I decided a week or so ago that I’d like to do a long term challenge. A 1000 day challenge.

I had seen a Reel on Instagram by Tactic Nutrition mentioning how lots of fitness folks will try to sell you on results in 30, 60, or 90 days, but results really take much longer. So instead of doing a 60 day challenge, you’re more likely to be successful if you commit to a 1000 day challenge, because that allows yourself the room you need to truly change.

That was my “ah-ha” moment. A 1000 day challenge. That’s it! That’s the thing I need to change myself.

My first instinct was to focus on my body and fitness. I began with a set of rules: specific kinds of workouts, number of workouts per week, recording my body measurements, drinking a certain amount of water every day. You know, rules. Rigidity. Basically all of the things that make me not want to finish something.

This was setting myself up to fail before I began.

That’s when it hit me: what if I did a 1000 day challenge that centered joy, self fulfillment and evolution?!?

As a queer, autistic person who has know they were queer for well over half of their life, but has only known they were autistic for the past couple of years, I am realizing that I have spent a large chunk of my life trying to manage other people’s feelings and reactions to me by doing whatever they need to be happy. I have a history of contorting myself so that people won’t decide that who I am is too much and realize they don’t love me anymore.

Historically, whenever I’ve had a break-up I realize that don’t even know what I like anymore because I’ve been doing what my ex has liked for so long.

Well, since I’m married now and I don’t anticipate having to do another “post-breakup self-discovery session”, I figured it would probably be good to make sure I know who I am now and learn how to maintain my sense of self.

My next conundrum: how do you measure a 1000 day self-evolution challenge?! I mean, where are the data points!?!?

That was a tough one.

Upon reflection, I came up with guidelines for the challenge as a starting point:

1. Must intentionally move body every day, more than just walking the dog. Ideally shoot for an hour and find an activity that is joyful for me as well. Be creative: dancing, bike rides, boxing, basketball, etc.

2. Drink one gallon of water a day

3. Daily, hand-written mini journal entries (10 mins max)

4. Weekly, published, blog posts

5. Discover ways to fill time that are fulfilling, not just scrolling/numbing, even when tired

6. Minimum of 5 hours of learning per week.

7. Daily meditation (5 to 15mins)

8. This is for ME and my growth. Beyond my blog posts, which I will not promote, I will not share this on social media or with folks.

The above eight items are what I’m going to shoot for. It will be okay if I’m not perfect, I’m just going to shoot for these things.

From there, I narrowed down my data points.

For the first three months, this is what I’m going to track:

1. Consistently work on my current Coursera course

2. Drink a gallon a day of water for more days than not (I didn’t get rid of EVERYTHING from my original challenge)

3. Be active for 1hr a day for more days than not

4. Meditate more days than not

Additionally, part of this challenge is to check-out less. Meaning: I want to spend less time mindlessly scrolling on my phone. If I need to rest, I REST. If I’m bored, I find something to do. If I’m curious, I learn about something.

I’ve just noticed that I’ll sit on the couch and scroll instead of actually taking care of my needs. I want to be able to recognize my needs and take care of them. One of my strategies for this is that I wrote a list of 40 things that I like to do. I want to figure out a way to build a game out of them, like I’ll randomly assign myself one of the things to do. I’ll write more about that process as things move a long.

But this is it, the beginning of my 1000 day challenge. I’ll be publishing at least one blog post a week, really just for me. I know no one is going to read these. I know this looks like shit, I’m out of practice! It’s just a way for me to get back into a consistent writing rhythm.

Anyway, I’m excited to start this and see what I learn about myself.

Thank you so much for coming along on this journey with me! 

Start date of challenge: 4/14/2024

End date of challenge: 1/9/2027

Current day: 1