with 3 comedian friends in 2017. The bet included a 30-day sobriety challenge, coupled with 15 intense gym classes. The next year, they took it even farther and competed to see who could work out the most.
Warning: These stunts are performed by trained professionals, don’t try this at home.
Let’s just say this: they all got in incredible shape.
2. You can take what you want from the challenge and implement certain pieces into your routine. Maybe you loved the meditation but didn’t care for the stretching, so you can drop the toe-touching and carry on keeping calm. If you were carving out 20 minutes a day to meditate as part of the challenge, putting aside 10 minutes may now feel like a breeze.
3. They prove to our mind and body how great it can feel to make changes. Achieving these successes gives you the momentum to keep going.
Let’s Be Clear…
Doing a 30-day challenge isn’t a guarantee that this new behaviour will become part of your daily routine for the rest of your life. The original plan was to stop after the week, month, or however long you set out to do. So, when you do stop, make sure not to look at it as a failure. Take what you can from it.
There is just too much conflicting research on how long it actually takes to completely change or ingrain a new behaviour (trust us, we looked). So, we’ve come to the conclusion that it depends on the person, the circumstances, the activity, and a bunch of other external factors. A 2010 study found that the length of time it takes for a new behaviour to become automatic varies from 18 days to 254 days. Case in point.
|