All Together: The 22-Day Self-Discipline Challenge

This was one intense Journey, Fabulous Traveler.

We at Fabulous are very proud of you, and once again we’d love to hear from you.

Click here to join the private Facebook group we’ve created for our Premium community.

Only graduates of this Journey will be on the page. Everyone will be able to share their experiences which we can use to make this Journey even better.

We’re now getting ready for the ultimate challenge, but first, let’s do a quick review of what we’ve learned during this journey:

• By being grateful every day, you’ve learned to enjoy life’s challenges and to take them on with energy and vitality.

• Together we’ve created performance statements that will come to your aid when you’re most vulnerable.

• By disconnecting from your device, you’ve been getting the sleep you need to stay disciplined and focused all day.

• You’ve trained your self-discipline, like a muscle, by engaging in regular deep work sessions.

• You’ve learned about the power of commitment devices to help you stick to your goals, regardless of what mood you’re in when the time comes.

• Through meditation, you’ve become more in tune with the distractions your mind throws at you, and as a result are able to defend against them.

• Whenever you feel lured by a pesky temptation, you simply clench your fist and find the strength to act nobly.

• You’ve become the driver of your own mindbus, with the power to drop off your most distracting and malcontented passengers.

• By quitting your sugar addiction you’ve pushed your self-discipline to new heights, all while creating a lifelong healthy diet.

• And lastly, you’ve realized that to continue performing at peak condition, it’s important to relax and recharge every now and then.

Having been reminded of the core elements of this Journey, you’re ready for a lesson that you wouldn’t have been able to fully appreciate until now.

Why did we choose the habits we did and teach the lessons we taught? We wanted to help you understand this concept:

Character is built through your inner confrontations.

Character is the collection of perspectives, desires, and habits that are slowly etched during the struggles against one's own weakness.

You can become more disciplined, considerate, and loving through a thousand small acts of self-control, sharing, service, friendship, and earned relaxation. Every time you make disciplined, caring choices, you are slowly engraving certain tendencies into your mind. You are making it more likely that you will desire the right things and execute the right actions.

If you make selfish, impulsive, or disorganized choices, then you are slowly turning this core thing inside yourself into something that is degraded, inconsistent, or fragmented. You will harm this core thing with nothing more than ignoble thoughts, even if you are not harming anyone else. Consequently, you can elevate this core thing with an act of restraint nobody sees.

If you don’t develop a coherent character in this way, the important aspects of your life will fall apart sooner or later.

You will become a slave to your emotions and desires.

But, if you do behave with habitual self-discipline, you will become constant and dependable.

The Ultimate Challenge

With this understanding under your belt, it’s time for the ultimate challenge.

It is a difficult challenge, but you’ve been through so much just getting here, that you can take it on with confidence.

For the next 22 days, you’re going to:

1. Repeat your performance statement every morning

2. Complete a Deep Work session

3. Exercise

We consider Deep Work to be the ultimate manifestation of self-discipline. The most practical benefit of a strong willpower is the ability to ignore all temptations and get done the things you want to accomplish.

Apply your Deep Work sessions to whatever aspect of life you think would benefit most from them. That could be your job, a secret project, a task you’ve been putting off, or anything else that you struggle to stay focused on.

Why is Exercise a part of the challenge?

Exercise is the single most important action that will build your reservoir of self-discipline. Making the time to exercise is not always easy, and you will be calling upon your self-discipline to make it happen. At the same time, exercising gives you more energy and more stamina to tackle the other trials of life.

I urge you to keep notes on all the things you’ve learned in this Journey so you can look back at them from time to time. It’s a crucial mistake to assume that your new sense of self-discipline won’t need maintenance.

Willpower is a lifelong adventure, but one well worth pursuing. Imagine a dove with a weight attached to her feet.

As it tries it’s hardest to fly it will succeed and gain altitude. Once it is flying high enough, however, the dove might get too comfortable and slowly start to sink back down to Earth. If this happens, it must make a grand effort to fly back up to it’s highest point.

With self-discipline, as with the dove, it’s better to put forth a decent amount of effort to maintain self-discipline rather than the large effort required to repair a neglected self-discipline.

This Week’s Plan

Your One-Time Action

Craft a few performance statements to help you finish the full 22 days of this challenge.

Recall that a good performance statement should remind you of exactly what you need to do to succeed and you should be able to call upon it at the correct time.

For finishing your Deep Work session everyday, you could, for example, pick a time to start it and say “When the clock strikes 11:00AM, I’ll close all unnecessary programs and work until noon.”

To help you stick to your exercise habit, you can use a phrase specific to your exercise of choice. For example, “When I wake up in the morning, I’ll put on my running shoes and listen to my favorite song.” or “When I get off work, I’ll grab my Yoga bag and head to the studio.”

Once you’ve crafted new statements for yourself, write them down in your notebook. For bonus points, write them on a few sticky notes and place each in the location where you will use the statement, for example on your bathroom mirror or on the car’s steering wheel.

Practice these statement both in the morning to prime yourself for success, and then once more while you’re succeeding.

Your Goal

For the next 22 days, you’ll stick to the following 3 habits perfectly: Performance Statement, Deep Work, and Exercise.

You can edit your Rituals so that the habits are only active certain days. For example you can turn off the exercise ritual on Saturdays to give yourself a needed rest day or turn off Deep Work on Sundays so you can spend the day with your family instead.

You’re not going to perform your habits every day for 22 days, rather, you will stick to your predetermined plan for 22 days.

When you’re ready to begin the final challenge, tap Accept below.

That’s it Fabulous Traveler! That’s the last goal you will have to accomplish in this epic Journey. You’ve learned so much since we first met months ago.

Take a moment to be proud of yourself and to be grateful for the growth you’ve made. Celebration is an important part of the journey.