30 Day Challenge Series, Part 1

April 22, 2020
Meetings and Business Events Industry, Productivity Pantry

If your routine is anything like mine, it has been COMPLETELY upended with COVID19. Many of us are now working from home, with spouses, children and other dependents running around us.

While this life disruption comes with a great many challenges, this is also the PERFECT time to hit the pause button and really examine what our lives looked like post-COVID19 and what we want our lives to look like when things go back to our new normal in a few weeks/months.

You see, for many of us, life literally raced by us in a blur and our busyness held us back from examining our values and what is truly important to us. Some of us create business plans in January and do a “back to routine” check in September, but this time it’s different. Routine is a long way off for most of us.

So here is my take on the 30 day challenge; take some time to look at your current state of frenzied affairs, and start to create a new reality. This could be the one and only time where you can take pause, reflect, and move forward WITH INTENTION towards a new (and better) normal.

I’ve created a downloadable worksheet for you to use as you walk through this exercise. You can find the link to the sheet here.

First things first, the look back.

Take some time to reflect on what your life was like before COVID19. Be honest with yourself and dig deep. Some realities may be hard to face, but that is the whole point of this exercise. Here are some questions to help you create an honest picture of your life before COVID19:

The Pre-COVID19 Picture – 30 Day Challenge

What does my exercise and health routine look like?
What does my morning routine look like?
What does my evening wind-down routine look like?
What does my workday look like?
What professional development activities do I have?
What distractions do I have at work that keep me from accomplishing what I wanted to?
What hobbies do I have?
What excuses do I use to not do something or spend time with someone?
What drama and gossip distract me? (oooooh, that’s an honest one, isn’t it?)
What does my personal brand look like?
What are my social media habits?
What are my TV habits?
What are my reading habits?
What materialistic things do I value and covet? (oooh yes, another honest one…. )
How is my spiritual life?

Knowing where we came from, we are now able to craft what our ideal version of ourselves will be after our 30 days. Take some time now to detail the answers to these questions:

Post COVID19 Picture – What do you want to look like at the end of the current crisis?

What will my exercise and health routine look like?
What will my morning routine look like?
What will my evening wind-down routine look like?
What will my work-day look like? If you are currently without work during this exercise, see tips here for how to treat your work-day.
What professional development activities do I want to be involved in?
What boundaries can I create at work to help me accomplish what I want to?
What hobbies will I continue to enjoy, and what hobbies do I want to start?
What projects, friends and family members will be my priority?
What distractions will I let go of?
What do I want my personal brand to look like?
How much social media will I consume each day?
How much TV will I consume each day?
How much time will I spend on reading each day?
What will I value, materialistic or not?
What spiritual activities, if any, will I practice?

Now that we have an understanding of our lives Pre-COVID19, its time to start creating an intentional strategy to get us to our ideal Post-COVID19 version of ourselves.

Next week, we’ll look at how to set goals and habits to achieve change in some specific areas of focus and really dig into the 30 day challenge.

In the meantime, use the attached worksheet to doodle some thoughts around your current life-view, and some thoughts about how you’d like to look a few months down the line. This can be used as the springboard for Part 2! Are you ready for it!!