I’ve recently read hundreds of examples of people taking a 90 day challenge to improve their physical fitness and I love it! What better way to get in shape physically than working with a community of like-minded people? With all this focus on a physical challenge, don’t people miss two other key aspects of fitness – the mental and the spiritual?
If people are going to want to challenge themselves anyway, why not start a 90-day mental fitness challenge? Work on all three areas of life by improving your physical, mental and spiritual side. For example, just as flaccid muscles need to be exercised in order to tone and strengthen, so does flaccid thinking need to be exercised. In fact, flabby thinking can have more disastrous effects in a person’s life than flabby muscles. So if a person is putting in energy for 90 days anyway, make it a total transformation, not just a physical one.
A person’s thought life changes when they begin to feed on a steady diet of positive books, audios, and fellowship with others doing the same. In fact, I don’t know of any other activity that can transform someone’s life as quickly as their associations. In other words, like-minded people flock together. My good friend, the late Charlie “Tremendous” Jones used to say, “In five years you’ll be pretty much the same as you are today, except for two things: the books you read and the people you get close to.” It was eighteen years ago that I first heard Charlie’s words and took his advice. It changed everything.
Fitness experts say that 85% of physical fitness comes from eating right. I believe the same principle applies to mental and spiritual dieting. Tell me what thought diet a person routinely feeds their mental and spiritual sides on and I can pretty much predict their five year future. Success is so predictable; however, it is not that simple.
Why not? Because the right habits are easy to make, but also easy to refrain from. Left to their own devices, most people will take the path of least resistance, which means continuing their bad habits rather than changing them. The good news, however, is that by collaborating with others on a 90-day challenge, a person can use the community to drive their personal change. In essence, community is the difference between good intentions and good results. Many will give up on themselves, but fewer are willing to give up on others who are counting on them.
Luckily, it only takes three steps for one person to change everything:
1. Develop an appropriate diet for the food and thoughts entering his body and mind.
2. Make a commitment to yourself and others to follow the new diet for 90 days.
3. Reach out to others who have committed to doing the same.
There it is. A recipe for success in all areas of life. It is said that a person changes when the pain of staying the same or the joy of change becomes great enough. 18 years ago I took Charlie “Extreme” Jones on his mental fitness challenge and it made all the difference for me. I’m sharing this with readers to encourage them in the three-step process for real change. Are you ready to take on the mental fitness challenge?
Thanks to Orrin Woodward
