For writing, and everything else!
I signed up for a new challenge recently. I was meant to be doing another Tough Mudder event in September, but this has now been officially cancelled. In the absence of any Tough Mudder events running this year, they’re putting on some virtual challenges. And, for better or for worse, I’ve joined one.
I’ve been… a little less than totally enthusiastic about my exercise routine over the last few months. Because of that, I wasn’t sure I was making a smart choice, signing up to a challenge that may yet turn out to be pretty demanding.
What I noticed though was that, almost as soon as I finalised the sign-up process, I started looking forward to exercising again.
I’ve experienced this more than once – the excitement and motivational boost of joining a new challenge. But let’s talk about where that comes from!
The benefits of challenges
Goals and accountability
It’s a long-established fact that setting goals makes it easier to achieve things. However, it can be tough to hold yourself accountable to goals that you set for yourself! Maybe you’re much better at keeping yourself motivated than I am, but I know I can struggle with sticking to self-imposed targets.
Joining an external challenge helps provide not only goals, but the accountability that you need to keep moving towards them!
Community
I’ve made no secret of the importance of community to me! Joining a challenge can provide a point of commonality with others participating, something to bond over. That support is not only fantastic for keeping you motivated, you can also meet a lot of great people who you wouldn’t have necessarily encountered otherwise!
Clarifying priorities
Sometimes people are just too busy for the things they want to do – whether that’s writing, exercise, art or anything else. I recognise that. There are also people out there who aren’t actually too busy, but they don’t make the time for the things they say they want to do. I frequently fall into this category!!
If you’re anything like me, one of the benefits of challenges is that they’re a great way to help you prioritise the things you want to make more time for in your life.
Where to find challenges
There are an abundance of great challenges out there, whatever your niche! For a start, I recommend checking out the community for your hobby on Twitter or Instagram – there are great challenges that run on a monthly basis for writing, and I’m definitely planning on joining one of those for July!
You can also find challenges, or signposts for them at least, in Facebook groups and forums.
Do you like to participate in challenges?
Or do you prefer to set your own goals and hold yourself to them? In either case, let me know what your goals are for July!
I quite like challenges to help towards goals. For some reason, it feels like you’re accountable to something bigger than a goal in your head saying I’d like to do x by y date. Not quite sure how I feel about them as a virtual thing though x
Sophie