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1. Morning Action

 Do push-ups, sit-ups, and squats: move every muscle and joint. During week one, do 10 of each; in week two, do 20; and conclude in week three with 30 of each.

 Turn on all five senses: move your eyes through every focal plane; listen for three sounds; smell something pleasant; taste something pleasant; run something with texture, like a hairbrush or a sponge, over your skin.

 Drink eight glasses of water throughout the day.

2. Night Action

 Do the same before bed for 21 days straight.

3. Excuses

 On a notepad, write down the time and every excuse or reason that comes up and makes you want to stop.

It’s a simple method I call “the awakening.” You will find reasons to excuse yourself very graciously from doing it. You will either come up with a reason in the first week, you will simply forget in the second week, or worse, you will believe your excuses in the third week and quit. You will most likely quit on honoring your word. This first 21-day challenge will show you what is causing you to fail in all areas of your life.

As you prepare yourself for either a 21-day easy learning experience or a six-month tranche of excuses that seduce you into oblivion, the four most noted excuses are as follows. Maybe seeing them written prior to engagement will help.

 This is too painful

 This is stupid

 My spouse/lover/friend doesn’t support me

 I forgot

Clearly, pain can be believable. Pain, once used as an excuse, will always stop you.

Saying “this is stupid” has destroyed more endeavors than any excuse known to mankind. What you may not realize is that there is always a point in time when what you are doing is just stupid and makes no sense. You will ask, “Who in their right mind would keep doing this?” or say, “I cannot keep doing this.” Overcoming “this is stupid” will be the most important aspect of your life. If you don’t overcome this conversation, I can personally promise you one thing: you will stay right where you are in life with the same complaints and reasons and blame everyone but your own choices. “This is stupid” excuses you from change, from taking a step, and from success.

The other seductive excuse to not honor you word is the lack of support from a spouse. Without knowing the outcome of the intimate nature of spousal support, most spouses negatively impact the drive of their loved one. Neither spouse really intends to destroy the other, yet even a sideways look or a scoff of being inconvenienced will derail the one trying to honor their word. Get on board or just tell your spouse openly they don’t have your support. I highly recommend being your spouse’s cheerleader and always supporting. Unfortunately, the opposite is the reality, due to the fear of being great and a complete lack of understanding what it truly means to be in a relationship. We’ll discuss relationship later.

The final of the top four reasons to quit that I have encountered is the most surprising. To make matters worse, it doesn’t seem like an excuse. The reality of the excuse “I forgot,” is that everyone, everywhere uses it. You will forget to do the simple thing you agreed to do. It doesn’t seem to matter how weighty or simple the thing is. We forget to turn off the stove and burn the house down. We forget to fill the tank with gas and run out of gas when least convenient. We forget to say hi and cause unintended ripples in the experience of life for others. In the 21-day challenge, most people forget to do one of the promised things in the last three days. And have to start over. That reality is the life people lead.

The power of the 21-day challenge to honor your word and never give up is that once you stop giving credence to your excuses, once you carve out doing three simple things for 21 days, your life is now moving in the direction you spoke into existence. You are now capable of replicating the experience of doing what you said you would do. Nineteen days is not enough. Twenty days and “I am good” will not be sustainable. Transform your life in twenty-one days. And that is very powerful.