Start Imperfectly

We must undergo a hard winter training and not rush into things for which we haven’t prepared. – Epictetus

Welcome to the first day of the challenge!

Today’s topic is how to get everything together to crush this challenge. Here’s a list of things you’ll need:

  • Nothing

It’s not a typo; you don’t need a single thing to crush this challenge. We all have reasons why this isn’t a good time to start. I don’t even need to list the reasons because I know you’re mentally rehearsing them as you read this.

targets targets

Focus on these words for just a minute. Things will never be perfect; start anyway. The next 45 days will pass regardless.

We can’t do this life thing halfheartedly. There’s no time off. There aren’t even weekends. We are always preparing for what life might throw at us– and when it does, we’re ready and don’t stop until we’ve handled it. – Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic

Commit to completing today’s tasks and nothing more. Don’t worry about yesterday. Don’t fret about tomorrow. Focus on today because, in reality, that’s all you have. Once those tasks are done, you’ve won the day. The rest of the day is yours to do as you wish, and you can enjoy it knowing you’ve made progress on taking care of yourself in all the critical areas of your life. You did this for you.

Take one step

Rather than allowing yourself to get overwhelmed and not do anything, take one step.

A journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step. —Unknown

The great thing is it doesn’t matter what that step is:

  • Increase your daily protein intake
  • Restrict eating to only 8 hours per day (intermittent fasting)
  • Logging your food in My Fitness Pal or a spreadsheet
  • Planning your meals each day in advance

You don’t have to have the perfect plan to get started

We often fail to begin a journey because we don’t feel we have all the answers.

Start anyway

Perhaps you really like breakfast but have read that intermittent fasting works best if you delay your first meal as long as possible.

Fine.

Have breakfast.

It doesn’t have to be a perfect plan, but start if it’s better than what you’re doing now. Measure and adjust as needed.

Today’s tasks

Here are your tasks for the day:

  • Drink 1 gallon of water
  • Workout for 45 minutes
  • Read ten pages from your book Once those tasks are done, go to this website and check them off. Remember, the website will be locked at the end of the day, so be sure to complete this before bed.