After my 21 days of fit bod fat purse challenge, I am fitter and of course $1053 dollars richer! On top of these 2 benefits, I have learned 5 important lessons from this challenge.
For the benefit of those who does not follow this challenge, the 21 days fit bod fat purse is a challenge to wake up every morning and run, and to save $50 in the evening. The objective of the challenge is to get myself fitter and financially richer in 21 days.
Here are 5 lessons that I learned:
1. Starting is easy, to continue is difficult
On day 1 and day 2 of the challenge, waking up early in the morning were easy. As it is just the beginning of the challenge, I am full of expectation of success. Just like most people who start off any project, we will be energetic at the beginning.
However coming to day 3, all kind of excuses started to come up. I start to tell myself it is ok to miss one day, it is ok wake up a bit later, it is raining and why not just miss a day etc. All kind of funny thoughts came in.
Therefore, from day 3 onwards it’s all discipline for me.
One very important thing that has helped to keep up with my discipline is the commitment that I have made publicly. As I have declared publicly to everyone that I will make this challenge happen, therefore no matter what, I have to wake up and run. I believe there is power in my declarations.
2. Discipline is limited, Habits keeps you going
Slowly, I observe that the habit of waking up early and savings has gradually started to form. I can automatically wake up early in the morning and run, ands save in the evening. I believe my habit is starting to form and take shape.
Forming this habit is very important in making the challenge successful. I think if I keep using my discipline to “force” myself to wake up, soon I may run out of discipline and failed in my challenge. As using discipline to do things may not be so fun after all.
Here I discover that after few days of “discipline” my habit starts to take over. Then, it is the habit that keeps me going. Waking up early becomes easier and natural for me. I can wake up early consistently and easily.
Therefore discipline gets me going, habits keeps me going.
3. You got to make Adjustments
One other thing that I observe is that in order to complete the challenge, I will have to make some adjustment to my life. Simple logic, to be able to wake up early, I will have to sleep early. Therefore no work, TV or web-browsing till late.
4. Waking up early has its benefits
I discover by waking up early, there are numerous benefit. Here are some of them:
Quiet time for inner conversation
In the early hours of the dawn, there are almost no disturbance or distraction from anyone or work. It is a wonderful opportunity and time for me to connect and have inner conversation with myself.
Best time for planning and important work
Since there is no disturbance or distractions, it is the best time to plan for my day and to execute all the important work. Having no distractions makes accomplishing the work faster and doing them more efficiently. I will also have the most energy and discipline at the start of the day to accomplish the most important and the most difficult task, comparing to the later part of the day where I have less discipline and less energy.
By afternoon, I will have done alot and I am less stress out
Being more efficient in the morning and starting my work early, I get a lot of work done by noon. I feel more accomplished for the day and less stressful during the day.
More time for family
As more work is already done in the early part of the day, I can find more time to spend with my family.
5. Burn on and not burn out
In order to run consistently for 21 days, I will need to manage my body. I will need to do injuries preventation (see my article on this), rest well and stretch properly. These are essential things I must do in order to go far.
Whats next after the 21 days?
Of course, my boy also enjoys the daily habit of saving the money together with me. Even after the challenge, he ask me when is he feeding the piggy bank. Hope this habit of savings can go a long way to help him accumulate wealth in the future.
Now after all these, the next question I am asking myself is what should I do with the money? How can I achieve good returns from the money that I have saved?
I will explore that in my future articles.
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