If you follow me on any of my social media channels (If not you can follow me @realtalkwithmegan on FB, Instagram & TikTok) you might have seen that I have been in a challenge for the last 74 days. It is called the 75 Hard and it has 5 simple rules, but the catch is if you miss one of the rules no matter what day you are on you have to start over back at day one.

1. Follow a diet. No cheating or no alcohol.

2. Drink a gallon of water a day.

3. Two, 45-minute workouts a day, and one of them has to be outside (no matter the weather)

4. Read 10 pages of a nonfiction book a day. 

5. Take progress photos of yourself every single day.

Now you may be wondering why would I put myself through something like this?  The answer is simple. I wanted to prove to myself and others that I could accomplish a huge challenge like this when I set my mind to it. Not to mention the guy who created this challenge said “Only two people will be able to complete this challenge.” So I wanted to prove him wrong. Even though I don’t know him and will most likely never meet him. However, competition is in my blood and I really don’t like to lose. This is also the reason why sometimes I don’t play sports with people I like because I can be intense at times. Don’t believe me? In high school, I played tennis and I preferred playing singles instead of doubles because it was just me and the opponent. I had no one else to blame but myself if I lost. And if I was down a game or even down a set I didn’t want to hear any encouragement because I was focusing on what I had been doing wrong and how to change it. Any cheering threw me off. Sorry, mom. My mom was my biggest cheerleader and came anytime I was on the court, but there was one time when I was down a set and she was cheering me on and I shushed her. Yup, I am not super proud of that moment but my head was in the zone and anything at that moment was a distraction. I have learned from those mistakes and tried to become more like Jesus even when I’m losing. A huge shout out to my husband for putting up with my competitive spirit during our first few years of marriage. For a while, he didn’t want to play tennis with me because I was too competitive and may have come off as though I didn’t have time to teach him how to play. Fortunately, after having kids it has helped and now you can find my whole family out on the court playing tennis together. I still like to win but I am calmer than I was in the past. 

My competitive spirit still lives inside of me but I have channeled it into a more positive light, like into this challenge. I have one more day and I will have completed what I started. It has not been easy that is why it is called the 75 HARD challenge and not the 75 moderately difficult sometimes easy challenge. One that would be a ridiculous name and it doesn’t just roll off your tongue and I was only in competition with myself. I wanted to do just a little better than I did the day before. I had a support system and we encouraged each other. Hopefully, they didn’t find me annoying. I have reached the place in my life where the encouragement actually got me through. And if I am being honest, back in high school playing tennis, if I just accepted the encouragement and found energy in the cheers, I may have actually won more games. 

You may not do a challenge as I did, but if you are at all like me, competitive, learn from my mistakes, find those around you who fully support you, and take in all their encouragement. You might just win a few more games with a positive attitude rather than a negative one. 

I pray that this blog today was an encouragement to you and can help in your daily life. Always know I am available to pray with you or just be someone to talk to when life gets hard. E-mail me at megan@churchanywhere.us if you need prayer! 

Talk to you next Monday!