The 10-2 Challenge

Got this note from a reader and been obsessing about it lately:

“I just wrapped up a 10 – 2 challenge. Here’s how it works – You work on a long term project for 10 minutes a day – every day – for approximately 2 years. The thing is, you have to work on the project every day. If you travel, you have to either improvise or do make up work for the days you missed. I even use a stopwatch to make sure I work on the project for a full 10 minutes. You’ll be amazed at what you accomplish!”

Love it! Super easy sounding, right?!

And if I whip out a calculator here, hold one sec…  It looks like it actually adds up to… 7,300 minutes!! Or roughly 122 hours! WOW! Imagine dedicating that many hours to *one* single goal of yours? What would you be able to achieve?! How better off would you be? Physically/mentally/professionally?

It’s hard to fathom the number of things we let fall by the wayside just because they’re “too big” to start, so let this be the kick in the ass you need to actually GET GOING on a dream that you may be putting off. Or even just something annoying that really needs to get done but you know will take forever! Lol… Literally stop reading this right now and get going if you already have it in your head – I promise it’ll be better than reading the rest of this post 😂

If nothing crosses your mind, let me throw out some ideas:

• Review your finances every day (expenses, credit cards, budget, net worth, subscriptions, insurance, credit score, credit report – plenty of things you could keep tabs on and improve)
• Declutter your entire house (each drawer, closet, *gasp* garage!)
• Get a new job/promoted (research, apply, improve skills)
• Get a new girlfriend/boyfriend/friend (same examples as above 🤣)
• Write a book! (might feel choppy with only 10 mins applied, but you’ll probably find you’ll spend more once you’re “in the flow”)
• Start a passion project (blog, book, TikTok, coin collection!)
• Work out every day (go for a walk, go for a run!, lift some weights, do some yoga, play some basketball – you only have to do it for 10 mins!)
• Work out your mind every day (meditate, read, crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles! (Remember that time I got obsessed with them for like two months??! Man I went bonkers…))
• Study the bible (my friend who came up with this 10-2 idea did exactly this – used his time for the past two years to devour the bible and create a “spiritual warfare database!”)
• Weed/Garden/Landscape (after a month you’ll probably just be *maintaining* from that point on!)
• Learn a new language (Spanish? French? HTML?)
• Learn something else entirely new! (Programming, Video Editing, Baking)

The options are endless…

And I don’t care who you are, everyone can spare 10 mins a day towards something that’s important to them. The years are going to pass anyways, why not get something extra out of it with minimal effort?!

I found the perfect book too yesterday for tracking it all:

I scooped it up at Goodwill as a future gift to my sister (it was only $2.99!), but now I’m thinking I need to keep it for myself, lol…

But how perfect is this for tracking?! Each date has a small section to jot down quick notes, and they’re stacked on top of each other so every year going forward when you come back to the same date you can see the previous years’ notes on it. Which hopefully will keep you motivated and inspired!

Here’s an inside page so you can see exactly what I’m talking about… And yes, I just wrote in it so it’s officially mine 😂

So you can see there’s a section there for each of the 5 years, so over time you’ll be able to reflect on the previous years’ successes and notes and you don’t have to keep getting a new journal 🙂 In fact, you could even turn this into a 10-5 Challenge if you really wanted to! Haha… And I just found it on Amazon too in case you want one for yourself (currently $15):

One Line A Day: A Five-Year Memory Book

But really, you can use anything to track this – what’s important is just that you do! Use a Notes app, staple some blank papers together, or use a good old fashion Google Doc, it doesn’t matter – just track it however is most natural to you.

And as you’ll see, I’ve already started this challenge 🙂 Which for me is to do *one thing a day* for someone, or some place, that helps them. I had been trying to get to a WEEK in a row of helping someone each day – and even pulled it off once (see the PS at the end!) – but if I could accomplish it for 2 YEARS straight that would be amazing.

And on Nov. 6th you’ll see Day #1 was completed! I gave a microwave to my friend Debbie whose old one just broke down (it had been sitting in my basement for 5 years!), and then I called my mother “just to check on her” and not to ask for something which is usually the case 😆 And since I had extra room there at the end, I made a note that we had won our league’s soccer championships (and I scored in it!), so that future me will be reminded of the feat a year from now.

Now some days I already know I’ll have trouble finding someone to help, or maybe not even be IN THE MOOD to help!, so on “off” days I’ll carve out the 10 minutes to simply strengthen my *mindset* overall, whether by reading or brainstorming or even by meditating – that way with each passing day I’m even more *conscious* about the mission. The more you practice doing something, the better you get at it right?! And we have 7,300 mins with this challenge so we’re gonna get GOOD!!

So yeah – I’m pretty stoked about this, and hopefully you are too 🙂 Spend a few minutes thinking it over today, and then tomorrow get right to it and start tracking it all. It doesn’t matter if it’s something big or small or somewhere in between – just get crackin’ and feel good about it!

Remember – the time is going to pass anyways, so why not get something out of it? And I want to hear all about it!

PS: The one week I accomplished this!

• Day 1: helped serve a community dinner for our homeless friends
• Day 2: helped give out free food and veggies at our local food bank
• Day 3: gave a buddy of mine a haircut as he was low on funds, and also just really doesn’t like going to barbers! (And if you’re wondering, yes – I gave him a mohawk!! I can’t be trusted to cut anything else! 😂)
• Day 4: helped my church archive old documents in their archives room – not only fascinating to hold and touch old artifacts, but to learn the overall process of *properly arching* too!
• Day 5: helped a friend get a website off the ground and move her childhood dream further along
• Day 6: brainstormed marketing and fundraising ideas for a new garden opening up in our city
• Day 7: co-led an after church youth session – the scariest of all as a) I don’t know or fully understand the bible at all (!!), and b) pre-teen kids are so awkward and quite and really don’t like to talk, haha… Though I did find a secret weapon: snacks!

It was a pretty fantastic week, but also exhausting… I’ll have to be careful of my energy levels and find ways to self-care throughout the next two years so I don’t accidentally burn out.

// Link to book is an Amazon affiliate link

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