Elevate Your Trajectory: Launch A Self-Improvement Challenge

We all want to pursue more potential that lies within ourselves. But, how? One way is to begin the year with a self-improvement challenge.

Why Challenge Yourself?

I believe people who have a growth mindset strive to improve and that those who challenge themselves will improve. If you make resolutions this time of the year that you can't keep or you struggle to consistently improve yourself throughout the year; ask yourself, "What's really holding me back?" If you agree that nothing is holding you back, there's no reason you can't achieve more of your full potential. The only part you're really missing is, "How?"

As the first Buddhist nun to be ordained said, "The answer lies within yourself."

Background Perspective

Two years ago, I wanted to build out more of my full potential. During a conversation I had with a friend, I roughly sketched out a challenge. I repurposed an idea taken from the Ulysses Bucket List Challenge which, at the time, had a sizable following on Reddit. I was so fascinated with the premise, that years before this I had convinced my family to draw names and, in lieu of buying more unnecessary consumer goods, we gifted each other a Ulysses Challenge instead.

To his credit and my benefit, Phil Schneider who is also a growth-minded entrepreneur, was up for the challenge and we went on a self-improvement journey together. Through trial and practice, we have created a simple, yet effective, way to grow and improve ourselves throughout the year.

A Biased, Yet Reliable Guarantee

As a management recruiter, I confidently stand by the S-I Challenge. I am confident, mainly, because I use it and I have seen results. The approach isn't 100% perfect, but as a lifelong learner I have found that it is beneficial in helping me improve myself and other people who have gotten involved can validate its effectiveness.

Unique & Personalized

Our S-I Challenge is different than more established institutional models. One advantage it enjoys is participants chose what's best for their development and they are always driving their own goals, experiences and outcomes. To understand the importance of self-direction, please see the Working Scientific Theory section at the end of this post. (1)

If you've gotten this far, here is a roadmap of essentials you need to start your own S-I Challenge.

Ground Rules Of Engagement

> The Game Board. You have one year to make progress on any set of accomplishments you set out to develop in the areas of your professional and personal life. These should resonate with you, and only you, and be driven by your future self. Why your future self? Because, the year 2024 represents your future; and, we as humans (individually "self") are unique in our ability to, "think about our futures." (2)

Why accomplishments? Because they are foundational to growth and compel us to reach higher, wider and deeper in pursuit of our full potential. Having an accomplishment, goal-oriented mindset guides our future selves to focus more upon our "will to do" and less upon our "intent to plan". This moves us to act upon our intentions and leads to accomplishing more tangible results.

Think Accomplishments, Not Goals

Part of the S-I Challenge is what many in corporate would call "setting goals". I've learned that the language we use conveys meaning and the words chosen to describe our personal growth have significance. Goals seem to connotate outside involvement and become more external to the setters themselves. Accomplishments and achievements are more often expressed as results. They spark more internal foundation of desire and are driven from within (i.e., think self motivation.)

Irrespective of how you view improvements, when you set out challenges, I would suggest that you lean more heavily on the side of "what's achievable and reachable". (3)

> It's A Two-Person Game. It is very important to find a "co-improvement partner" who is equally committed to helping themselves grow and prosper as you are. In this sense, your partner should be like-minded and interested in improving themselves. They are involved "for their own benefit." In another sense, you and your partner are both involved in this self-improvement challenge together and your improvement partner is also "there for you." It is a peer-to-peer, mutually supportive, give-and-take opportunity to grow individually and together.

The key in selecting a partner is to find someone you know well enough who also knows you as a friend and is perhaps a colleague. You want the partner to be coopetitive - slightly competitive in order to inspire you, more importantly cooperative to support you. Some personal development app companies consider this to be your "accountability partner".

Along with benefits of self-growth, you and your partner provide independent, but trusted, encouragement, ideas and counsel to one another.

Partners can also challenge and motivate one another to "go beyond" themselves. My experience is that this comes later in the process and is applicable when "going beyond" takes place when your partner takes on a secondary role. Initially, your partner is there to grow themselves and be involved in a primary role to serve as your sounding board.

> Establish Growth Categories. To get started, my friend came up with the idea to establish three areas of growth. For us they were broken down into: 1) Mental; 2) Physical; 3) Metaphysical categories. Although there is interaction and crossover between areas, we set out goals to accomplish in all three categories.

For example, one of my physical areas of self-improvement challenge in 2022 was to train and ride in a 50K, single-trek mountain bike race called the Whiskey Off Road. Last year, I challenged myself mentally to begin writing a second book. And, one of my initial metaphysical challenges was to plant 100 trees in nature's abundant corridor between Sedona, AZ and Park City, UT. I wanted to get past my "self interests" in order to help improve the environment. Which is why my partner and I consider anything "outside of ourselves" to be metaphysical.

Please feel free to use our growth categories or establish your own. Categories can be flexible, updated and serve to guide any unique circumstances that occur in your personal and professional spheres of life. By way of example, during the past year "wellbeing", specifically mental health, has become a management priority and much discussed topic in the future of work. In order for me as a recruiter to keep pace, I am adding an "emotional intelligence" subcategory to my mental challenge this year and have decided to work with a behavioral therapist to improve both my Emotional IQ and my ability to communicate.

> Add-Ons & Replacements. In our daily travels, my partner and I both run across unplanned and unexpected, new opportunities during the year to develop ourselves. By allowing replacements and add-ons to substitute for any accomplishments that were set out at the beginning of the year, we are able to include these types of adjustments in our S-I Challenges during the course of the year.

For instance, in May of last year I decided to sign-up and be schooled by a Master Resiliency Trainer. The year before, I added a 12-week workshop on creativity called "The Artist's Way" in the last half of the year. In both situations, I was allowed to make adjustments. I could either add these as new opportunities to my yearly goals or replace an existing challenge with a new growth opportunity.

> Check-Ins Throughout The Year. Regular performance updates are shared, and they should take place between partners. This is a primary role for you and your co-improvement partner. Both of you must listen closely to each other during exchanges, or check-ins, you have throughout the year.

I would consider check-ins a requirement of any S-I Challenge. They keep you connected to goals you want to accomplish; and provide important feedback, perspective and encouragement to each partner along the way.

> Stakes: Consequences & Awards. Any rewards for accomplishments or penalties for non-performance in our S-I Challenge are self-imposed. Which means we have decided NOT to include stakes. Alternatively, as my partner and I have discussed, any incomplete challenges or failed attempts can be re-introduced and rolled over into subsequent years.

However, there is absolutely no reason why you can't add stakes when you begin your S-I Challenge. Carrots for rewards and sticks for punishments and are commonly used inside of companies as incentive programs to accomplish goals. And many people I mentor (e.g., Tim Ferriss) recommend them as important ways to accelerate both learning and growth.

> Keeping Track, Measuring Performance, Checking Off Completion. Obviously, the end goal is to complete your challenges and improve yourself throughout the year. To do so, you need to track progress and measure your performance.

Don't underestimate this step! I have found that losing track of my challenges throughout the year happens often and it limits my accomplishments. We all know that anything important is commonly measured. That is why we have decided this year to use a personal development app in pursuit of our challenges. Here are some, but there are many to choose from. You can also scale down a project management app such as Basecamp/Trello or simply share a Google Doc and use it as a check-in and completion system.

It's Time To Get Started

This is an exciting time when we are all aware and capable of reaching an abundance of opportunities for potential development within ourselves. Yet, until we challenge and accomplish, our potential lies dormant like a slumbering giant.

The Self-Improvement Challenge I have outlined and shared here is one means to an end. In sharing it, my hope is that most, or part, of it will hit home, resonate and move you to start your own S-I Challenge.

Finally, I believe learning is a two-way exchange. So, please do share your experiences, practices and thoughts with me at [email protected]. Likewise, if I can help you start or advance your self-improvement practices, please reach out and let me know how I can be of further assistance.

Here's to a year filled with wellness, accomplishment and joy!

* This post is dedicated to Kyler E who passed away prematurely on New Year's Day 2024 at 30 years old. He carried the heavy load of mental illness like a champ and was never able to realize his enormous potential. May we all challenge and improve ourselves for ourselves, for our partners and also in memory of him.

(1) A Working Scientific Theory

Choice Informs Our Decisions

In environments imposed by guilt, societal norm or someone else's agenda, several things happen: A.) You are not fully committed; B.) your motivation wanes; C.) behaviors that lead to improvement are unable to form; and, D.) ultimately, whatever it is you are trying to accomplish doesn't stick.

And, we know from Behavioral Science that new habits take both time and practice (think James Clear's Atomic Habits and Malcom Gladwell's Outliers i.e., 10K Hours which is based upon Anders Ericsson's research and more related to mastery.) In short, behaviors form connective tissue which precede performance.

Freedom Of Choice

Unlike decisions made for us, freedom of choice** works differently. Whenever you are free to choose, you also act upon free will. It draws upon more of a deep-seated desire, or willingness, which stimulates a decision (i.e., a form of commitment) and triggers a subsequent response to do what you set out to accomplish.

** It is well established by Cass R. Sunstein and Richard H. Thaler in their book Nudge that freedom of choice decisions represents one of the best "architectures" and most effective ways of making decisions.

(2) "Stumbling On Happiness" by acclaimed Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert. “What makes humans different from every other animal is that they think about the future.” Gilbert made this profound, all-encompassing, declarative statement that psychology practioneers are required to make once during the lifetime of their careers. I use it here as a good rule of thumb for self-professional development.

(3) The consistency of language I use here (a.k.a., goals that are achievable coupled with purposeful outcomes become "achievements" that you accomplish.) This is yet another reason to treat "goals" more like "accomplishments".