When my sister-in-law, Christina asked me to consider doing the 75 Hard challenge with her, my immediate response was – No! Absolutely not. Not for me!
If you’re not familiar with the challenge let me give you the basics. For 75 days you commit to completing two 45 minute workouts each day (one of which has to be done outside, rain or shine!). Drink 1 gallon of water, read 10 pages of a nonfiction book, stick to a diet (no cheat days or alcohol) and take a progress picture each day.
But here’s the catch, if you mess up on any of these tasks, regardless of how many days into the challenge you are, you start over from day one.
That means if on day 50 you drank 100 oz of water instead of 128oz of water you start again.
It is not for the faint of heart.
The first person I knew who had completed the challenge was my cousin Travis. I had watched as he posted his workouts and progress on social media. As inspiring as his journey was, never once had I been tempted to take on the challenge.
So when Christina asked me to join her, my feelings about it hadn’t changed and I thought she was crazy for even wanting to attempt it. I told her I would “think about it.” – aka never in a million years- thank you anyway.
A few weeks later my brother sent me a podcast from the creator of the challenge, Andy Frisella, in which he explained the challenge and why he created it. He asked me to give it a listen and reconsider doing this challenge with him and Christina. I figured I would appease him by giving it a listen and then politely declining his invitation. I had all my excuses ready to go.
“It’s’ too restrictive to be sustainable”
“ I don’t have the time or energy”
“ Work is to hectic right now”
“ It just seems like another fad.”
Instead, after listening to the podcast something shifted for me. Andy so clearly articulated that this challenge was not a physical endurance challenge or a lose weight quick challenge, but rather it was a mental toughness challenge. I’m most certainly not the most fit person, but I tend to think I’m pretty strong willed.
Although my mom prefers to call it stubborn or being Italian.
Regardless, when I began to think about this challenge as a way of cultivating my mindset I was hooked. I wanted to prove to myself that I had the mental fortitude to complete this challenge.
It was one of the greatest decisions I made for my health and wellbeing. But it also taught me 5 really important life lessons. As a single female trying to successfully navigate singleness, these lessons have been key to thriving in my singleness.
Some of these were principles that I was familiar with, but only after putting htem into practice did I experience the benefits of the fruit they produced in my life. They have become pillars for how I approach difficult and trying seasons or challenges in my life.
I’m sure most of us have heard the phrase, “let your yes be your yes and your no be your no.” It’s this idea that we should be people who do what we say we will do. When talking about keeping promises we usually think about the promises we make to others. While that is a vital component of good character, we talk far less about the importance of keeping promises to ourselves. On the list of tasks to accomplish the promises we make to ourselves usually rank dead last. When we say we are going to make time to workout, eat healthier or read more, then don’t follow through, we break trust with ourselves. This reinforces a false belief that we aren’t worth investing in because of past failures to follow through. It’s a powerful and dangerous cycle that I think most people experience at some level.
So how do we break that cycle?
Once we have recognized that it exists we have to acknowledge the value in keeping promises to ourselves. Little by little.Start with one promise. Make it measurable, valuable and achievable. Even if thats committing to reading 5 pages of a book every day for one week! Each day you achieve it- celebrate it! Then do it again!
When I first made the decision to do this challenge I didn’t have the best mindset. I went into it thinking that I could accomplish this if I could just be completely selfish for 75 days. Pure grit. I would put myself first and focus on doing this for myself. I really believed that in order for me to be successful at this I was going to have to put my life on hold. I knew that meal prepping, daily reading and two a day workouts were going to consume my time. I doubted that I would have the energy to do anything else. It didn’t take long for me to realize that much of what was taking up time in my days brought little actual value to my life. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t magically have more time. I made space and reprioritized for the things that I needed to accomplish.
I began to ask the question, “Does this serve me?”
If the answer was no, then it didn’t deserve my time or energy. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t make sacrifices or say no to things that I wanted to do. But I learned that when I engaged life in this way the most important things weren’t sacrificed. If anything, those things that were most valuable in my life- quality time with family & friends- they got the best version of me.
What actually happened was that things that were not contributing to my growth and self-improvement, were the things that were eliminated during this challenge.
We need to get into the habit of examining our lives, our habits and our priorities.
Our stories hold power! Why do you think that memoirs and biographies tend to be the most popular non-fiction books? It’s because they fascinate us and give off the ability to connect and learn from others. We can draw wisdom and strength not only through the things that make us different, but through the things that we hold in common- the human spirit. I have learned a hundred different lessons- big and small- throughout the challenge, but the one that feels most impactful is learning to borrow strength from others. I’m so grateful for every person I borrowed strength from during that challenge. People who prayed for me or friends I caught up with over the phone on my morning walks or family who took on the challenge with me. We need that in our lives- community. Whether it is a word of encouragement, a reminder of truth or the steadfast presence of a faithful friend, we need to humbly lean into doing life together. I can personally attest that this has been crucial for me in navigating my singleness well. It’s tempting to seek isolation, in those moments be brave enough to reach out your hand and borrow strength!
Ernest Heminway once said, “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
A life well lived is one that is aimed toward growth. As Christians we have a responsibility to steward well the time, talent and treasures we have been blessed with in this life. However unexpected life can be, we have the ability to choose our attitude, choose our focus and choose our path forward.