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We all need a good challenge to push ourselves. Challenge builds resilience capacity and hard times stimulate growth in a way that good times don't. You might have seen multiple challenges that go around the internet, mostly on Twitter and LinkedIn. To name some these are 30, 50, 75, and 100 days challenges. In this article, let’s talk about what these challenges uphold why people fail in this too often, and how to recover from that.
Let's take the famous #100DaysOfCode Challenge, it basically covered the following -
Source: https://www.100daysofcode.com/
Why should you start a challenge?
If you are passionate about self-improvement, eager to change your habits, and have tried doing it in the past, but had difficulties changing them. It is very common and natural to get stuck and it is a sign that you are exploring new domains, and in general, pushing your limits. However, remaining stuck for long periods can lead to stagnation, frustration, and a loss of motivation. This is where these challenges come into the picture, the purpose of these challenges is to help you do X thing in Y amount of days consistently.
This X can be anything, such as Meditation, Writing, Coding, Interview Prep, Design, Exercise, etc.
Now why has 'consistently' been marked as BOLD in the above text?
Well, that is because the whole motive behind these challenges is to show you that if you are consistent with a habit for long enough, you will achieve what you sought out for. This consistency helps you fight the question “What’s the use of all this self-improvement if I always seem to go back to where I started from?”
How to plan your challenge?
If the above sounded interesting to you, let us now take a look at how you can plan out your challenge for the next X amount of days.
Figure out your why
- That is why you wanna start this challenge in the first place, figure out your why. It can be anything, getting a better job, getting good at a skill, building bigger projects, etc. Once you Figure out your why you break it down to further small tasks that you want to do.
Breakdown your Tasks
Breaking down tasks simply means deciding what things you will be doing throughout this challenge of yours, for this is how I break down the tasks for my 75 Hard Challenge on Twitter
This breaking down of tasks will help you structure your challenge in a much better way, and will give you a clear plan on how to navigate through this challenge overall.
Make it into a routine
Now this one is important because even when your why is all figured along with your task you need to still develop a routine in which you will be doing them. This is basically you planning out your next day in advance so that when the time is there you are not lost and know exactly what to do.
These 3 principles will be more than enough for you to get your challenge all planned out. Even after doing all this most people fail to complete the challenge, unable to prove it to themselves. Next, we will discuss why people fail.
Why People Fail?
Failing a challenge or anything serves as an important data point to analyze where we are wrong and where we have to improve.
Now when it comes to the challenges we discussed above, you would be surprised to know that the reason for failure is not motivation. The reason for failing a challenge can be multiple and different for a lot of people but some common ones that can be avoided are :
Making the challenge to HARD for yourself
Now you can have lots of tasks that you've planned for your challenge but sometimes the goals you set are not realistic, setting up realistic goals is also very important to let yourself enjoy the process and not burn out.
If you don't know whether the tasks you've set for yourself are too hard or not, just take a week and try doing what you planned for this week, see what challenges come up your way and how can they be fixed.
After this 1 week, restructure all plans as per what challenges you faced, and then start your challenge. This will help you in setting up realistic goals and by following it for just one week you will also get a taste of what it is going to be like going into this challenge.
Not making yourself accountable to someone
Accountability is going to be your biggest motivator in this challenge you need to set systems for yourself to stay accountable, in my case it was my girlfriend, Instagram and Twitter.
The Rules that are mentioned above for the 100DaysOfCode Challenge.
You need to post on social media if you want to do it that way, otherwise, you can connect to someone who can help you stay accountable.
I am working on building a community of highly motivated people who want to help each other in this accountability issue and build a strong network with people who do what they said would do. If you are interested reach out to me here
External factors
- Some External factors can also be a major part in people failing these challenges, external parts are something you cannot control, but if you are consistent enough you can find a workaround, also external factors can only stop you for a day or two, but if you have your systems in check as I mentioned above, you will get back in the momentum in no time.
These are the major reasons that I personally have seen people go through when they are on a challenge, these are also the challenges I faced myself when trying to do multiple challenges like these. Enough talk about failing, let us now discuss how you can win.
Strategies to win
If you think about it, the strategies to win are pretty simple, just analyze your performance in the prep week, see where are you failing, make some changes, and get going with a headstart into the challenge. Some important points to keep in mind.
Prepare your systems
- When I mention systems, what I mean is keeping your preparation strong for the challenge, and finding ways to make yourself work. For ex- making a routine, solving the problems in prep week, Finding ways to track your progress, and finding people to be accountable to.
Track your progress
Tracking progress is very important in this journey, as you will not only visually see the progress but will also have metrics to track them on for example- you can note the amount of weight you are lifting and the time you take for rest, the more you increase the weight over time or the less time you take for rest, will be considered as progress.
You can also you various apps to track your progress, keep a journal, or whatever way you feel works for you. The app I used for this challenge was fairly good for my use case. App Link
Streaks
- Streaks are like the high-fives of consistency in your daily adventures. Basically a number that keeps increasing based on the metrics you set, if you have used Snapchat you know what I mean. There is a downside as well that as the number on the streak increases the stakes of keeping it going also increase which in some cases can lead to unnecessary stress, so please keep that in mind.
Plan your day ahead
- Planning your next day one day before is the biggest hack in making a solid routine, not only it will guide you throughout your day, but will also make you understand the value of your time and where can you utilize it best. I use Google Calendar for this, good notifications and is easy to use.
Artwork Credits: Visualize Value
Just keep these points in mind while drafting a plan for your challenge, you will be good to go afterward. Feel free to share more strategies in the comments if you have any!
What now?
Now that we have discussed what is a challenge, why should you start a challenge, how to plan it, strategies to win, and why people fail, you have solid knowledge about how to start your next 30-day Challenge.
Go ahead now, plan a challenge for yourself, and start executing, you can tag me when you start if you feel this document helped you in any way.
If you are looking for a community to help you out, reach out to me, I am building something for just that!
TLDR
Challenges, like the #100DaysOfCode, foster self-improvement and resilience.
The purpose of challenges is to achieve a specific goal consistently over a set period.
Planning a challenge involves understanding your "why," breaking down tasks, and establishing a routine.
Common reasons for challenge failure: setting unrealistic goals, lack of accountability, and external factors.
Strategies for success: prepare systems, track progress, maintain streaks, and plan days in advance.
Challenges provide valuable data points for self-analysis and improvement.
For the growing list of challenges visit the Challenges page.
Thank you so much for reading this 🔮 If you found it interesting, do spread the word about it. You can also check out my other blogs below!