Now that it's tomorrow

I started thinking about issuing myself a 30 day challenge last night, but saying that I was going to start tomorrow felt sketchy and lame, so here were are with day 1 completed.

The challenge:
30 consecutive days during which I work out for at least 20 minutes a day.

The 20 minutes should be all in one block and will not include the few minutes of stretching I do most every day. If I work out longer than that, great, but it won't count towards any other day. That said, the workout can be anything: walking, stationary biking, yoga, DDR, weight lifting...

However, where DDR is concerned, any time gaps between songs do not count towards the 20 minutes. Also, I should devote more time to levels of songs I find difficult once I've warmed up because:

...we like to practice what we know, stretching out in the warm bath of familiarity rather than stretching our skills. Those who overcome that tendency are the real high performers.

Today, I tried the next level of difficulty up on a few songs I know well. My ability to understand and execute step patterns including syncopation has really come a long way since I first tried the game. I still messed up a lot, but I could mostly tell what I was supposed to be doing; I was a lot closer to being able to play those songs reasonably well than I'd anticipated. That's an encouraging start. Besides, risking failure is good for me, even if failing a DDR song doesn't actually matter.

Weighing in at the start of the challenge crossed my mind so I might get a sense of progress, but since there is someone with a stomach flu between me and the scale, I'll pass. Just completing the days is what counts here.

Being around someone sick did make me leery of starting a daily commitment just now as rationalization is a forte of mine. So, if I miss a day for any reason, I'll add 3 more consecutive days to the challenge. If I miss more than one day in a row for any reason other than being sick, the number of make-up days will increase by 1 for each consecutive day missed.

E.g., If I'm sick three days in a row, I'll add 9 days to the challenge (3+3+3).
If I blow off three days in a row, I'll add 12 days to the challenge (3+4+5).

Gah, I better just do this every day.

If anyone else would like to try this or another 30 day challenge, let me know in the comments so we can encourage each other. You could challenge yourself to anything for a month: read an hour a day, don't watch TV, eat vegetarian, quit smoking. What habit would you like to try on (or break) for a month? Remember, when the month's up, you're free to continue the challenge, revise it, or quit it altogether.

A year ago on TTaT: While I'm undecided