Hi! Let’s face it, New Year’s Resolutions suck! And we suck at keeping them. Why? Probably because we kick of the New Year in a dead sprint as if we’re being chased by the giant cheesecake we consumed curled up on the couch watching Hallmark Christmas movies. Every January is the same, we dust off our tennis shoes and sweat bands, hit the gym for 30 days and then remember why we hated it in the first place.

All that’s going to end. Today. I started 2022 with a single goal in mind. See how far I could get starting with one push-up, one sit-up, and a one second plank on January first. Each day I would add one rep until I couldn’t do it any more. You know what happened? I made it the whole year! We are infinitely more capable than we give ourselves credit for. What started as a dumb challenge I gave myself thinking I’d only make it a few months, turned out to be one of the most rewarding challenges I’d ever completed.

Let’s look at the math. Over the course of one year, a single rep incremented over 365 days would total 66,795 push-ups, sit-ups, and seconds in a plank for the entire year. This is the equivalent of doing ~183 reps per day. There’s no way in hell I would have made it happen by starting January 1st attempting 183 pushups. In the final week of 2022, I did a total of 2,175 reps, and a daily plank ending at 6 minute 5 seconds. What a crazy number.

Today is day one. Not tomorrow, not January 1st of next year, today. Pick your poison. This challenge is built on the philosophy of building habits by taking a micro approach. You can do just one more. We do it every single day without even thinking. One more time hitting snooze, one more Netflix episode, one more minute “doom-scrolling” Instagram. You are absolutely capable of one more rep. Don’t start with 10. Don’t do as many as you can until you pass out. Just do one. That’s it. Then tomorrow, add another one.

Whether you want to run a 5K, participate in a Triathlon, or simply get your self in better shape, it all starts with one. One minute on the treadmill, one minute outside in the fresh air, one push-up, one squat, one sit-up, one whatever! It’s going to feel really dumb the first few weeks. It will feel easy and like a waste of time. Trust me, it isn’t. After a while, it will be engrained in your routine you won’t even realize you’re doing it.

Start small, pick an activity, and just do one. I promise its worth it. Let’s get started, one dumb step at a time!