Good Morning!

Anyone else smell spring in the air? April’s the month of fools and fresh starts. So, we decided to ~~fool~~ fuel your fresh start with a challenge starting today. We’ve teamed up with one of our members, Rachel, to give you a month-long health challenge. If you’re joining, tag us on Instagram (@thehabitsociety) with a shot of you in action. Throughout the month, we’ll be spoiling the participants with giveaways. See ya!

– Ashley, Co-Founder

I Challenge You

Who’s up for a challenge? Typically, The Habit Society doesn’t condone your average Fit Fab February Fitness challenge, or whatever clever name our favorite influencers come up with. There are so many challenges on Instagram that the biggest challenge is to keep track of them all. But, here at THS, we like to explore ideas that have worked well for people, even the not-so-traditional ones. Since Joe Rogan has a pretty successful Sober October challenge every year, we thought we’d give these ‘challenge’ things a try.

Here we go.

Yes, typically we recommend starting a new habit slowly and incrementally. But, there actually can be some advantages to going all out for a predetermined amount of time. Keyword: “predetermined”. By having a planned end date, the end is in sight and you can wrap your head around the fact that this more extreme routine is just temporary.

Sup Instagram

Fun fact: A 2018 study found that digital support systems can actually be very helpful when establishing new, intense habits.

Let’s Talk Benefits

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.

The Sweet Spot

30 days for a challenge is the sweet spot. It’s short enough so that it’s not overwhelming but long enough that enough neurons will fire up to make changes. Any longer and the nuisances of life will surely get in the way. For example, if your challenge lasted a year, it would be too easy to say, ah it’s okay if I messed up January and February, I still have 10 more months.

To end, here are a few reasons why a lot of people do fail at challenges that are important to keep in mind:

1. It’s too difficult or unpleasant. You resist the habit so much because it’s a 180 from where you started. Start somewhere closer to where you are now.

2. It’s too complicated; there are too many steps to follow.

3. It doesn’t create lasting results. Usually, problems #1 and #2 lead to not at least partially incorporating the habit into your routine after the challenge is over.

When starting a new challenge that you hope to actually enjoy and take something from, make sure it’s the right level of difficulty and simplicity to increase your odds of success.

Below you’ll see our challenge calendar. Save and print it so you can cross off each day as you go!