Intense 365: A Challenge to Play the Long Game and make Lasting Changes in your Life
Only recently have I realized how much of a challenged oriented (read: competitive) person I truly am. Usually, this often takes the form of stupid bets and fitness challenges. I can say I’m no worse for the wear, though, as I did come in 2nd for a while doing a pull-up challenge with my co-workers (let’s be clear here I worked in a fashion company, and I bought us a pull-up bar). I also managed to do something I never thought I would do in life, a 5 min plank (I know my entire office remembers this sheet).
Intense 365 was inspired by my successful completion of the Whole 30 and listening to The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Due to my hard-wiring, it made complete sense that I would be thinking about my next challenge. I had come to the end of 30 days, and I was so proud of myself I was craving more of that feeling, I wanted to push myself further, so I crafted Intense 365.
Learning the conventional wisdom behind habit formation is that It takes about 66 days to form a new (hopefully good) habit, but like all bell curves it leaves out the fact it can also take up to 254 days!!
365 days seemed like it should cover it, so I committed to a year, and off I went.
Intense 365 Rules
At the start of each month, choose something you want to work on.
ANYTHING!
Next, CONTINUE to hold yourself to that one thing all month long.
Next month, repeat this process but CONTINUE to MAINTAIN the prior month’s goal as well.
Repeat.
Easy.
The Result:
A slow roll out of 12 things to improve your life.
A year from now, the first month’s habit change should be damn near 100% locked in because you will have been working at it for 365 days; the second will have 335 days behind it, the next 305, and so on.
The most important thing to realize is this is a JOURNEY, it’s a process, it’s a MARATHON, so start out slow but deliberate.
Ultimately having this framework keeps me personally motivated, telling you about it helps keep me accountable, and enlisting feedback and participation keeps it fun (sort of).
I welcome you to join me on this not so foolish errand.
Starting tomorrow June 1st, I will be ridding myself of the ongoing captivation that the below hold by abstaining from the 4C’s.
No Crackers, No Cookies, No Candy, No Chips
If the above sounds like your own personal nightmare then, by all means, pick your own thing this is just mine.
My Mother has begrudgingly agreed to at least commit to the chips, and so I welcome her participation and one less person pushing chips on me at a party.
If you plan on making a change with me, let me know!
Only abstaining 2 C’s? Das cool, I wanna hear which two you’re doing!
Comment below, hit me on insta, use the #Intense365 hashtag and of course stay connected by signing up below.
We all have different things we want to do in our lives, so I am REALLY open to doing this WITH you!
Give me suggestions, and I’ll add I’ll try to add it to the month ahead, for now, if you’re IN, I highly recommend getting your last batch of epic nachos out the way because it’s going to be a long year.