Challenging yourself
The next 100 days will pass whether you work on yourself or your goals or not.
Most people don't do well, because they are usually busy doing nothing very much. Or more to the point, they think they are busy and productive, when in reality all they are is busy and don't mind telling anyone who listens.
At the end of 2009, 100 days to the end of 2009 to be precise, we laid down a challenge. What can you do in the next 100 days to finish some projects / goals or to kick start a goal you've always wanted to begin but never found the time to start?
It was quite exciting and there were a lot of success stories. So we decided to create an undated version which you can use and re-use. Working in 100 day blocks of time to challenge yourself to do more, be more, achieve more.
But why 100 days?
For people who have trouble maintaining momentum with long term goal planning, they find it easier to work in 100-day blocks. Every time you commit to working in 100-day blocks of time, added together can and does create massive change.
So, what can you achieve in 100 days?
Well that is up to you.
Any day you can decide to change your life, all it takes is a decision on your part to do something a little different, or if you want – a lot of different things in your own unique way. But in 100 days you can achieve many things.
To give you an example of the way the 100-day goal achievement challenge can work.
You may decide you want to save some money. So you make a commitment to save $1.00 a day for 100 days – that will give you $100 by the end of the challenge. It may not sound like a lot of money – but if you have never had $100 dollars saved before, then you will appreciate the money. How do you save $1 a day? Simply by taking it out of your pocket and sticking it into a jar. But what if you want to save more money – but don’t think you can. Well consider the following:
Imagine that you are in the habit of buying a cup of coffee on the way to work every morning. What would you be able to save if you decided to put that money into the jar instead of someone else’s bank account? Do you buy lunch every day? Why not take lunch and add that money to your jar. It’s not hard to spend $10 a day on take out food and drinks. And yes, you’ve guessed it - $10 saved for 100 days is $1,000 – what can you do with $1,000?
So let’s take the 100-day goal achievement challenge a little further:
Limit the extras:
Are you carrying excess weight? Have you related that extra weight to the food you purchase on the way to the office? You’ve already eaten breakfast – but on the way to work there is a little coffee shop that sells the most amazing muffins and coffee, and you indulge in the treat a couple of days a week. I’m sure you can appreciate that a few days every week of eating an additional muffin and coffee will add a bit of extra size to your frame – over time.
And that is the key to this 100-day goal achievement challenge – if you do something repeatedly over a period of time, you will create a new habit
What we want to achieve during the 100-day goal achievement challenge is to create good habits whilst letting go of some of the bad ones we don’t think we have.
So if you are in the habit of eating more than your body needs, and your waist line and your bank account are both suffering as a result, the 100-day goal achievement challenge is to limit the “extra” items you don’t really need, but your brain tells you it wants, and add the money you would have spent to your savings jar.
Please note, I am not saying you can’t have them, just asking you to think about it.
The same can be said for the beer you indulge in after work with your friends, or the half bottle of wine with dinner. Most of the time we do these things because we’ve always done them – they have become part of our habitual behaviour.
Habits are those things we don’t think we have – until we try and stop doing them.
But what if your diet, health and finances are OK, will the 100-day goal achievement challenge work for you?
Well that’s up to you and what you say you want to achieve. But yes, I do believe, the 100-day goal achievement challenge can help everyone.
- You can walk 100 miles in 100 days at 1 mile a day
- You can write 100 pages of your book at 1 page a day
- You can learn 100 new phrases of a language you want to learn 1 phrase a day for 100 days
- You can clean out every drawer, every cupboard, nook and cranny 1 at a time over 100 days
- You can contact 100 new people 1 person a day for 100 days
Most people don't think they have time. Of course you have time, you have the same amount of time per day as everyone else, it's just what you choose to spend your time on is what counts in the end. And taking your projects and goals forward one day at a time, with suggestions, hints, tips and suggestions for review to keep you on track - that is what the goal achievement challenge is.
You can achieve amazing things in 100 days. The question is – are you willing to make some minor changes so you can?
March 12, 2010 at 14:00