The Problem With "Challenges" - Why They Fail To Consistently Create Long-Term Success

Just because it is common to see something doesn't mean that it is truly beneficial or works.

"Despite" the "Success Stories" you hear about.

One of the trends I have seen become more and more common for Businesses is to hold "Challenges".

These tend to be between 7 and 60 Days (Generally 30 Days) where you dedicate yourself to a specific Goal.

Generally, it involves education, a group (Facebook is most common), and a Celebration for those who make it to the end!

From an outside perspective, it sounds like a winning recipe.

However, I've been through some Challenges myself, and watched many more people take on different Challenges.

For the Challenge that I dedicated myself to most strongly - Digital Writing - I have received Major Success.

In fact, I would attribute 95% of my success this year to Digital Writing, including

• #1 Top Creator on Typeshare (The Digital Writing Platform) *
• 2023 Leadership Coaching Service of the Year
• 14 Other Awards and Nominations

However, I noticed that MOST of the people who do Challenges do NOT have the same types of Success as myself.

Despite the EXTREME amount of Individuals who go through these Challenges, few have any Long-Term Success.

I started to wonder, why is that?

What I realized is that the answers ALL have to do with Psychophysiology.

The Timeframe Problem

The very first problem is the Timeframe of the vast majority of Challenges.

As I mentioned above, they almost always are between 7 and 60 Days, with the majority landing at 30 Days.

What is the problem with this?

Habits.

Long-Term Success requires HIGH levels of Consistency.

Consistency comes from Habits.

On average it takes 66-Days to Create a Habit.

From the Psychophysiological Standpoint, this is about where the Energy (Mg-ATP) required to DO the Habit is LESS than the Energy to NOT do the Habit.

So, even toward the longer end at 60 Days, it may not be quite enough to fully develop a Habit.

At the 30 Day and less mark it most assuredly is NOT enough.

So, from the outset we have the Wrong Goal with Challenges.

If the goal of the Challenge should be Long-Term Success, the Behavior Created needs to become a Habit, and it just doesn't have enough Time.

However, the problems become compounded with the next Problems.

The Accomplishment Problem

The next problem we see from the Psychophysiological Perspective is what is considered an "Accomplishment".

See, every single Challenge comes with a Celebration at the end of the Challenge, which isn't "inherently" a problem.

We SHOULD Celebrate Success, and honestly we don't do it enough!

HOWEVER we need to be wary of understanding what "Celebration" means.

Most Challenges create this Mindset that the end "Celebration" is an END and Accomplishment!

However, for Long-Term Success, you can't play to get to the "End".

Long-Term Success requires you to play an Infinite Game where there is no "End".

When you believe that there's an "End", you Stop.

When you Stop, you begin to become Irrelevant and Recede.

For these Challenges to work, you need to view the "Celebration" as simply the "First Milestone" toward Long-Term Success.

It is worthy of Celebrating, but it does NOT mean that you've "Accomplished" anything.

That is why Challenges so often Fail people.

People feel they've reached an "End", a nice "Checkmark" to add to a Collection of Mediocrity that leads to no Long-Term Success.

You feel momentarily "Good", but are left with Nothing.

It's a False Sense of Long-Term Accomplishment.

The Community Problem

The final problem we see with Challenges is that of the "Type" of Communities they Create.

Human Beings have a natural desire to be a "Part" of a Thriving Community.

However, what we actually see built within Challenges is "Not" a Thriving Community.

What is built is a Mercenary Community.

What does this mean?

Mercenaries comes from a Marketing Figure that I follow that means Individuals who only care about themselves and "their" Success.

They have no real desire to be a part of something "Bigger".

The structure of the Challenge is that "I" achieve something by "My" Efforts when "I" reach the "End".

The people who fall are generally not Supported to get back up when they "Fall Behind".

Then, people are only there up until the end of the Challenge, and then what happens?

Ghost Town.

There is no continuation.

There is no further checking on people.

When the Challenge is complete, everyone dusts their hands off, and goes off on their own completely separate Paths.

There may be occasional individuals who break from this pattern, but they do not form Full Communities.

Without a continuing, supporting, Thriving Community the Individuals simply go back to what they had before.

Similar in effect to how an Alcoholic can go to Rehab, only to immediately fall back into their old routines when going back to their old Environment.

Without a "True" Community, people almost always will fall back into the "Norm" of whatever Environments they came from.

As people tend to come "into" Challenges with a Hope to "Break" from their old "Norms", it means their previous Environments were NOT designed to achieve nor continue the Behaviors from Challenges.

Most people simply fall back into Mediocrity.

*Affiliate Link Included - Any Organization I Recommend I Use Myself And Think HIGHLY Of