100 Day Challenge - Days 100 - 91: The places you'll go

The 100 Day Challenge Program
Days 100 - 91

Oh the places you’ll go:
If only you stop going round in circles

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With thanks to Dr Seuss for inspiring today’s 100 day challenge post.

“Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You’re off to Great Places!

You’re off and away!”

Think of the next 100 days of your life as a journey.

Now the next 100 days will pass regardless of whether you leave the house, get in the car and start driving. But can you imagine where you could end up if you did?

Unfortunately that is part of the problem.

If we don’t know where we want to go, then anywhere will do. And eventually we get bored and head back home again. Did we achieve whatever it was we said we were going to do when we left the house? Probably not! We might have lucked upon something that took our interest, but overall, no. We go back to our respective homes, stick the car keys back in the drawer and tell ourselves that NEXT time we’ll have a plan of where we want to go and what we want to do and see. We grab a drink, a big bar of chocolate, sit down and turn on the television.

Surely it would make sense to know where we wanted to go BEFORE we even left the house! Well even that can fail if we’re not prepared for the unexpected. Many times I have left the directions to my kids “mum can you pick me up from so and so’s house”

“Sure, where does he live?”

“I’ll draw you a map” was the last one I got.

“No, just tell me the number and street name and I’ll find it”

Needless to say it was dark, half the street signs were missing, I couldn’t see the numbers of the houses and there was a car behind me which was obviously being driven by someone late for dinner. I was not best pleased. And yes his hand drawn mud map was wrong.

Sometimes we need a better plan.

The 100 day challenge can provide you with your plan AND your roadmap to success (apologies to Mike for the cliché) but only if you know where you want to end up. If you know where you want to be, then can you work out the directions (Actions) you will need to take to get there. Of course there may be detours along the way, but even they don’t matter if you know your ultimate destination. Which brings us back to the question – where do you want to be at the end of this 100 days? What is your “goal”?

The word “goal” and the act of goal setting for most people can seem quite daunting, and believe it or not, the reason is biological.

When faced with a daunting goal or project the amygdala, the part of the brain that responds to fear and threats, hijacks the “thinker” part of the brain (prefrontal cortex). This area is the creative part of the brain and is responsible for decision making and seeing possibilities. The more the amygdala works, the less the prefrontal cortex can. The amygdala is responsible for many things including:

• Autonomic Responses Associated with Fear
• Emotional Responses
• Hormonal Secretions
• Memory

http://biology.about.com/od/anatomy/p/Amygdala.htm

So is it any wonder we struggle to change our ingrained patterns of behaviour.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WANT TO DO … screams our Amygdala, our stomach flips over and feeling of acid dread seeps into our body.

Unfortunately it isn’t helped when this same statement is echoed through our well meaning family members, friends and even work colleagues. They don’t want you to change, they like you just the way they are – because it means THEY don’t have to look at what THEY are doing. Consequently they will do anything to sabotage your new resolve “here, have some cake”.

But by breaking down our goal not only into 100 days, but 100 single units of time, the amygdala has little to worry about.

Oh, you’re going for a walk today – yeah we can go for a walk, a walk would be nice. Goes off humming to itself.

I’m a bit hungry now after that walk – oh we’re having an apple and some almonds – ooh yum, we’ve not had those in a while…

Hey this walking thing is fun, that’s the third time this week isn’t it – where’s my apple?

What are you doing sitting down writing again – can’t we go for a walk?

Of course our main goals are

a)      Exercise daily to lose some weight, increase muscle tone, get back into our skinny jeans and eat healthier foods; and

b)      Write that best seller we’ve always said we wanted to write and never quite got around to.

And because we don’t make a big deal about what we are doing, our family members, friends and work colleagues are less likely to notice what we are doing as well, let alone make a fuss about it.

Should you share your 100 day challenge with people?

Well that is up to you of course, but whoever you choose, make sure they are going to support you and not nudge you off course.

Over the course of the 100 day challenge, each new day adds to yesterday’s “wins” and slowly we create new patterns which will of course create new behaviours which become our habits.

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
2. 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
3. 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 whatever works best for you. But you do need to write them down.
4. 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.
5. Begin – take action TODAY
6. Rinse and repeat.

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. By completing each 100 day challenge (and you get 3 and a bit each year if you run them back to back) you can achieve amazing things.  

As in previous years - 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 2011 - today's can be found at http://www.motivateme.info/100-day-challenge/2011/9/22/2011-100-day-challenge-day-1-22nd-september-start-your-day-w.html and it says “start your day with a win” – that is vital.

Please don’t wait until the end of the day to complete your daily challenge, otherwise you will be tempted to let a few days go by and then a few more and before you know it – oops, I’d better re-start the challenge. So, begin today, begin now and get an early win on the tasks / challenges you have set for yourself.

Your next 100 day challenge email will be with you in 10 days time.

Kind Regards

Elle