We Did It! We Completed The 66 Day Challenge!

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that my fiancé Marc and I have been doing a 66 Day Challenge which we completed this past Saturday.

Before I dive deeper into this, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who asked questions about it, supported us, and commented along the way. It was very motivating and so enjoyable to share with you all.

So, what is it? What’s so special about the number 66? Why did we do it? What did I learn?

What is it?

The 66 Day Challenge was first introduced to me when I read the book The ONE Thing for the first time and reintroduced to me at a ONE Thing Seminar by Geoff Woods. In a very short summary, Gary Keller and Jay Papasan authors of the book teach how to determine the answer to the following question, “What is the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” I was challenged to think about this in the following areas of my life: spiritual life, physical health, personal life, key relationships, job, business, and finances. Before answering the question I had to rank each area of my life on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the best. To be very honest, no area received higher than a 6. After that, I had to choose ONE area to focus on. Let me tell you, the first thing my competitive, Type A perfectionistic self wanted to do was set up a 66 Day Challenge for ALL 7 areas! WRONG! As I learned in the chapter about multitasking, “To do two things at once is to do neither.”

What’s so special about the number 66?

According to The ONE Thing, “Results suggest that it takes an average of 66 days to acquire a new habit. Self-help circles tend to preach that it takes 21 days to make a change, but modern science doesn’t back that up.”

So how did I choose?

I looked at one of my lowest ranking areas and decided which would have the biggest impact on my life and those that I love if I focused on it. My first instinct was to head towards business or job, however, I could be killing it in my career, but would that matter if I lost my relationship with Marc because I didn’t make time for him. After asking myself that question, I knew exactly which area to focus on: key relationships.

I decided that I wanted to build a stronger relationship physically and emotionally with Marc. Both of us have been so focused on our careers and building a future for each other that we’ve lost that spark that we had when we were first dating. If you’re in a relationship, or have ever been in one long term, you know that this is not uncommon. Relationships take work and that’s okay! It’s okay to admit it and it’s okay to reach out for support!

The next step was deciding what my 66 Day Challenge Habit would be to help bring back the spark! This was the hard part. We were told, we needed to go small to go big. Think of something that seems so simple and easy and make that your daily habit. For example, those people that chose to workout more or workout in general. If they said I’m going to run 1 mile everyday and they hadn’t been doing anything, is that a reasonable, doable goal? Or, would run for 10 minutes everyday be better?

I came up with the idea of sharing a meal together everyday. Most people didn’t understand why that was a challenge for Marc and I. Marc has been working the 3–11pm shift. I go to bed most nights by 10pm, waking no later than 5am. Marc gets home around midnight and goes to bed between 1 and 2am. He’s sleeping when I leave for work. So, if we don’t make time to share a meal together, we don’t see each other on days he works.

Before setting this in stone, I asked Marc if he would be okay with it because clearly this quickly became OUR 66 Day Challenge, not just mine.

What did I learn?

I learned so much more than I ever thought I could from this challenge!

• I learned that it’s okay to make modifications to make the challenge work. We utilized FaceTime on days that appointments didn’t allow for us to physically be in person.
• I learned that Marc would do anything to make me happy. (though I kind of already knew that) What I mean, is that, this was not easy for him. Some days he was on very little sleep and knowing how important the challenge was to me, he still found time to make it work. However, this was causing him some unnecessary stress during a challenging time right now, which made me feel awful on certain days. I learned that he does not enjoy constantly setting up “must do” challenges like I do. Marc is happy we did this don’t get me wrong, but I’m someone who loves to consistently make up new things that I MUST stick to and I did not think how that could affect others in a negative way.
• There were many days that this was stressful to both of us. Some days, before our picture, we were frustrated minutes before, or I shed some tears because of all of the changes we are going through.
• I learned we had to TIME BLOCK and PLAN AHEAD. For me, I enjoy planning, however this sometimes caused stress on Marc because I was so overly focused on plan, plan, plan that I tend to come off high strung and uptight at times. (I’m working on that). There were also many days we didn’t know how long the other one would be at work or in an appointment, so we learned to always keep a snack on hand!
• This challenge did not help our physical relationship, nor did it bring a spark back like I had anticipated in my mind. However, what I learned from it, leaves me feeling successful.
• I learned that I could leave work mid-day and go home for lunch without anything falling apart.
• Most importantly, this challenge taught me that I can and did make Marc my number 1 priority as he made me his. No matter what the days threw at us, happy, sad, frustrated, elated, etc., we showed each other that we will SHOW UP for each other.

What’s Next?

It’s a habit now! It’s so easy for me to want to come home at lunch and see Marc. While we both know that sometimes life is going to throw us a curveball and we may not get a meal in every single day together, we’re certainly going to continue to do it everyday we can, and not let the days we don’t stress us out.

I’m getting ready for my next 66 Day Challenge and this one will be all me. I’m going to journal for 66 days straight starting TODAY! It’s something I’ve struggled to do consistently in the past and I cannot wait to make this another positive habit in my daily routine!

Thank You

Thank you Marc for completing this challenge with me. I know somedays it wasn’t easy, but we did it. Thank you for letting me share our journey with others and allowing people to know that it wasn’t always easy. Thank you for being honest with me about me overdoing it a bit with the challenges. Thank you for putting us first. Thank you for loving me even on our most challenging of days.

Who’s ready to start a 66 Day Challenge of your own?! I’d absolutely LOVE to hear what you’re going to do!!! Not sure what to do, reach out and I’d be happy to help and support you!