Starting this Saturday, May 7th, I am taking The Whole Life Challenge. WLC is an online "game" in which the players are asked to look at 7 habits and make healthier choices everyday. I was invited to join a team headed up by a highly motivated person who inspires me and I think the accountability piece of being part of that team will be just the thing I need to take a final step in changing a couple of my bad habits.
You can take The Whole Challenge, too, and join individually or form your own team. Everyone plays along online.
(The following information about how the game is played is copied from the WLC website)
Embrace new habits: For 56 days, make conscious choices around the Whole Life Challenge 7 Daily Habits. Raising your awareness and being consistent, even in small ways, adds up to huge rewards.
Focus on action: Check-in to the website each day to record your score and connect with and support your teammates. Your keys to victory lie in accountability, support, and honest reflection.
The 7 Daily Habits that constitute the Whole Life Challenge not only improve the quality of our lives, but also give us the foundation to eliminate habits that harm us.
These 7 Daily Habits are:
- Nutrition. Your food choices have the single greatest impact on your health, well-being, and community. When you make choices that keep you healthy, you give yourself the fuel to fulfill all of who you are.
- Exercise. Humans are designed to move daily. Whether through workouts, activity, or simply enjoying the full use of your body, daily movement keeps you healthy and vital.
- Mobility. In a sedentary world, our bodies get stuck. Daily mobility and stretching helps you move the way nature intended and continue enjoying freedom of movement into your later years.
- Sleep. Modern schedules tend to dictate how many hours of sleep we’re entitled to. A practice of increasing that time, even by a little bit, can make big strides in robust health.
- Hydration. More than anything, your body is made of water. This habit ensures that your body gets enough of its most basic resources for life.
- Lifestyle Practice. These weekly practices turn a life into your life. Learn to step back, take stock, connect, and turn your attention to what is really important to you.
- Reflection. Looking back, looking inward, or looking forward, daily reflection draws your awareness to what is working and what needs your attention today.
As you know, the gap between knowing something and doing it can be wide. The Whole Life Challenge turns doing it into a game that requires the three most fundamental tools necessary to create new habits: structure, support, and accountability.
- The Whole Life Challenge is an 8-week game that provides structure in the form of rules and guidelines for adopting each habit. The Challenge doesn’t tell you what to do; it helps you understand how to do it in ways that makes sense in your life.
- So many of us find it hard to succeed because we take on these challenges alone, so creating new habits is no fun. It’s too serious. As a result, we can feel isolated and stressed out, and because we are by ourselves, we can easily fail to see any progress we are making. By communicating with your teammates and with players from all over the world, you have support for times when things get tough, when you don’t know what to do, and when you want to cheer about your success!
- And since it’s a game, we wanted to add one final element that makes all the difference: Keeping score. The game provides accountability by requiring you to log in daily, record your score, and honestly reflect with your teammates on your experience of your day.
By playing wholeheartedly, you will achieve results you cannot yet imagine—results that don’t seem possible simply by focusing on our 7 Daily Habits but that come from the practice of focus itself.
When you complete the Whole Life Challenge, you will have a brand new experience of your health, life, and well-being—and you will be ready to take on anything!
I am signed up to play at the "Lifestyle" level. I presently live a fairly healthy lifestyle, but I do not excersice daily and although I avoid all "white" foods (pasta, potatoes, rice, flour, sugar), I do cheat whenever I feel like it. Giving up all sugar is going to be a challenge because I enjoy honey, maple syrup and agave whenever I want a sweetener. Giving up cheese is going to be hard, too. I love cheese.
Who's ready to take the challenge?! Invite your friends or family to join you and form a team. Or sign up on your own and play along online with the world. If you need inspiration or accountability play along here, with me. I will tag my blogs "The Whole Life Challenge" and post my journey. I invite you to join me!