The challenge to restart a good routine in just 7 days

Today we’ll do something unusual but very positive for our motivation!

It will take only a week. We want to bring back some of those important habits which might have been lost in these last few months. It will be easier and much more fun if it’s done together!

Let’s get back our good habits

In the current situation[1] due to the mandatory social isolation, many of us have been forced to change significantly our daily lives.

Does it ring a bell? You are going to bed in the wee hours, getting up late with no energy whatsoever, and then spending the day locked up at home (and “visiting” the fridge is the only “exercise” you do)…

We’ve lost something of great importance to us, i.e. the good routines we had in the pre-pandemic era. So, that’s what it is about:

Let’s work for a full week to rebuild an old habit.

We believe that this will be a forceful push towards getting back on track and taking control of our daily life.

Examples

You can either select one of the following or think of something else on your own:

• Drinking at least a gallon of water during the day;
• Getting up early (the better wording would be “going to bed early”);
• A well-balanced nutrition program;
• Exercising daily;
• Not letting any interference between the personal and the professional commitments;
• To get out in the sun and fresh air which until a week ago meant “stepping out on the porch”.

The rules

The idea is to focus on one thing only by following some simple guidelines:

• Doing it seven days in a roll;
• If you miss one day, you begin all over again. That is if you skip on the sixth day, the seventh becomes the first and you will have six more to go.
• Share your progress daily with your Goal Buddy, or if you don’t have one yet then any close friend will do. It will be best if you both do the same challenge.

And this is the key here – to have this person next to you.

A great opportunity

The one indispensable precondition for achieving any objective, including acquiring a new habit, is to have a Goal Buddy at your side. The support and help of this person is the basis of our system.

We are fully aware of how difficult it is to find someone like that. You must be able to completely trust each other and share all your visions, from relationship to finances.

So, just give it a try and see how things will go. There will be no long-term commitment if you do it for only a week.

How to run this 7-day challenge

First of all, it starts today.

Isn’t it true we tend to procrastinate and set the beginning of a new diet on the first day of next month?

Second, every day we do the same thing, i.e. going to the gym.

And no cheating, please! Walking to the grocery store doesn’t count.

Third, we report the progress to our Buddy daily. It can be done over the phone or in a text message (a picture of you with the dumbbells will do too).

A confession of sorts

The two of us are very different in our approaches to staying in good physical shape. And yet, there is a common denominator:

We both had to find a way to restore our habits that we were severely disrupted.

Ivan – 7 days of stretching and gradual strengthening

His normal routine for the week was 3 times in the gym, once in the swimming pool and one time running.

Swimming and running were out of the question for a while. But why was it so difficult?

“For many years I would set an appointment with my trainer in advance. But now I had to do all of the exercises by myself and without leaving home. This required a completely different mindset since my old one wouldn’t quite do it for me all the time.”

He defined his actions as follows: every day for a week to do some warming and stretching exercises.

Niki – 7 days of exercises with rubber bands

Niki has been a fan of sports and active life since he was a kid. For him, three hours a week in the gym is the norm for him with cycling or skiing depending on the season.

What was the hardest for in these last few months?

“I like mixing the type of exercises. I quickly get bored with a specific one, plus my body quickly gets used to it and the effect is minimal. And on top of this, I had to do it at home while fighting off all kinds of distractions, including my kids.”

His action was defined as daily online sessions with a trainer, who introduced him to the resistance exercise with rubber bands.

A brand new habit in 7 days?

One should not aim at simply acquiring a new one, but to experiment if it would work and become an effective way to get back on track with an objective.

If you are already very much used to physical exercise then success is something you are sure of. But when the whole situation is drastically changed, i.e. a new place, a different time-frame, nobody else to do it with, a completely new mindset is required.

Seven days is not a long period but it will provide you with enough material to analyze and make a decision on which way to go.

Habits and goals

A good routine is one of the best ways of succeeding in reaching an objective.

When building a new habit, it is always better to concentrate on one specific action. But when giving up some bad ones, it is easier to cut off two or more at once, i.e. those that depend on each other.

Let’s say that you have a sweet tooth. You should know that an afternoon cup of coffee triggers the urge for sugar. So, that’s how you kill two birds with one stone – skipping the afternoon coffee means less candy too.

Motivational books

You might be interested in checking out “Hell’s Week”[2], inspired by the training program of the American Navy Seals and adapted for us, the civilians. The author’s concept is to commit and do your best these first seven days. The week will become the template for the future when you will be setting much higher standards. For example, you aim at doing better today than yesterday. You can easily guess that walking around the house with a three-day-old stubble and in a sweatshirt doesn’t quite look like that you are focused and organized.

And if you want to learn more, i.e. how a good routine can help you automatically succeed, and of course, about the central role of the Buddy then it’s all in the book “The 4 keys to inevitably achieving goals. “

The clock on the Challenge Week starts running right now!

We have 7 days to resurrect a good habit. The seven days are consecutive and each time we skip one means we start all over again. Every day we communicate our progress with someone we have chosen in advance. And you never know if this shared experience won’t be the beginning of a long relationship with your Goal Buddy, aka the trusted fellow traveler on the journey of any dream of yours.

Go on and comment below on your daily efforts so that you can motivate yourself as well as many more of our readers. Good luck to all!

 

[1] The article was posted in the spring of 2020 in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting state of emergencies in many countries (including Bulgaria) as well as the new rules on social distancing and several other quarantine rules.

[2] “Hell Week: Seven Days to Be Your Best Self”, Erik Bertrand Larsen, ed. Simon and Schuster