
On 31st of August I was like "Hey! It's almost September, maybe I should do a challenge?", and after some time I've settled on 10 pushup every morning for the entire months.



My relationship with sports was always a love-hate relationship. There have been periods where I was hitting the gym consistently and seeing results, and periods where I'd be like "damn, that belly!". And while now I train regularly in boxing, I didn't do that challenge for the sake of getting ripped or any other physical health benefits.

And before we start, as always: I'm not a doctor, consult with one first. Especially if you have physical problems.

## Make your bed

In the self improvement community, there is this saying that the first thing you should do after you wake up is - making your bed. I think it started from a book by Ex-Navy seal, Admiral William H. McRaven. A big disclaimer - I did **not** read the book.

There are multiple reasons for making your bed in the morning: attention to details, discipline, and a reminder at the end of the day that you've achieved something - even if its small.

You see, when you wake up you usually rush through your morning routine - pee, wash your face, clean your teeth, grab some coffee, get into a car, arrive to work. By the time you start working you've already spent a good portion of the day. And if your day is filled with meaningless meetings - by the end of it you find yourself sitting on the couch and thinking: *Damn! The whole day passed by and I haven't done anything significant*. Therefore - make your bed in the morning.

I wasn't born in the US, nor I ever lived there. I, however, was raised in a discipline focused family, so making my bed in the morning wasn't something unusual for me. No matter the circumstances, I'd always make my bed in the morning. So I wasn't able to see any benefits from making my bed, but I wanted to see if I can get benefits in sport.

Right now, my relationship with sport is more of a hate than love. I have my boxing sessions once a week but its not enough. I want to try yoga, I want to do swimming and I want to do weight lifting. And every day I'm not doing them, I find myself thinking *Damn! The whole day just passed by and I haven't done any sports*. So I decided to twist the "make your bed" into "do something active" and see if I'd have the same benefits. Those are my findings.

### I hate mornings

I'm not a morning person. Some morning are better, but most of them are not that great. I'm usually tired, unfocused and mainly working on automatic gear. Wake up, drink water, pee, brush teeth, food, coffee, work. I didn't have any problems adding another activity such as "pushups" but I found out that it is physically demanding. I can do 10 pushups easily at any moment during the day - but not right after waking up. My body is not warmed up, my mind is frozen.

I know there are people who like mornings. They are energetic, can do sports in the morning, discuss philosophical topics and do deep work. I on the other hand believe I'm more of a "mid day owl". I need those few hours in the morning to boot up correctly. And doing pushups felt like some sort of punishment to my, already hard, mornings.

### Its not enough

I wasn't expecting to be Arnold by October from just doing 10 pushups a day. But nevertheless 10 is better than 0. Obviously I haven't seen any benefits from it - it was not easier after 20 days, I did not have more muscle and I haven't felt any health improvements. This is a reminder to always be realistic.

I'm a big believer in taking baby steps towards new habits, especially if you have problems committing, because as I've talked in [my post](https://jikokaizen.blog/compound-effect-and-habits/) regrading habits - you get compound interest on them. And compound interest on 0 is always 0. So you have to start. 1 page a day is better. By the end of the year you'd read 365 pages, as opposed to 0. But 365 pages is barely a book, so don't fool your self with "read 50 books" new year resolutions.

### There is no reflection

The main reason I've did 10 pushups a day was to get a positive reflection at the end of the day. When I find myself sitting at the end of the day and reflecting on it, so that I could say "Yeah, I did 10 pushups. Its small, but its an achievement", and honestly - it never happened.

There was no single day when I was even remembering that fact that I did 10 pushups in the morning. It was something automatic that I've just plugged into my morning routine. I was not excited about the fact that I brush my teeth or make my bed, nor I was praising myself for doing 10 pushups in the morning.

And while I don't want to debunk the entire movement of "reminder that you've achieved something" - it did not work for me. Maybe if you are a messy person, who have troubles to bring order to the physical world around you - then yes, start with something as small as making your bed - might do wonders to you. At least I believe you must try it and see for yourself.

However, in my experience, if you've already climbed higher in your physical or mental needs, doing small things such as 10 pushups a day, won't make you love yourself by the end of the day. I was doing sport consistently. I know I'm capable of more than 10 pushups a day. I'm a lazy fuck and big procrastinator and I need to work on that rather than fooling myself with small achievements such as 10 pushups a day.

And this is yet another reminder to myself - everyone is different. Things that might work for me, might not work for you and vise versa. This is the reason I'm doing those challenges - because the best way to learn is to try it yourself. Get inspiration from books and YouTube videos, but always try yourself and see if you have any benefits from it. And if not - forget it, find something new and try again. And iterate on that process.

If you have suggestions to what challenges I can do next, don't hesitate to [Tweet Me](https://twitter.com/JikoKaizener)


10 pushups every morning, for 30 days. September Challenge


Do you know who are you? Have you ever asked yourself this question and came up with an answer?



I never lived in the medieval times, nor I know someone who did, but I have this image in my head. Imagine a medieval blacksmith. He has this small, two story house. He lives with his wife and two kids on the second floor, while the first floor is converted to be his shop. He crafts swords here. He has some livestock. Cows that they milk. Sheep that they grow. Horse that he uses to go to the nearby friend of his - a miner, from which he buys his steel in order to craft his swords and later sell them to warriors of his village.

This blacksmith doesn't compare his house to the house of his miner friend. He doesn't compare his horse to the horse of his neighbor - the alchemist. And yet - he lives a happy life.

## We've lost our true self

We, on the other hand, do compare ourselves. Who dresses better, who drives a better car. Some of us compare themselves to others, while some show-off their "superiority" by attracting attention to their material possession - A Turquoise Louis Vuitton T-Shirt that costs [470 Euro](https://en.louisvuitton.com/eng-nl/products/inside-out-t-shirt-nvprod2800288v#1A8R5E) or revving the engine of their Lamborghini. And on top of all this, we are being bombarded by brands, through advertisement, that we must get that new and shiny pair of sneakers.

And hence, we've lost ourselves. We no longer know who we are and what our values are. And it seems like every person is better than us at something. He is a better photographer, she is a better stylist, they have a better house. And we want all of it.

### I'm too busy for that

One of the reasons I *think* that the blacksmith from my story is happy with what he has, is because he is doing the craft the likes. He doesn't have time to think about that alchemist neighbor of his, there is a fucking war coming and he needs to craft his best swords, because he is the best blacksmith in town.

We, on the other hand, are, what I call, pseudo-busy. We never have time for anything. Always working hard. *Nah man, too busy this week, let's try in 3 months I might have a window of 27 minutes in there.* And yet, procrastination is flourishing, escapism from day to day job is rising. Everybody wishes to be on an a tropical island instead of their office cubicle. We are - pseudo busy. We try to look busy, because busyness is associated with business. And business is cool.

But we are not really busy. Or not in the sense of being in the flow and doing what we like and enjoy the most. Hence we procrastinate, escape in our mind to our next vacation, while simultaneously scrolling through social media - to eventually realize that its the end of the day already, I barely did anything today and yet I had no to time to call my friends or family, nor buy any groceries. *Jeez, I was sooo busy today.*

### There is too much information

The other reasons I think my blacksmith is happy, is because he probably didn't choose this life. He was born to a blacksmith, inherited the shop together with horse and sheep, added second floor to the house with materials he could afford and probably never seen anything outside his village.

We, on the other hand, have access to the entire knowledge of humanity. Even if we've never been to a specific country - we can Google how it looks, find whats their traditional food, see images of their landscape and architecture. Even if we can afford to buy Toyota Corolla, we still see a lot of BMWs and Mercedeses around us. We always see people who are more successful. They dress better, have better cars, have better houses, nicer jobs, eat fresher food, have more money. There are endless number of professions. Our culture is also focused on **fast**. Fast food, fast movies, fast reading. While on a plane to our home we already plan the next vacation. We read reviews instead of reading the book. We express ourselves in 280 characters because *ain't no body got time to read that essay I'm writing*. And on top of all that, we are being told to look for that mysterious **passion**.

Its too much to handle. Too much to choose from. So we try to have it all. We envy people who have big houses even if we don't give a damn about big houses. We envy people who drive BMW even if we don't care for driving. We are jealous of people who dress in brands even if we care only about minimalist, sustainable and simple clothing.

Because that's the world we live it. Our boredom from being pseudo-busy with our greed and desire for more, fuels this endless wheel that gives stage to even more greed and desire, and even more confusion about who we are and what we need to become. By putting attention to other people have, we only continue to fuel such society and continue to loose our self identity.

## You don't have to be better

In fact - you even can't be better. There is no better. Better is always relative. I can be better than you at software engineering because I've perfected that craft for years. It doesn't mean I'm better than you. You might be a better writer, a better singer, dancer, photographer, story teller. Whatever.

We rip things we can compare such as material possession or amounts of money, and start to compare on that basis. But instead we need to focus on trying to understand what is really important to us. Do we really want that Lamborghini or its just because we've been told that we want it?

Advertising has done a tremendous job to convince us that we need that thing! And that, and this and these! We need them all. But life doesn't have to be like this. By not knowing what you want from life, you end up wanting everything. Thus always feeling miserable - because you can't have everything. You can't have everything - because deep inside you know, you know that you don't need that Lamborghini so you won't blow up your savings to get one.

So stop comparing yourself to other people. Focus on understanding your self and your values in life. What do you care about. You like gardening? Then maybe you need to focus on getting a nice house with a garden instead of feeling miserable when someone buys an apartment in a high rise building. You enjoy cycling? Then get a bicycle and cycle instead of being miserable when everyone around buy new cars.

It's that easy. The hardest part is just knowing what you want. So start focusing on that. Start finding the answer to the question: Who are you?


Who are you?


Somewhere around the beginning of February, I've found my old Mi Band 2 fitness tracker. I've stopped using it because the bracelet broke, I've ordered a new one on Ebay, but it never came, so I threw the Mi Band in a drawer and forgot about it.

But then I found it, decided to buy a new bracelet for it, realized that Xiaomi already released Mi Band 5 (and there is Mi Band 6 already) which is very cheap so I decided to get it. The reason I wanted a fitness tracker was mainly for tracking my sleep and use it as a discreet alarm that won't wake up my wife. So I got it, started to wear it and play with it and then asked my self "What if I'll try to do 10K steps a day?".

## Why 10K a day?

There is no particular reason why you should aim to do 10K, but from the research I did, the number 10,000 mainly became popular  in 1965 because a Japanese company released a device named "Manpo-Kei" which literally translates as "10,000 step meter" (Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedometer#History)) and the man (Y.Hatano) behind it claimed that "10,000 steps a day is ideal".

There are many articles on the internet as to why 10K steps a day is healthy, however no major health organization actually says that 10K steps a day is ideal (at least I could not find any reference to it) and their recommendation is based on activity intensity and time (i.e. at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week - source [WHO](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity)).

No pedometer is accurate, but according to my average, 10K steps is somewhere around 7.5 km (approx 4.6 miles) and amounts a total of approximately 1 hours at 30 minutes of walking.

## How to reach 10k steps a day?

"*Jeez, 7.5km and 1.5 hours a day - **is a lot**!*" - you might say. And yes, it is. And chances are that you are like me - stuck for the past year at home, both living and working from it, then you probably do around 2k-3k steps a day. I know I did when I got Mi Band 5 and started to count my steps.

I remember when the first lock down became less strict and we were allowed to travel up to 1km from home (as opposed to 100m), I remember that walking or even climbing 2-3 stairs (not 2-3 **flights** of stairs, but 2-3 stairs!) was exhausting!

So armed with the knowledge that 10K steps is better than nothing, I've started slowly to build my habit towards 10K steps a day. At first I did 5k for a week, then 6k, then 7k, then 9k when eventually I was able to reach 10k.

If you are just starting, I suggest you do the same. Don't start with 10K, start smaller and be consistent. Remember - its better to do less but consistently, than to aim for more but not doing it at all.

I never really reached 10k consistently. Some days I do 5k, some days 20k. My best streak was 5 days in a row. But on some days I ride my bicycle for 1 hour, and some days I punch the boxing bag for 1 hour. I don't see a point in doing 10k steps on those days - as my primary objective in doing 10k steps was to **stay active** every day, and on days I'm already active because I either cycle or box, I don't need to reach my 10k steps a day.

However by doing 10k steps a day, I've found some interesting benefits I want to share with you and maybe motivate you to **try** to reach 10k steps a day.

## Benefits of doing 10k steps a day

### Its easy to start

There are two modes to the human body - active and resting. Resting is when you sit in your chair or lay on your sofa. Active is when you move. And when you move, your heart rate goes up, blood is circulating your body, your legs and arms are moving, muscles are working to keep you standing and in balance.

Leading a resting/sedentary lifestyle can lead to, you guessed right - heart disease, back problems, cancer and premature death. And if you know me and read my previous posts, I'm all about becoming super healthy, super human and living as much pain free and long life as I can.

But the problem is that getting into any sport - requires financial investment and developing a mental love to it. Even simple things like running - requires you at least get comfortable running shoes, and I won't talk about other sports like gym - which requires membership or equipment if you want to work out from home; cycling - which requires a bicycle - obviously; boxing, rowing, skiing - which all require equipment / membership and the latter also depends on weather. More over, sport is an individual thing. I hate running. I tried, multiple times. I hate it. Some people swear by it, I suffer when I run. And I don't like to suffer, so I don't run.

However walking is something native to us. We walk all the time - whether its from the chair to the fridge, from our houses to a bus stop, in a super market, or just by the beach. Walking is natural to human beings. It requires zero equipment (you can even walk barefoot - some people claim its better, I prefer shoes though) and its practically impossible to hate it - as its the basic form of moving as opposed to sitting.

### Its great for multi tasking

When you run or cycle, row or lift weights - you are most likely trying to reach a goal be it distance, number of repetitions, weight of each repetition or speed - but you try to push your body to its limits. And when you push your body to its limits, it hard to do other tasks such as catching up with family or friends. Try to run and have a phone call with your friend or do bench press and catch up with your family.

Walking on the other hand does not raise your heart rate too much (unless you are doing fast walking) which enables you to do other tasks. When I walk I tend to use this time to: catch with family or friends, listen to audio-book or podcast, listen to music, or clean my mind and explore, which brings me to the next 2 points.

### It's good for cleaning up your mind

Whether you've had an argument with your SO, can't figure out a solution to hard problem or your mind is just occupied with thoughts, its always a good decision to take a walk.

By walking, you are not worried about speed or distance, repetitions or weight, you just move - leaving your mind free to focus on other things. When I'm worried or have troubles concentrating, I'm going for a walk. It helps me clean my mind, get rid of my worries. There is even a walking meditation if you'd like to try it (I haven't). I usually feel way better in terms of concentration or worries - when I come back from a walk.

### It brings the explorer in you and teach you to appreciate whats around you

Human beings are explorers. Before creating a settlement, we used to wander in searches for the best place to settle. Close to water source, away from predators, uphill for easier defense. By walking daily - you feed the explorer in you.

You might have moved to a new neighborhood or live in the same one for the majority of your life - but how much of it you really know? Can you navigate your way home from any point in your neighborhood without a GPS? Do you know to tell me where I can find a good park or a nice bakery in your neighborhood, without checking Google Maps? I've learned to appreciate this exploration, I found some nice restaurants, great parks that are few minutes of walk away from my home and it comes really helpful now, when my wife and I are looking to move to a different apartment. Before I've used to walk and explore my neighborhood or the ones close to it, I wouldn't know who lives in each neighborhood. Is it a good neighborhood? Is this green spot on Google Maps a park or just some grass with benches? But after exploring my neighborhood and the ones close to it, I know to say where good parks are located. What type of people live in each neighborhood. Whether its a noisy one because its located near a central street or a school or a quiet one because its full of small houses rather than tall buildings.

It also helped me to learn to appreciate things. When you walk, your mind is free to look around, judge the architecture, explore parks, smell the smell of fresh bread or coffee. The internet is full of negative stuff, and by taking a walk I balance the negativity with positive appreciation. There was one day when I was walking and a light rain started, but instead of panicking and hiding I've just embraced it and walked under the rain, smiling.

### It gives you perspective on distance

Before I started to aim to do 10k steps a day, I'd look at directions to my doctors appointment, restaurant or a shop, in Google Maps and judge its distance. 30 minutes of walk, to me back then, considered too long. I would opt for a bus ride or a taxi in that way, even if it took the same 30 minutes. My mind just wasn't grasping 3-4km of walking as something bearable or worth doing. But after I've walked 10k steps for some time now and realized that it takes around 1.5 to 2 hours and amounts to around 7-8km - I look at directions differently.

The other day, I was invited to a gathering activity with my work colleagues. The walk was 45 minutes and 3.5km from the place I live. 5-6 months ago I would have never took that walk, if you'd asked me to. For me at that time, 45 minutes of walking is too much. Today I realize that walking back and forth is not even 10k steps. And by aiming to do 10k steps a day, I decided to take that walk. And was engaged in other activities such as catching up with family, listening to an audio book, exploring new locations and appreciating the beautiful world we live in.

## How to start?

I want to finish with some tips on how you can start building your habit of walking 10k steps a day. Remember 2 important principles:

#### 1. You don't need any fancy equipment

Walking is easy. You need regular cloth and shoes. You don't need trainers or special equipment. You don't even need a fitness tracker (however it did help **me** to kick start this habit) - your regular smartphone probably have a builtin pedometer in it. Just take your smartphone, a pair of headphones and a nice audio-book or podcast - and go for a walk. You can even skip the headphones and the audio book and just walk - looking around, wandering, taking turns you never would have took. Just make sure your GPS works, so you won't get lost in your first explorations of the neighborhood.

I tend to split my walks to two segments: one in the day and on in the evening. By taking a daily walk you also expose yourself to the sun which is important in order to get vitamin D, and since its hard to carve 1.5 hours of free time during a working day, I tend to do my longer walk at the evening, when I'm done with work. It also helps me do a mental shift between work and home. I spend most of my time in front of my computer, and sometimes its hard to do a mental shift between work and hobbies since I literally stay at the same place when my work day is over. Some people like to dress up to work even when WFH, and then when they finish work, they switch to their home cloth to signal their brain of a mental shift from work to home mode. I find it too much of a hassle, however taking a walk does the trick for me. If you have a dog, take it with you - it does good to dogs as well.

I also suggest you start small. Identify how much you are doing right now. It  can be 2k or it can be 7k. And then try to increase that number by 1k for each week you were able to do it consistently. If you fail at your next goal, downgrade it back by 1k and do that for another week. For each intermediary goal - you should **not** feel any muscle pain or extreme struggle to do it. If you feel muscle pain the next day, or you find it hard to reach your goal, keep doing it until you find it easy and only then switch to the next thousand.

#### 2. Walking is better than nothing

There is no guideline as to how much time you need to put into active lifestyle. And I'm not a doctor - so consult with one first, but the general consensus is that you should do moderate intensity aerobic and anaerobic activities. However sometimes its hard, some days we feel lazy, and not everyone can workout daily. And walking is better than slumping on the couch.

Don't stress with the 10k steps **a day** goal if you don't feel like it. I decided for myself that on days when I'm working out - I might not reach 10k steps. In the end my time in the day is limited and if I did 1 hour workout, I might go for a 30 minute walk that day instead of the full 1.5 hours. If I did a 20km bike ride, I might skip the walking for that day. Because the end goal is to stay active and healthy, so I don't want to stress about it if I'm tired after a workout or had a busy day and was able to dedicate only 1 hour for activity that day. But I do try to stay active **every day** whether its aerobic or anaerobic activity, or walking 10k steps.


Why you should aim for 10K steps a day


In the stock market, there is an effect known as compound interest. In a nutshell it works like this: when you invest 100$ with a an yearly return of 10%, after the first year you will have 110$. However after the second year you will have 121$ (so a growth of 11$ compared to 10$ from the first year). After third year you will have 133.1$, 146.41$ after fourth and eventually, after 10 years you will have 259.37$ an additional 159.37$.



So the interest rate of 10% yearly applies also to the earnings you've made this year. Therefor its called "compound interest" as opposed to a 10% interest that applies only to the initial investment. And if you look at a longer period, you will notice that the growth is exponential.

### Stocks? What?!

Yeah, right. Back to habits. See, habits work the same way. When you break some habit, or fall into a bad habit, it creates the same compound effect. At some point you wake up and ask yourself "How did I get there?". But what happened in retrospect is that one day you've missed the gym, and since you've missed the gym you decided to allow yourself eat a burger instead of a salad, with beer instead of water, in front of a TV instead of working on your hobby. And the next time you need to go to the gym, you are like "But I've already missed one session, so whats the harm in missing this one as well". And then you wake up and ask yourself "How did I get there?".

Of course its not that fatal. Missing one gym session won't throw you to the bottom of life, and it depends on your self motivation and self control. I, for example, struggle to start the work week after the weekend. Even if just before weekend I've been super engaged with work, weekends throws me off my track and starting the week is hard for me.

There is an unwritten rule in the habit making world that says "Never miss a habit **two** times in a row". So if you've missed the gym, you **must** go the next time. Compound effect takes time to accumulate. One missed habit will shake you a bit, but usually, if you have strong self control, it should not put you off track. A habit missed twice - is harder to recover from. And the scary thing is that once you break one habit - others start to break as well. Compound effect.

### The good part

But there is a good part as well. Compound effect works the same way with good habits. You start to build the habit of working out. At some point you realize that your diet matters so you start to eat healthier. By eating healthier you cook more at home hence saving money on take away as well as investing in a clean kitchen (no body wants to cook in a disgusting kitchen). By setting the habit of cleaning your kitchen, you expand it to keep your entire house tidy, which leads to getting rid of stuff you don't need hence being intentional with what you buy (which again, saves money). And it one year you will look back and realize that you've changed as a person. Compound effect.

### Start Small

The compound effect is very strong. But like anything in life - abuse it and it will work against you. By tackling many habits at once, you risk the chance to developing none at all, or worse, introducing bad ones. Here are some tips on how you can create new habits and enjoy the compound effect.

1. Start small - focus on one habit. Remember - habit is not something that you do 3 times in a row. Forming a habit takes around [66 days](https://jamesclear.com/new-habit). But it doesn't mean you should focus only on one habit every 66 days. Get the ball rolling. Once you are comfortable with the habit, introduce new one. For me it takes around 1 to 2 weeks of daily habits to start sticking. But its personal, so see what works for you.
2. Know your self. By knowing your self, you know how much self control you have. By knowing how much self control you have, you know how to tackle a broken habit. I personally know that its way harder for me to come back to a habit if I missed it 2 times in a row. For some of you it could be 4 times, for others 1. There is no magic number, it entirely depends on your self control. Experiment and see what works for you.
3. Don't be hard on yourself. When you miss a habit, don't beat yourself. You are **not** a failure for missing a habit. Life happens so your Monday gym session might fall on a period when you are sick, overwhelmed with work, on vacation or just lazy. It's not the end of the world. Make adjustments and reschedule. Remember - It's ok to miss a habit, its not ok to break it. So reschedule according to your magic number from point 2 above.

Remember, habits are very individual. Individual in the way **how** you build them and individual in the way **why** you build them.

Don't create habits because someone told you it changed their life. Remember, it changed **their** life. It might not change yours. Always start with self discovery. Realize **why** you want to build a habit. You want to be active and live a healthy life? So find a physical habit. Don't run to the gym because someone told you that you must do that. Not everybody like the gym. There are plenty of other physical activities like cycling, rowing, running, yoga, boxing, HIIT and etc. Find what works for **you**.

Once you found it, experiment on **how** to implement it. You have 1 free evening? So go to the gym once a week (or do any other physical activity that works for you). Sure somebody will tell you that once a week is not enough because they go at least 5 times a week. But again, its their life. They might have 5 evening available because they work on a different job than you or have a different lifestyle than you. Again its **your** life. Once a week is always better than none. You can't enjoy the compound effect on zero - because any % from zero is still zero. Start the ball rolling and you will adapt your life. Sure it will take you more time to reach the same results as the 5 times a week guy/gal, but you are not your single habit - your are the sum of everything you do and don't do in life, and no two lives are similar. Always remember this.


Compound effect and habits


Back in January I caught myself scrolling and favorite-ing a lot of products on Amazon. And I though to myself - what if I decide to do a month without shopping?



## Rules

But first, some rules. It's easy to say "I'll just do a no shopping February", but you can't simply commit to a challenge without setting some rules. Are you going to buy groceries? Gifts? Medicine? What about self treatment procedures like gym visit?

You need to have rules. Rules makes your challenge way easier to follow. For me, February is a special month because it has 3 important occasions: My Birthday, St. Valentines Day and Dating anniversary. So I defined the following rules: I'll avoid any shopping with the exception of the following -

1. Birthday present for my self
2. St. Valentines day present for my wife
3. Dating anniversary present for my wife (should we decide to give gifts this year)
4. Replacement of a broken / damaged item that was previously in use at least once during 2021
5. Groceries and Food take away
6. Up to 1 book
7. Anything for self care (so medical treatments, haircut, gym etc)

## The result

I'm glad to report that I was able to follow the challenge through entire 28 days of February but with one exception. I've broke the rule once.

I use a comfy slippers to wander around the house. However, since they are made of synthetic, medium grade quality, materials - they became stinky. So stinky, that by the middle of the day my socks were stinky as well. So I decided to replace them. Looking back at my rules, they fall under rule (3) - I did use them daily, and the fact they started to stink can be categorized as "damage". I went to an online shopping store, found the slippers I want and was ready to order them. Then I realized that the shipping price was almost half the price of the slippers and more over, if I'd add another item to reach a certain sum - I'd get free shipping. Damn you marketing!

I did cost benefit analysis and came to a conclusion that I'd rather pay for another item I need than for shipping - so I've decided to order pants but I've told to myself that they will replace an existing pants I already have (a rule I try to follow to minimize clutter introduction in my life - for every clothing item I buy, one should go away).

So yes, I've broke the challenge. But I've realized something.

## Conclusions

I'm not a addicted to shopping. I don't spend countless amount of money to hoard items. I could improve my impulsive buying habits, but I was not doing this challenge to cure some addiction or cut on expenses. I did it purely for educational and "scientific" knowledge. And I've learned two things.

#### Control your impulses

I did have impulsive buying habit. When I've decided that I want or need something, I usually went to buy it. Which then lead to buyer remorse since by the time this item arrived (I usually buy online) I already was past the initial dopamine rush from the purchase and I was wondering "why the hell did I bough this". Doing this challenge, I've realized that nothing is really that urgent. I was aware of instant gratification, delaying your purchases and etc, but somewhere during this pandemic - I've lost it. This challenge served as a restart for me. A restart to remind me that I have everything I need and nothing is urgent to buy.

#### Life happens

I've stated in the beginning of this post how important it is to setup rules. Rules define the boundaries in which you can operate. They define your actions and prevent you from having the feeling of being a failure because there is a difference between "No shopping" and "No shopping except for...". I don't believe its correct to change your rules every time you encounter a road block, but it's also not healthy to never change your rules. Life is dynamic, and adapting to it is one of the best traits you can develop in yourself. Adaptability is what helps us survive. And this challenge reminded me of this important lesson.

By settings strict rules and promising to never adapt them - you are doomed to failure because at some point, life will kick you to the floor and you will need to adapt. On the other hand, by constantly changing your rules every time you face a difficult situation, you will end up as a weak person who has no moral stance, no rules, to beliefs to live by.

## Closing Words

Doing this challenge reminded me of two important lessons: Delayed gratification and Adaptability in life.

It's already March and I'm 4 days to my new challenge. Stay tuned for March end to find out about it :)


Self Improvement

10 pushups every morning, for 30 days. September Challenge

Who are you?

Why you should aim for 10K steps a day

Compound effect and habits

No shopping February