Good morning!

So after rejoicing in all my kids’ challenge accomplishments last week, I was feeling a bit left out and wished someone had granted ME a challenge I could try too ;) And particularly, one around exercising more as I’m now 20 pounds overweight from all the meds I’m on!

And then out of nowhere, BOOM – a challenge fairy swooped by and dropped off a doozy in front of me:

The 100/day #PushupChallenge:

100 push-ups every day, for an entire month – eek!

At first I hummed and hawed as it seemed like A LOT, but then I did what you always do when you secretly want to do something but are too scared to commit – I tweeted it out loud ;) And just like that, I got dozens of accountability partners and it was on!

So as of November 1st, the push-up challenge has officially been activated and so far it’s been going brilliantly… I’ve knocked out all 100 of them each day so far (amazing what you can do when you actually try hard enough!), I’m motivated, I feel like I’ve got way more energy, my confidence is up, and I’m actually having some fun! Exercising – hah!

But best of all – my family started seeing what I was doing and now they’re in on the action too :)

So what started out as a simple personal challenge, has now turned into a community of 20+ of us doing it together and cheering each other on – so cool.

We even have a spreadsheet tracking it all like nerds ;)

[Add in your own name and join us!]

It reminds me of my early days in the PF community… Where you stumble across a whole new world and one challenge leads to another, and then before you know it it’s gone on to completely change your entire life :)

Which I know is a long shot here since exercising really does NOT interest me and we’re only on day #3, lol, but I can see how the community and side effects of it all might change my mind. Or at least get me into the HABIT of exercising more which is really the ultimate point of it all!

The push-ups aren’t going to do much to my weight, but it IS getting me going so far, and if there’s one thing I know about myself it’s that I’m really good at habit stacking once I get rollin’. One of the guys doing this with us has even added *other* exercises to the challenge which I can totally see myself doing later too!

One habit leads to another, and then another, and then before you know it it’s just your usual routine!

This is the hope with it all, at least :) Perhaps next week I’ll burn out and have to come back here and delete this whole post, haha, but in this moment I’m feeling good and really hopeful it’s the start of a brand new (healthy) me.

If you need a push too, come on over and join us!! Just add your name to our spreadsheet or follow along on Twitter and we’ll gladly welcome you aboard.

Even if you can’t do the full 100, *any* will work as again, it’s the habit we’re really going for here. And if you prefer to stick with *money* tracking instead, I’ve got some goodies for you there too!

• The “Financial Snapshot” Spreadsheet
• The Early Retirement / FI Spreadsheet
• The “When Can You Retire” Spreadsheet (pay particular attention to the “years to live” line, lol…)

Whatever your mission though, JUST BE SURE TO TRACK IT ALL!!!

It’s all in the tracking…

and the starting…

and the wanting…

and especially in the surrounding yourself with accountability partners…

It’s never an overnight thing though. Big goals take daily practice and commitment. But one day compounds to more days, and before you know it you’re a rock star millionaire with 6 pack abs becoming the best version of yourself you can be ;)

And I don’t know about you, but that’s sexy as hell.

Let’s get it.

UPDATE: It looks like I had tried this challenge over 10 years ago too! But never made it past Day 1, lol.. I’m proud to say this time around we’re much better, now going into week 3 without a single day missing it ;) It’s actually getting easier as the days go by – I’m already feeling stronger!

UPDATE 2: Mission completed!!! Over 72,000 push-ups combined from the community and the habit has now sunken in… So much easier to do with other people joining and cheering you on :) Month #2 of challenges will be 100 SQUATS a day – spreadsheet here if you want to join/track! #LETSGO