4 Lessons I’ve Learned From My 60 Day Challenge So Far

Posted by Jon on Mar 14, 2013 in Personal | 0 comments

At some point in our lives you get a bit bored and decide to do something a bit crazy…..so about 45 days ago I thought I’d make life a bit more interesting and start the INSANITY 60 day challenge. This all started after my sister (who is running a half marathon in April and doing her first FULL marathon in September) started 2 weeks before me and was seeing positive results.

Shaun T

So far I have finished the first month, the recovery week and halfway into the secondmonth of this craziness. The reason WHY I committed to this challenge was to:

Improve my cardio and stamina for dancing.
Prove to myself I can do anything I set my mind to.
Show off my sexy body for the ladies just in time for summer (This one is a joke 🙂 ).

Since this past month I’ve noticed my stamina and recovery time in dance has sky rocketed! Whenever I finish a set of dancing it feels like that moment from The Matrix where Morpheus says to Neo, “You think that’s air you’re breathing?”. As well as the physical highlights I’ve also noticed mental changes, which I’ll mention in some of the 4 lessons below.

Insanity Workout Month 1

1. Our bodies are capable of more than we believe

When I started week 1 of insanity I didn’t think I’d survive the first workout, ‘the fit test’ (the easiest one). My sister said it gets easier after day 2, but I felt it just got a whole lot worse as the days went on. However when I came around to doing ‘the fit test’ again (end of week 2) again all my scores improved – I almost couldn’t believe it! Now I’ve done the 3rd fit test and check out my results…

2. Don’t believe everything you think

There are times during the workout, even now, when my brain is shouting “STOP! YOU CAN’T DO ANYMORE!!” and when starting this workout I stopped for a couple seconds for a cheeky break to recover. However, when I hear this voice now I have to keep reminding myself that my body can do more than what it used to be able to. The only limitation is the one that is set in the mind and I realised that it’s like our body is a car and our mind is the gear stick….we may have 6 gears, but we are so used to only using 3 gears so never reach our full potential.

3. Visualisation is key

Now when doing certain exercises I try to visualise something in my life to help my mind zone out the pain and push me through. Like when Shaun T starts doing “Mountain Climbers” I try to visualise climbing up a mountain with the checkpoints being my goals in life….it’s funny because sometimes I’m so focused on the visualisation that I do a lot more repetitions and miss the next workout sequence!

Insanity Workout Meme

4. The first 30 days are the most important

This is about the amount of time it takes to break a habit or implement a new routine and I’ve felt the effect of this new routine. I usually start it about 6-7am and in the first couple of weeks it was an absolute pain to force myself out of bed to get up and push my body beyond it’s limits straight away. However, it got a lot easier after the first month going into recovery week and now my new habit is to sweat my ass off first thing in the morning. 🙂

Insanity Workout Month 2

The last part of this journey feels like the home-stretch of a marathon and I am truly grateful for this experience and to Shaun T (the creator/instructor of this crazy workout).

The overall messages that have stuck with me throughout this workout are….

KEEP MOVING FORWARD…..NEVER GIVE UP…….DIG DEEPER!!

I hope this post helps you to believe that you are capable of more than you can possibly imagine!

Stay awesome 🙂

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Jon

Founder and Blogger of Good Thoughts About Life (GTAL), based in Manchester (UK). Passionate about personal growth and the universal laws. Check out the "About Jon" page for his story.