🎨 How challenging is a challenge?

At a glance:

• What is the 75 Hard Challenge?
• Why have I decided to take it?
• My learnings from 75 days of the journey.
• How to set yourself up for a challenge?

On February 8, 2024, I started the 75 Hard Challenge. As Andy Frisella, the creator of it, says: “This is not a fitness challenge. The 75 Hard Challenge is a transformative mental toughness program.”

What are the rules? You have to follow all 6 rules listed below for 75 days in a row.

🍎 Follow a diet.

🍻 No alcohol, no cheat meals.

🏋️ Complete two 45-minute workouts (one outdoors).

💧 Drink 1 gallon of water.

📚 Read 10 pages of a book.

📸 Take a progress picture every day.

 If you fail to complete all 6 one day, you start at day 1 again.

What is it supposed to give?

Andy Frisella encourages you to “think of this as an Ironman for your brain.” It is supposed to help you build mental toughness, confidence, self-esteem, grittiness, and much more.

Many people around the world have completed the challenge since Andy originally published it.

I have decided to do it this year, as this is a year of many changes and challenges – so the 75 Hard fit perfectly into my plans.

My story:

I started my 75 Hard Challenge on the 8th of February, the day after my birthday, and I can proudly say that I finished it 75 days later. Which means I did it on the first try. No failures. I had a plan, stuck to it for the whole time, and completed the challenge.

Congrats, Dorota! You made it! I’m very proud of myself! Especially since during that time I had 4 business trips, went skiing for a week, and went to my hometown for Easter. So there were a lot of temptations, challenges in my schedule, and many situations that invited failure. But, honestly, I couldn’t imagine myself not completing it on the first try. It would be a huge personal failure for me.

Why did I do it? First, of course, I wanted to test myself. But I saw this as a way of supporting some of the habits I wanted to build (like drinking water) or improve (like diet).

My takeaways from those 75 days:

#1 Planning is key to success.

From the beginning, I had a strong plan on when to do each of the things to make it work with all my daily habits, duties, and work. Without a solid plan, you cannot recreate your success each day; in the end, you will fail. Like with any habit, your plan needs to make it easy to realize, be a part of your life routine rather than clash with it.

#2 Easy in theory, but practice verifies everything.

Drinking a gallon of water – seems like an okay thing to do. This was the biggest part of the challenge. It required me to put a system in place to drink half a gallon before noon. If I hadn’t, I knew it would be a challenging day. I’m very happy with my achievements here as this was, in fact, a crucial habit for me to build as I used to struggle to keep myself properly hydrated. If you asked me to continue the 75 Hard Challenge for another 75 days, the only blocker for me would be a gallon of water. 

#3 Habits require a tracking system.

Tracking has two purposes: making sure you haven’t forgotten anything each day and motivating you to keep going. It’s so easy to forget about unimportant things (like a progress photo), so you have to set up a tracking or reminder system. At the same time, each day I knew that six new X's put in my tracker were taking me one step closer to success.

#4 Diet helps you win or ruin everything!

After sleep, diet should be your priority to feel good each day. I see many benefits of no alcohol and no sweets or cheat meals. I will definitely stick with the majority of my diet assumptions for longer. Only allowing myself small treats occasionally – I know that this way I will feel much better physically, and my body will be grateful to me.

#5 The devil is in the details.

Small things matter – like a progress photo – so simple to do, yet easy to forget. I’ve noticed that on the days when I haven’t (for some reason) taken a photo before a morning shower, then – my tracker was saving me from failure. One minor thing could destroy months of effort.

#6 Activity shouldn’t be a challenge but a pleasure.

In my case, the trainings were not an issue as I’m very active. So, I treated this as a normal part of my routine. But it was challenging to make it happen while traveling – I had some tough evenings with late-night trainings just not to miss a thing. I’ve set up a system that allows me to continue my two-training approach even after the 75 Hard Challenge as it has become a part of my daily routine and gives me pleasure. 

#7 After about 20 days, the challenge becomes a day-to-day reality.

The first days were challenging. It was all about getting used to planning systems and making them easy and achievable. But then, all of this became a part of my life; having a system made it natural for me to follow it. I could keep going easily.

I do feel like continuing my journey and letting it evolve into the Live Hard challenge. I’m most afraid of the 5-minute cold shower, so this would be a bigger challenge! But let’s see, I haven’t decided yet on this one!

Your turn:

 Challenges help us build toughness, test our limits, or support habit building. A great way to find motivation – as no one wants to be seen as a failure who couldn’t complete the challenge; or, in the case of group challenges, find an accountability partner with whom we can either compete with or who can support our journey.

 So, don’t waste any more time and start your challenge now.

Step 1: Find something you struggle with.

Think about a change in your life you always wanted to make but never did. It can be a habit you failed to establish, or something you want to learn but don’t know how to start.

Step 2: Pick your challenge.

Once you have your pick, turn it into a challenge. The challenge ideally should be something you do daily, and that doesn’t take more than 10-15 minutes, at least at the beginning.

 Write down your challenge: I will do (what) _________ for (how long) _________ always (when) _______.

 Step 3: Announce it.

Tell someone about your challenge. At least one person. Or even make it public. The awareness of people knowing that you are in a challenge will help you keep motivated.

You can also find a partner to do your challenge with – either to compete (who does more/longer/faster) or to support each other – ‘just 5 more days’, ‘you can’t give up now’, ‘one more day’.

 Step 4: … and have fun!

Start and have fun! Make it like a great experience. Set up a celebration ritual every time you complete your challenge. Be ready to give yourself a prize at the end of it. Make it nice and fun, not just a ‘duty’ that needs to be done.

Of course, I highly encourage you to give the 75 Hard Challenge a try, if you haven’t done it before. It’s been a great experience for me, to the extent that I seriously consider continuing it into the Live Hard Challengeby Andy Frisella.

Closing remarks:

Challenges are good for us. They help us evolve, learn things, and discover surprising things about our body and mind. They are so popular on social media and among friends because they drive competition and positive emotions. Many people need that to keep becoming better and better, to test their limits.

 Whether through a challenge or not, make sure you test yourself, regularly step out of your comfort zone.

Only this way will you overcome your limits.

Only this way can you keep growing and developing.

Only this way will you be able to learn more about yourself.

Let me know what’s the next challenge you will take.