Reading Time: 2 minutesI am not a robot.
I find it hard to program my brain and expect my actions to reflect what I said I’d do. If I were a robot, change would be easy.
On top of not being a robot, if I’m the only person checking in on my program, the likelihood of my success drops even further: The person doing the watching and the person tempted to “cheat” are the same person. The fox is guarding the hen house.
The best allies I’ve got for keeping myself on the straight and narrow are other people.
Enter: My team.
The thinking behind teams in the Whole Life Challenge is threefold:
First, if you change your environment, you can change everything. People commonly decide to make big changes in their lives all by themselves. But when you try to change only you, you can often find yourself swimming against the current of the status quo.
When you participate in the Challenge with a team–family, friends, co-workers–you’re far more likely to stick to your resolve during the Challenge just because everyone else is.
Nothing is more useful (and admittedly annoying at times) than someone who holds you accountable. On top of that, the hive mind will discover far more fun, Challenge-compliant stuff than you ever will alone.
Second, if you’re the only person having conversations with you about your progress, support can be really hard to come by. We tend to be much harder on ourselves than the people who want to see us succeed.
Your teammates are the voice of support and reason when the going gets tough and things are at their hardest.
And last, When you do the challenge with people in your life, you’ll be living in a new and different environment when the challenge ends: One that supports what you built for yourself during the game.
One of the biggest obstacles for people who go through the Challenge alone is that when the Challenge is done, the environment around them looks exactly like it did before they started. They’re back in a world that supported the way they used to live.
By having a team, you’re far more likely to make long-lasting changes well after the Challenge ends.
This Challenge is not about robots. It’s about communities of people who want to change their world. Not only are you more effective at change when you team up, the experience is also a heck of a lot more fun.
“Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
He graduated from UCLA with a BA in philosophy as well as a degree from the Southern California School of Culinary Arts, and feels food is one of the most important parts of a life - it can nourish, heal, and bring people together.
Michael believes health and well-being are as much a state of mind as they are a state of the body, and when it comes to fitness, food, and life in general, he thinks slow is much better than fast (most of the time). Stopping regularly to examine things is the surest way to put down roots and grow.
He knows he will never be done with his own work, and believes the best thing you can do for your well-being starts with loving and working from what you’ve got right now.
