Be a Sponge: 77-Day Challenge

My mentor, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE said, 

“Tell me what you say you want, show me one week of your life, and you and I will both know if you’ll ever achieve it.”

Wow! Truth bomb! She says that it is easy to say you want anything, but it will never happen unless you are making weekly progress. Yikes! 

Can you produce 17 minutes of progress towards your dream every day? I will, and I’m taking you along for the ride with me during this challenge. Join me on my journey and see the struggle. Even better, share your own lessons from your journey. Up for your challenge?

Nine years ago, I was at a mastermind meeting with my friends and fellow speakers, Mike Rayburn and Marilyn Sherman. At Mike’s prompting, we went around the table and shared our big, crazy, ridiculous dreams. When it came to my turn, I sheepishly said, “Well, I have always loved real-life inspirational movies, and well, um, err, maybe, I ‘d like to have someone turn my story into a movie.” After a long pause, I apologetically finished with, “But who am I to have a movie made about my life?” 

Mike slammed his hands on the table, got right in my face, and said, “Who are you not to?” Yikes! How are you not to pursue a ridiculous dream? And so, the seed of my big dream was just spoken into life. I had secretly dreamed of it for a long time. Now, I had people holding me accountable to pursue it. I was excited and scared. I dove in, and you’ll hear more about it in my challenge videos. 

I was on a mission to fulfill my next dream. The dream was to turn my story into a major motion picture blockbuster. Who wants to dream of a box office flop? Yeah, crazy and ridiculous, I know. But if you’re not going to dream big, where’s the fun in that? But after making little progress over seven years, I finally finished version 1.0 of the script and handed Mike Rayburn the very first copy. 

Finishing was one thing, but now, I had to sell it to Hollywood. Yeah, sounds exciting, however selling means rejection! Do you have any idea of how many scripts get submitted to Hollywood each year? That means rejection! After getting advice from a mentor who had his book turned into a Universal Studios film, I jumped in. Well, I waded in. Well, OK, I dipped my toe, and my enthusiasm quickly evaporated. 

In 2019 I heard one of the most inspiring speakers of my lifetime at an NSA Convention, Jia Jiang. He told us about the lessons he learned from 100 days of rejection. Inspiring. Well, it’s time to dive back in and recommit to my dream. I need to up my rejection game!

I plan on making at least 17 minutes of progress each day. The most practical advice I heard on writing a book was, “Write before breakfast.” I love that so that the urgent fires of the day won’t push your progress to the back burner. I plan to start a timer and focus at least that long. Hopefully, I get caught up in the task and go longer. As long as I do at least 17 minutes, I’ve made progress. I heard a commercial yesterday that had a brilliant phrase: Progress is Perfection. Yeah, 17 minutes is much more than the days and event years I’ve wasted. 

My selfish reasoning for this challenge is to keep myself accountable. Would being held accountable help you do what you already know you need to do? If so, consider joining me. What dream do you need to resurrect? If you are working on one now, would this increase your pace? If we are experts and truly want to live our life by example, be willing to show your struggle. That is where people will connect with you. If you want to get paid to speak, what could it do for your career if you reached out and got rejected by 100 event planners? What if one of the hundred planners say, “Yes?”

Why Take Challenge?

Reasons:

√ Take the challenge for your commitment to your own goal. 

√ Take the challenge to help people along the way with the lessons you learned. It could be the best marketing you do this year. 

√ Take the challenge to help find your voice. 

√ Take the challenge to get comfortable talking into a lens. Each of the past three years, I’ve done a challenge like this. The people who committed to it grew in ways they didn’t even expect. Those who committed were glad they did. 

√ Take the challenge because even though your kids and grandkids hear what you say, they are more influenced by the example you set by your actions. Inspire them by example. They are watching. 

Why the 77 days?

In 2001 I had 77 days after my semi-final speech to create an entirely new one for the World Championship of Public Speaking finals. I was all in! I never grew some much in my career as I did in those 77 days. I transformed who I was and my self-belief in that time frame. Heads up, though, there will be days you don’t want to participate, me too. Do it anyway! That is when you are on the cusp of a significant breakthrough. Keep going! You won’t be the same on the other side.

How do you participate?

Simple! Commit to doing one Facebook live video, Instagram, Linked In, or whichever streaming platform you wish. It can be as short as 1-2 minutes. Just share a lesson each day from your journey. It can be from the past, or if you want, like me. I’m chronicling what I’m doing and learning along the way.

There are many poor perfectionists in the self-development world. Doing the “Lives” will add some pressure because it is live, which is the point! You’ll up your skills, be better, and get more concise over time. Uploading a video misses the point. It is live, and you can delete it if it’s really bad or you make a huge mistake. Just delete and do it again.

What do you say? 

What you say is up to you. The point is you are doing it. The transformation comes from the commitment and happens while you are actually doing it. Don’t overcomplicate it. It is not about you looking good. It is about helping people by sharing authenticity from your journey. If you are an expert, teach. If you are a motivator, motivate. 

Here’s a simple structure to follow:

• Relate your lesson to the viewer’s life
• Tell us a story
• What is the “aha”?

That’s it! If you want to adjust it for your journey or topic, please do. Taking classes or workshops is a great idea, but you learn more when applying what you learn. Be imperfect. People love that!

Most presenters want more bookings. You already have a built-in audience every day on your favorite Livestream platform. Serve them. You schedule your own “stage time.” I’m planning on doing mine each day at 8:17 AM Pacific time. Remember, as Mark Brown says, “You have a story, and someone needs to hear it.” 

You in? Leave a comment below. Commit.

 

Is there a hashtag?

Yup: #77DayVideoChallenge???

 

Here is my day 1 video:

 

Here is my day 2 video: 

 

The Results are in! Have you been doing the challenge? Is it helping? It sure has helped people who were “ALL IN.” I sat down with five people who committed to the challenge. Watch these mini interviews and hear for yourself what they experienced. Some of what they say may just surprise you! It did me and it made me quite excited.  Hear for yourself:

 

 

If you want to see what mine are to help keep you moving, follow me on Facebook or subscribe to my YouTube channel:

 

What do you take from this?