88. What I learned from #75 Hard (Lessons 1- 5 = Talk #1 of 2)
This summer, I did— and am still doing— the #75Hard challenge…
It works like this—
✅ Follow a meal plan of your choice
✅ No cheat days
✅ No alcohol
✅ Two 45-minute workouts each day— one of which must be outside
✅ Take a progress picture each day
✅ Read 10 pages per day (audiobooks don’t count)
✅ Drink 1 gallon of water
That’s it— and it’s supposed to be more of a #MentalChallenge than a #PhysicalChallenge…
⭐️
As of the recording of this talk, I’m 61 days in… so, the light is at the end of the tunnel, for sure. And, so far, here’s what I’ve learned…
(Think of this as my Top 10 lessons. I’ll communicate them in an order that makes sense to me— though not necessarily the order of importance…)
Here’s the first…
#1 = Sometimes, the reason(s) you think you CANNOT do something are precisely the reason(s) why you SHOULD wholeheartedly jump in…
I almost didn’t do the challenge…
… because we’re in the middle of summer…
… because we’re in the middle of launching the new #1B7 project and I’m working crazy hours
… because we’re about to go the lake with friends and the diet will be hard
… because we have MORE friends coming over tonight and I’ll probably want to open up the TWO new bottles of bourbon a friend sent…
… because…
… because…
You get it. There are always reasons why it’s NOT A GOOD TIME.
⭐️
But when it comes to #SelfImprovement, it’s always the #RightTime and #RightPlace, isn’t it?
I mean, think about— really think hard— the reasons we push stuff off, and punt the great actions that lead to the best results down the field…
Those are usually the very reasons we should just jump in, aren’t they?
#2 = Most things in life aren’t “all or nothing.”
Around the 3rd day of the challenge, I began recording my thoughts + reflections as I rounded the hill in front of the house. This is generally where I walk to cool down…
(And, I began posting those short vids to social media, including a new TikTok account… @AndrewEJenkins)
That first week, something struck me—
#75Hard is an “all or nothing” proposition. You either make it all the way, or you fail and you must start over. That is, if you don’t drink the water, if you don’t make the workouts, if you don’t read the pages… if you forget to take your progress pic that day…
… then your gain for the entire journey thus far is considered NOTHING and you begin over at Day 1.
That’s the rule.
And, of course, it makes total sense in a challenge like this.
But most things in life aren’t that way. Yet, oddly enough, we tend to treat them that way.
👉 We mess-up the diet at one meal during the middle of the week, so we toss the entire week out the window.
👉 We lose our temper during an exchange, so we assume we’ll never get our anger under control.
👉 We rank the budget, so we assume we’re not good at managing money…
👉 blah, blah, blah…
It’s easy to treat life as if it’s “all or nothing.” But, life isn’t that way.
Proverbs tells us the righteous fail… and they get right back up (Proverbs 24:16).
(On a social media post I shared a few weeks ago, I said it like this: “Think progress, not perfection… and direction, not distance.”)
#3 = Your time will pass anyway— whether or not you choose to do something with it is up to you…
🗓🗓🗓
One of the biggest obstacles we have... is our perception of TIME, and how much of it we have, or how long the dream will take, how much time might pass for healing comes, before we're able to launch into our next mission, discover our purpose... or whatever it is...
We don't like waiting...
Or, waiting (sometimes) intimidates us.
But, regardless of how long it takes to move from where you are to where you want to be, remember... that time is going to pass anyway. Might as well do something productive with it...
+++
Somebody told me that your checkbook reveals what’s important to you. That is, follow the trail of where your money goes and we can see what truly matters…
Same is true of TIME.
It’s easy to say we value certain things, but… when we turn and look at where the time was invested, the calendar SOMETIMES tells a different story, right?
+++
Push ahead.
In a few days, weeks, whenever you’ll look back in the rear view mirror and be glad you did 🤙🤙🤙
#4 = You can’t do most things all in one sitting…
… so break those goals down into manageable pieces.
🤷♂️
One of aspects of the #75Hard Challenge is “drink a gallon of water each day.”
(In fact, I found this to be one of the most difficult parts of the daily list.)
Unless you plan it— or have plan of attack— there’s no way to make it happen. If you wait until 3pm in the afternoon to begin, it’s not gonna happen. Or, if you still have half a gallon to go after 8pm… it’s gonna be a struggle…
So, I found smaller water bottle and broke the gallon down…
128 ounces (a gallon) = 8 of my 16 ounce bottles.
I use rubber bands on the bottle— and move them down— when I drink one.
And, I pace it…
I try to hit 2 before the morning coffee (easy, b/c I drink those before, during, and after exercising… so they go quick…). At least two more before lunch….
… and then finish before drinking anything else (i.e., no afternoon coffee, if at all, before the water is complete).
🤔
Breaking down the big goal makes ANY goal easy.
Pay off $40,000 in student loans? Break it down… how much are you going to pay AHEAD this month…
Lose 30 pounds? I’ve done it… and did it by targeting just 2 pounds per week.
Reading the entire Bible? It’s 10 pages a day for about 4 months…
Making $100K in a year… the same. Incrementally figure out how much you need to increase your income— just a bit— to make the reach.
🔥
You can’t do ANY of it in one sitting. So, often we just assume it CANNOT be done…
But, nothing in life works that way. It all takes time. And consistency.
And the the payoff comes.
#5 = The messy middle… sometimes you need to look back AND look forward at the same time…
I remember hitting day 38. That meant, halfway through THAT day, I was halfway there…
It was what you call the “messy middle”— that phase where I’m too far out from the shore to turn around. And I can’t quit.
But I still have a LONG way to go…
… in fact, I’m only halfway there…
Leads me to this.
👉 Sometimes you need to look back and celebrate how far you’ve come.
👉 If you’re always looking forward, it’s easy to get discouraged. It’s tempting to ponder HOW MUCH FARTHER you’ve got to go until you land the job, reconcile the relationship, move into healing, take care of…
… you get the idea.
That’s why, sometimes- no, a lot of the time- you need to pause. Turn around. And celebrate…
The GAINS you make often seem imperceivable in the moment…
The extra workout.
The shunning the sweets.
The getting up early to push ahead on your dream.
The phone calls, conversations, whatever…
Even though they don’t always SEEM valuable in the moment, they each have something working for them— namely, the momentum and amplification of the other, almost unnoticeable activities…
So, don’t just look at the gap between where you are and where you want to be.,..
Look at the gain.
Notice how far you’ve come.
+++++++++++++++++
Advance Planner = www.Jenkins.tv/FreePlannerPDF
