There are a lot of challenges on this site. People often ask, ‘Is challenging myself really necessary?’ The short answer is yes if you want to improve yourself and your life. But, I know that’s a general answer and not very motivating. So, let’s talk about 7 reasons why challenging yourself is so important.
1. Even The Smallest Challenge Can Have A Huge Impact On Your Life
It’s important to note that a challenge doesn’t always need to be a month-long thing. Challenges that last 30 days are great, but the fact is that you can do a small challenge and experience enormous benefits.
For instance, a woman I know challenged herself to make vegan buffalo taquitos years ago. It was a small challenge. She was craving buffalo taquitos, but cream cheese, chicken, and cheddar were no longer an option for her as a vegan, so she needed to challenge herself to make it differently. She figured out a recipe and loved it so much that it’s apparently still her favorite comfort food today. But, what the challenge ultimately did was push her to try to create more non-vegan food into vegan food, and eventually, she started blogging about it and is making a full-time living from it.
One small challenge led to a complete career change that is earning her more than she ever made in her previous job.
I imagine a lot of vegan bloggers and vloggers started out with the small challenge of trying to make one nonvegan dish vegan.
If you haven’t listened to the Ted Talk by Tony Hsieh before, you should. In his talk, he highlights how even the smallest challenge can have a huge impact on your life.
2. Challenges Help You See Things From Other People’s Perspectives (And We Need This In The World)
So many issues – big and small – stem from the fact that we are not willing to accept that other people have different beliefs and ways of doing things.
If you want less fighting in your life and more peace and collaboration, then taking on certain challenges is important. Quite often, challenging yourself lets you see things from other people’s perspectives.
Here’s a tweet that highlights how important it is to challenge yourself on social media in a way that gives you insight into other people.
Read great paper on silo thinking. humans are slowly becoming less able to hear opposing views thus polarising society. SM increases this. So I challenge you to follow someone you DON’T agree with. It will make you cross. It is hard but you are helping yourself! Be brave. Try it! pic.twitter.com/CLdSIlm5Ux
— Lisa Forte (@LisaForteUK) September 13, 2020
The small challenge of following someone you don’t agree with is going to challenge your mind and help you increase your understanding of where other people are coming from, even if you don’t agree with them. And, understanding their point of view helps you to work together instead of against each other and solve issues instead of creating more issues.
We need that level of understanding and cooperation both in our personal lives and on a bigger scale.
The thing is that it’s going to take more than one tweet or conversation to allow yourself to hear what they are saying and digest it. This is why an extended challenge is important. It gives you the constant exposure needed to tolerate, understand, and even accept other people’s points of view and beliefs.
Maybe you could create a 30-day challenge where you challenge yourself to read one tweet by this person per day and reflect on it. After 30 days, you may find yourself being more compassionate towards this person and people who would their views, and be more willing to work with people who hold the same views for the betterment of yourself, someone else, or the world.
3. Challenges Help You See Your Potential
You will never know what you are capable of until you try. That’s just a fact.
I recently saw a woman challenging herself to go up and down the stairs for five minutes per day. It seems like a small challenge, but she gained a lot from it. She lost a little weight and she toned up a bit, but best of all, she realized that she was capable of pushing herself to do something that she didn’t like doing – at all. She really hated the stairs.
- Sometimes you challenge yourself and you improve a skill.
- Sometimes you challenge yourself and discover something new about yourself.
- Sometimes you challenge yourself and start to believe that you are capable of doing something you never thought possible before.
- Sometimes you challenge yourself and your beliefs start to shift.
Challenges can help you see and go after your potential.
In short, when you take on a challenge, you may find that you stop saying ‘I can’t do/be/have’ so much and you start seeing how you can do/be/have.
4. How Can You Feel The Thrill Of A Victory When You Don’t Challenge Yourself?
The feeling that comes from challenging yourself and rising to the occasion is exhilarating! It feels like you are superhuman and you ride a high for a while as you contemplate how awesome you are for doing what you did.
As a human, you get the option to feel that feeling as often as you want. Taking on challenges will help you do it.
5. You Gain Confidence As You Challenge Yourself
As you move through challenges, you start to develop confidence in your abilities and yourself, and that confidence can improve your work life, relationships, and so much more.
I once read a story about someone who wanted to blog but didn’t know where to start. She had never blogged before. She entered a blogging challenge. The challenge was to create a new website from scratch, collaborate with others, and start getting visitors to that site. This challenge helped her see that she was capable of creating a site from scratch that was aligned with her passions and was of interest to other people. It led to her creating many new sites over the years. Some were successful and some were not, but she never lost the confidence in her ability to create and succeed with a site.
Where do you need more confidence in life? Take a challenge that helps you get it.
6. Challenges Help Make You Happy When You Might Otherwise Be Miserable
Every time you challenge yourself to do something, you have the potential to create new habits, new beliefs, and new behaviors that can make your life better.
For instance, if you challenge yourself to love being at home, then life won’t feel so hard during those times when you need to be at home for long stretches. You won’t be so negative. You won’t sulk around wishing you could be somewhere else. Instead, you will focus on the positives and make the most of your time at home.
Challenges can help you remove those negative mindsets and limiting beliefs that make life miserable.
7. Personal Challenges Improve Your Relationships
If you want your relationships to improve, then improve yourself through challenges. Every challenge can impact your relationships in one way or another, even when other people are not taking challenges with you.
For instance, if you gain confidence through a challenge, that’s going to benefit every relationship you are in. You will be more willing to share your opinion, help out, and do what needs to be done.
There’s an old saying that you have to love yourself first before other people can love you. Always work on yourself to improve the way other people interact and view you.
As you challenge yourself and get to know yourself more, love yourself more, be a better human being, and do great things, you will be surprised at how your interactions with other people changes.
Yes, Challenging Yourself Is Necessary For A More Fulfilling Life
In the end, you should want to challenge yourself as often as possible. Every challenge you take on has the potential to change your life. And, even if it doesn’t, it’s going to teach you things about yourself that will help you live a happier, healthier, and more successful life.
Pick something that you want to work on or try and then take on a challenge to help you in that area. If you need some ideas, check out our ‘challenge yourself‘ articles.
