7 Days. Done.
7 days of gym and 7 days of mobility work on a foam roller. #boom
The past 7 days have been sort of meditative for me. And besides realizing I have a ton of tension through my mid-back and abductors, I discovered a few other things about myself as well.
Taking Care Of Myself Is The #1 Priority
When it comes to projects, it seems the first things I always want to sacrifice are the things that are probably most important:
- Sleep
- Fitness
- Food
This is a recurring problem I’ve found and I’ve got a whole other blog post on this, but what I realized is that fitness isn’t just about being healthy. It’s about enabling your body to be limitless and do whatever it is you want to do.
It’s about taking care of the one vessel you get in this life. You can either take care of it and teach it to do amazing things, or you can treat it like crap and feel like crap.
Too many times, I’ve settled for the latter in the name of pushing through a deadline or finishing up a project. But I have a lot of adventuring left to do – I need to keep my body in the best possible shape.
Pain Makes You Beautiful
Kelly Starrett likes to say this, but I’ve found that it’s just as true in fitness and life.
Most people, including me (raises hand), like to avoid pain because it isn’t fun.
But in mobility, the only way to get better or improve pain points is to find those painful areas and lean into them (literally).
Ignoring them isn’t going to help. You have to face up to the problems and dig into them before they’re gonna get better.
The more consistent you are with facing it, the easier it gets. The more you ignore it, the more painful it typically is.
Could we find a more direct analogy to life here? I think not.
Decisions Are The Hardest Part
If you decide to do something and leave it at that – it’s so easy to get it done.
If you half-commit, which is becoming more and more the rage these days – it’s infinitely more difficult.
If you back yourself up against a wall and give yourself no other options – surprisingly enough, you do it.
If you start looking for ways out of something (or looking for excuses) – you’ll find them.
It might sound simple, but make it a rule – whatever you decide to do will come to fruition. This alone does a fantastic job of ensuring that things will actually happen.
It’s easy to dismiss this, so let’s try a practical example. If you decide to take a job – you decide that every day from 9–5, you’re going to go to work. If you’re sick, tired, or don’t want to go – you don’t just not show up (that’d get you fired). You typically go anyways. But how often do we do that to ourselves? We “promise” to do something, but instead of actually working on ourselves, we pass it off, sleep in, call in sick, or just play Candy Crush on our mobile phone.
In other words, if you were getting paid to live life and stick to your core values, would you get fired?
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All these epiphanies were great, but there’s another realization that had less to do with the physical actions of this week and more to do with me.
That realization was this:
The standard for action is way too low.
What I mean by that is: this week’s challenge shouldn’t be congratulatory. You did 7 days of work – whoopee.
This week’s challenge wasn’t that hard. You didn’t have to run a marathon, climb a mountain, or even take cold showers.
Some days might have been tougher than others, but when it comes down to it:
You did what you said you were going to do.
That shouldn’t be a cause for praise.
That should be your modus operandi.
That should be expected.
If you can’t keep your word to yourself, how will you keep it to other people? How will you do much of anything?
The standard for action is way too low.
I can do better. You can do better. I expect more from myself and I expect more from you.
I’m going to be talking about business, fitness, and life on the blog more, but I’m not going to hold your hand or sing your praises for doing little stuff.
I want to focus on doing the impossible.
You shouldn’t get a prize for showing up and telling the world what you want to do. Lots of people do that. You should focus on the ratio of what you actually do to what you say you’re going to do.
That’s what makes the impossible list different – it grows over time. You don’t celebrate when you make the list. You celebrate while living it.
Starting now, I’m going to expect more.
More from myself.
More from you.
More from life.
If that’s not for you, that’s okay – there are a lot of other sites out there.
If you did the challenge – and stuck it out for 7 days – that’s great! But the question is: what are you going to do next?
I hope the answer is more.
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How did the 7 day integrity challenge go for you?
What did you learn about yourself? Share in the comments below.
It was great to be challenged. I would not let myself fail, mainly because I made a public commitment to myself. I will do more, I will expect more… Next add one more serving of vegetables /day until I get to the 5 or so I need to have each day.
I keep reminding myself that my body is a temple. When I keep that mindset it makes doing the right thing even when I don’t feel about it easier… who wants to put chemicals and unhealthy crap in a temple. Not I. Life’s too short to take the easy way out…
I managed to do it and pushed myself an extra step every day by asking “Is this the best you can?” , my conclusion is very similar to your blog post: at the end of the day it wasn’t actually that hard, most of the time it just takes an extra action or 5 minutes more then how I regularly do stuff to see a difference and actually be content with the result, I don’t know why people (me included) stick with the default “good enough” most of the time when we can do so much more just by doing one extra step. The hardest part of the challenge was asking the question during my workouts, pushing your physical limits really brings the pain , this makes me appreciate Kelly Starrett’s quote even more.
I did set my integrity challenge last week and did it easily. Too easily. The goal I set just wasn’t a stretch, so I’m doing take 2 this week, and making it something I’m really going to have to work to attain.
So close. I hit 6 out of 7 days and then 7 out of 8.
Working on week 2.
Lots of family landmines but I am happy to say I am still sugar-free. And now . . . on to more that is definitely outside my comfort zone. I’ve accepted a 13 week volunteer gig and will be living in a tent for the duration of that time — which has me excited and scared in equal measure.
Hey Joel I have to tell you that I learn from my self that I get bored with routines I need something to bring exciment to my life I cannot stick with routine is just not for me specially when it comes to health and exercise so I learn to make new exercise routines that I found online I did an arm routine from fitmiss beginner 10 rounds it hurt like you have no idea and so forth and on I also learn to not think to much but just do it sounds cliche but true Nike slogan just do it I have applied this one rule and it has work so well yesterday I walk and 12.00 incline at the gym for 30 min and I was sooo happy with my goal so yeah that is all I have learn learn more do more play more Im just doing more then better I’m giving it my best.
First I’ve heard of the challenge, but I like it. 🙂
I completed my challenge which on the surface did not look like much but I realised it had become a huge barrier to me completing or accomplishing anything. I was holding it that UNTIL I’d finished this project I couldn’t start or complete any others.
Now – all done and I’m raring to go!
Plus my grandson gets his gift.
Thanks Joel
I did the 7 day ‘any added sugar’ – free challenge much too easily. But somehow, as I discipline myself in that direction, I started getting up early and going for a run almost 4 times in that week! I am surprised and pleased. Challenging myself for another week!!
Joel, you ever take a break and have a couple drinks? If so, how does that affect you?
Truth to be told, I forgot about the challenge a few days after I committed myself (I still solved problems though), but in forgetting the challenge, the belief that ‘this is just what I do’ slid into place, and before I knew it, I wss able to solve 81 physics problems!