The 66 Day Challenge To Change Your Year

Last updated on May 19th, 2020 at 09:58 am

If you’re feeling stuck and don’t know how to move forward with your life, this challenge might be for you, because it can really change your year.

I’ve been thinking a lot about potential lately and all the things I want to do with my potential right now.

It was a little more than 3 years ago when I had a weird dream that repeated itself for a while. I don’t remember it at all, but I remember what it meant according to a trust-worthy dream reader site my sister found on the internet.

It meant that I’m worried about not reaching my full potential. I thought I was doing my best at that point, even though I wasn’t where I wanted to be in life.

It was around that time that I finally started this blog – something I had put off for 3 years already. I remember I felt such a relief once I actually launched it and started working on it, even though it wasn’t good and nobody read it.

This year I’ve often been having the same nagging feeling that I’m not reaching my potential. I’ve let life distract me like I was a little kid watching kittens play with each other. Or if I was me watching kittens play.

There are areas in my life where I feel stuck. I have all the resources and abilities, but I can’t move forward. If I could just commit a little more.

This challenge is about that. Committing a little more for the next 66 days.

Imagine what it would feel like to finish this year finally achieving the things you actually wanted for such a long time? What it would be like to not drag those same thoughts, same goals into the new year with you. Wouldn’t it be liberating to swap those repetitive thoughts that are draining you for new exciting thoughts and ideas? To have that weight off your shoulders, to take a breath of relief and realize you’ve done it. This new year you can now focus on new things and grow in other areas.

But first, it’s time to achieve the things we’ve been putting off and to start clean on a new level next year.

The time now is not to relax and think. It’s a time to act. And this is true whether you read this as I post it for the first time, 5 months from now or 6 years from now. When it comes to the things you want in life, if you’re not getting them – it’s always time to act.

It’s A Long Challenge For A Reason

There are more than 2 months until the end of the year right now, 66 Days today to be exact. Plenty of time. Yet, many goals take longer than 2 months to achieve.

But it takes on average 66 days to build the habits that can help you follow through with your goals.

See? Google said it!

21 days as far as I’ve read is just for drinking water right after you wake up. If you want to really build another habit – 66 days is what you need. Once you build the habits – it’s easier to stay consistent. And consistency is all you need to reach any goal you want, to grow from there and to reach your full potential.

The Challenge is This:

Stop making fake promises to yourself and put a little more time and effort regularly into the things you actually want to achieve.

The first step is to define what you want, what you’ve been putting off and putting off because you never have time or energy to do it. You can use the free goal planner I created for this challenge to help you.

Then list all the tasks that you need to accomplish to make progress toward your goal. Some tasks you’ll probably need to do once, others once a week and then there are the things you need to do every day.

And here we are – developing habits.

Plan these habits into your daily life – create space for them. Whether it’s 30 minutes or an hour – work on these habits every day for the next 66 days. You might need to wake up a little earlier, but honestly, if you’re feeling tired all the time – 30 minutes will not make a huge difference. Here’s where you can use the habit tracker I created for this challenge. To download it, subscribe below.

My Challenge And Focus.

For me, there are a few areas I’m not happy with and keep showing up in my life. What I want to do is work on all these areas simultaneously.

I know you shouldn’t work on too many goals at once, because you’ll fail them all – but I’m at different levels for all of them. And working on a goal from one area will actually help me achieve a goal from the other area more easily. They work in synergies.

For example, as you’ll see below one of my goals is to stay consistent with publishing here more often. My other goal is to start a bullet journal. Starting a bullet journal can only help me be more consistent with my blog because I’ll be more organized (A HUGE PROBLEM FOR ME) and I’ll be less stressed and more focused. Same with eating right, getting enough sleep and exercise. When I have more energy – I can do more here too.

So, here are the three areas I want to focus on and my goals and tasks.

Area #1: Health and Fitness

The things I want to improve by in this area (my goals):

• lose 15 pounds and get lean and strong. I’m sick and tired of dragging those extra 15 pounds on my body. Not wearing the clothes I want to wear. Not feeling confident about this year-old version of myself. I want to feel strong and to improve my posture.
• have more energy. My energy levels have not been where I want them to be lately.
• eat with integrity and stop with the guilt. I strongly dislike blaming myself constantly for eating something I shouldn’t. Honestly, I know too much to not feel bad when I eat crap. I know some things should never even be cheat meals. They’re pure poison (I’m not talking about sugar).

So in this area my habits/tasks are:

• go to bed early and get enough sleep
• intermittent fasting
• exercise for at least 30 minutes a day
• spending at least 30 minutes outdoors
• eating between 5 and 8 servings of fruits and vegetables a day
• drinking water first thing
• actually taking time off on the weekend to go on a trip or to experience something new

Area #2: Getting Organized

I’m a very messy person, at home and with my calendar. Can’t seem to figure it out. No matter how many books or blogs I read – the changes I make don’t seem to stick. I like to do things very spontaneously, I love to make lists, but I never follow through. Even my grocery list – I’d always forget it and buy other things I don’t need.

This is definitely the most challenging area in my life right now and I feel like I need to learn the most here. But I also think this will be the most rewarding one. Because once I get organized I’ll be better able to manage my blog, my personal life, and my health and fitness.

So the things I want to improve in this area (my goals):

• get my home organized and decorated, so I feel at peace
• make a plan on my dreams and goals and actually follow through

The habits/tasks I am planning here are:

• organize/clean a room every day for 20 minutes
• DIY / buy some decoration
• start a bullet journal. For organizing my calendar and my tasks I’m starting a bullet journal. I have already bought a notebook and can’t wait, feel like this will be life-changing.

Area #3: Blogging & Keeping in touch

This year, I feel like I’ve been doing really well with staying consistent with my blog for the most part. But still, I feel like I can do more – I want to be really consistent. I want to be able to tell you – I’ll email you every Tuesday and I’ll post 3 times a week and then actually do it. And not just be stressed on Monday morning because I have nothing ready yet.

So these are my goals for the next months:

• email my subscribers every Tuesday
• post at least 3 times a week
• bring Instagram back to life, so I can connect with you there too.

For this I will need to do some planning ahead, schedule many articles ahead and figure out what I’ll post on Instagram – but I’m happy to say that I think I’m making progress.

You have no idea how much all of your sweet comments mean to me. I really appreciate that you take the time to visit this blog and to say something. I’m really thankful and it makes me want to do more.

There are some mini challenges coming up as part of this End Of the Year Challenge and I will definitely update you in all three areas. What’s going on, what I’m doing, what struggles I’m facing – everything.

I hope that if you have anything you want to do in your life – you start today and don’t wait until next year. This challenge is an opportunity to do that – it’s free and you can start at any time. Best time = As soon as possible. Make sure to get the Goal planner and the Weekly habit tracker for free to make it real. If you already use a bullet journal you can also create these there.