Introducing Challenges: Pick Something, Start It, Do It Together
Everyone loves a challenge. Whether that’s something massive, like the Five Peaks Challenge or Everest , or smaller like getting up on time for a whole week without hitting the snooze button once, challenges are what drives people forward. They set a target and help focus the mind brilliantly. That’s why we’ve added Challenges to 42 Things To Do. You’ll find them in the link at the top of every page - a challenge gives you a set of activities to choose from, a clear target for how many you need to complete, and a deadline, with other people working towards the same goal alongside you. It could be three activities in a week, six over six weeks, or something you create yourself for friends, family, colleagues or your wider community. The activities themselves can be simple. Bake a loaf of bread. Watch the sunrise and sunset on the same day. Write a poem. Try yoga. Volunteer somewhere local. They don’t all need to be world changing, though of course if you want something a little more extreme then feel free to put it together! The point is to make room for things you’ll enjoy, remember or feel glad you finally did. How official challenges work The 42 Things team will regularly publish challenges built around a particular theme, timeframe or number of activities. Some of these will be easy to tick off, and others will be much harder. There’s probably some that won’t be ticked off for a long time, if ever - we all need stretch goals, after all! When you open a challenge, you’ll see: what you need to complete when the challenge ends the activities you can choose from how many people are taking part your progress once you’ve joined You don’t usually have to complete every activity shown in order to complete a challenge, though. It might ask you to choose six from a selection of nineteen, for example, so you can build a version that fits your interests, budget and available time. To get started, simply click on the Join the challenge button, choose your activities, and start ticking them off as you complete them. Your progress is recorded in one place, so you can see how far you’ve come and what you still have left to do. Some challenges also include a leaderboard. Taking part doesn’t mean your name has to appear publicly; members are only shown if they choose to opt in. Just click that button on the challenge if you want to take part and compete against others to complete it. Create a challenge of your own You can also create your own challenge and invite other people to join you. This could be: a family challenge for the school holidays a month of trying new food with friends a workplace wellbeing challenge a list of things to do before a birthday a shared target for a club, team or community group a slightly ridiculous competition between people who’ve known each other long enough to enjoy one All you need to do is to choose the goal, set the timeframe, and decide which activities count. It would be great to add a nice photo you’ve taken to it, but that’s not mandatory. Once it’s ready, invite the people you want to take part and get them signed up. You could keep it manageable with three things in seven days, give everyone more room with six things in six weeks, or build something completely different. There’s no prize for creating the most punishing challenge possible, so do try to keep them realistic and achievable. It should give people enough of a push to get started without turning their free time into another job. Why take part? A list can hold ideas for years. A challenge asks you to pick something and put a date against it. That small change is really important, as it’s one of the things that’s really going to give you the motivation to get things ticked off. There’s a target to work towards, a reason to choose your activities now, and a group of people who understand what you’re trying to complete. Challenges can also make smaller activities feel worthwhile. You don’t need to climb Kilimanjaro every weekend to live a fuller life. Cooking something new, learning a skill, helping somebody or going somewhere different can be enough to break the usual routine and give you a story you didn’t have before. And doing it with other people makes it easier to keep going. You can invite someone you already know, meet others taking part in an official challenge and share your progress as you work through it. How to get started Head to Challenges from the main menu and choose one that interests you. Open the challenge to see the target, deadline and available activities. If it feels right, select Join challenge , choose what you want to do and get started. If none of the current challenges suits you, select Create a challenge and make your own. Invite a few people, agree what counts and see who actually gets moving first. You don’t need a perfect plan. Pick a challenge, choose your first activity and make some room for it. And if you think it’s a great challenge then just tag it for us to look at - who knows, before long you might have just inspired people you’ve never met before to do something amazing and rise to your challenge! Explore the latest challenges