The 100 Day Challenge Program - Days C - XCI - Preparing for Battle
The 100 Day Challenge Program
Days 100 - 91
Preparing for Battle:
Preparation prevents procrastination
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Can you imagine what would have happened if the architects who designed Rome had said to the builders - "Just chuck a few walls up over there lads, then we'll tart up the exterior with a few columns, if we add a few statues of Caesar in the corner, it'll look great" Can you imagine what the buildings would have looked like, something tells me they wouldn't have looked like they did?
But what about the many battles, wars and campaigns undertaken by the Romans. I'm sure they didn't get up one morning, put on their armour and just decide to invade a neighboring country.
"Which country are you planning on invading sire?"
"Oh I don't know. Tell you what we'll have a go at all of them man, one of them is bound to surrender"
"Excuse me general and if you don't think this too pertinent a question - but could you tell us again, why we should do such a thing?"
"Because it's there of course"
When it comes to goal setting though, that is precisely how most of what we might consider to be "goal setting" actually takes place. If we're lucky we might sit down and scribble a few things down on paper, but more often than not our goals are mere thoughts that flit in and out of our daily lives.
"These pants are getting a bit tight, I should drop a few pounds"
"I'd better save a few quid, Christmas is coming up"
The trouble with those kinds of thoughts of course is that as soon as they have popped into our minds, our mind is usually coming up with the next random thought.
Is it any wonder we have trouble with goal setting and even more importantly - goal achievement? Precisely, which is where the 100 day challenge comes in.
Q: If you made absolutely no changes to your current schedule, would you be able to work on the goals you say you are going to work on?
A: Unless you currently do little or nothing each day (which I doubt) I would have to say the answer would probably be no.
So...
How can the 100 day challenge help you?
The key to the 100 day challenge is to know where you want to be at the end of 100 days, and then manipulate our schedule on a day-by-day basis so we achieve that end target.
Sounds too simple? Well, let me give you an example.
I want to completely clean my house so I can prep it for a re-paint. But I don't have a bulk of free or spare time to devote to the task. What I do have is a little bit of time each day to tackle one bit of the overall problem. But I am not just cleaning, I am discarding some of those items that I find - because and lets face it, we all have bits and pieces littering our lives, cluttering up the place. And if there is one thing procrastination likes - is clutter. So to make the challenge interesting I am aiming to discard 100 things in 100 days. The first few things are easy and I have earmarked one or two items already and I have taken the first picture and loaded it into the gallery - http://www.motivateme.info/discarding-100-things/ for you to keep track of. It's what happens when the obvious has been taken care of, then things will start to get serious.
Given that clutter is one of the biggest reasons why we procrastinate it is a nice challenge to set myself.
Q: So what can you use the 100 day challenge for?
A: Absolutely anything you like, after all it a personal battle we face and what motivates you will probably not motivate your friends.
But to give you some additional clues on how to use the challenge:
Say you want to lose some weight - in 100 days I feel that you can lose up to 20 kilos during that time. How? By breaking it down of course. Given that we are working in blocks of 10 days (to make the maths simple) within the first 10 days you will need to lose just the first 2 kilos (or whatever your target is), which means that each day of the first 10 days you need to find a way to lose a couple of hundred grams. Any more and i personally don't think it is sustainable. Now I am also aware of the body's habit of fluctuating water etc, so that is just an example. But by giving yourself the task of manipulating your diet so you could lose 1-200 grams every day you can begin to make some healthier food choices, so you could lose some weight. For example, you have 1 glass of wine instead of 2, you change the calorie laden juices, colas and coffee's for other kinds of drinks, and preferably ones that don't contain calories.
Or say you want to save $1,000 by the end of the challenge, again the trick - by the end of the first 10 days you need to have saved consistently $10 per day, making up the first $100 by the end of day 10 (91). How do you do that? There are many ways, but perhaps the best is to be conscious of what you spend your money on. Do you really need to buy coffee every day? How about lunch? Why not save yourself some money and probably calories too by taking all your meals and snacks into work. Believe me it can be done.
If study is an issue, or you want to get ahead with personal development you could read one chapter a day. How many books would that equate to by the end of the 100 day challenge. I suppose it depends on the number of chapters per book, but you get my point.
You can even use it to learn a new language by learning a couple of words per day.
So your first challenges:
1. Download a copy of the time log - if you don't have one already. http://www.motivateme.info/downloads-and-free-stuff
Fill this in for a couple of days and you can begin to see how you can find some spare time to work on your personal challenges
2. Write down your overall goals for the challenge. What do you want to have achieved by the end of the challenge. I use a combination of journals, the workbook and my task list in Gmail. But you can use what ever works best for you. But you do need to write them down.
3. Break down your overall goals into your daily schedule / program. What do you need to do each day? Again it is vital that you write these down. Our minds have a nasty habit of "forgetting" things, so ensure you write down what it is you need to do each day.
4. Begin
Remember - you can use the 100 day challenge to meet your long term goals too. These are goals that are perhaps a few years out from where you are now. Just remember this - if you can succeed with your goals for 100 days just think what you can achieve in a couple of years - exciting isn't it.
- I will be writing a blog post per day for the duration of the challenge so you can keep an eye on what I am hoping to achieve in these last 100 days of AD 2010 - today's can be found at http://www.motivateme.info/100-day-challenge/2010/9/22/september-22nd-day-100-decisions-decisions-decisions.html
- I will also be adding a new picture to the 100 things in 100 days gallery if you are interested - http://www.motivateme.info/discarding-100-things/
Your next 100 day challenge email will be with you in 10 days time, until then my challengers tis time to prepare for our battle against procrastination.
Kind Regards
Elle
September 22, 2010 at 20:30
Reader Comments (2)
Elle