Set the stage, we were in our mid 30’s, married, entrepreneurs, homeowners, had a 9-5 career, two dogs and a 2 year old boy. It’s fair to say we were “busy” but we had an innate desire for wanting more.
No no, not wanting more kids (although a second is on his way) or wanting more dogs, but instead wanting to experience more. Our relationship has always been highlighted by new experiences, the first time we “went there”, the first time we tried “that”, even the subtle sharing of “fun facts.” New experiences, in many ways, this is what life’s about; right?
A clever way for us to ensure we experienced more? Start a social media following where we use social accountability to challenge ourselves to try something new each month. And BOOM A Couples Challenge on Instagram was born! Thus far we have completed nine monthly challenges each lasting 21 days. Our challenges have ranged from “Declutter challenge” where we removed 693 items from our house to training for a 5k race in our “Couch to 5K” Challenge.
.. we use social accountability to challenge ourselves to try something new each month.
Nine months into these challenges, we’ve learned that we could be even more efficient with our time than we had been before. The “pie” of time didn’t grow, we just learned to prepare ourselves with each challenge. For example, during our 21 days of hiking challenge, we averaged an extra 1.5 hours per day to commuting and hiking a new trail. This meant we had to free up 1.5 hours that we would have spent on something else. To be clear, we didn’t “sacrifice” time or our quality of life; we simply were more productive with our time. Dinners were prepared the night before, trails were picked days in advance, research was done on best times for us to avoid traffic.
Like many things, it is hard to understand what is being done behind the scenes to get to the final product. Whether that’s a business, movie, service, or even our small challenges there is a lot to keep track of and motivation to hold it all together. The key for us is communication and planning. We track all our current and future challenges on calendars and our Think Trigg Life Mapper. When we are trying to make the most of our time, we communicate and list out all tasks to ensure everything is accounted for.
.. there’s two ways to “experience more” either sacrifice allocated time or be more productive with the time you are given.
Quite simply, we’ve learned that there’s two ways to “experience more”; either sacrifice allocated time or be more productive with the time you are given. We will say, the exchange of time, planning, and required productivity has been worth all the new amazing experiences we gained from starting A Couples Challenge.
David and Amiee strive for continuous improvement, 21 days at a time. They write about their challenges and stay accountable via their site A Couples Challenge. Their goal is simply to try a new challenge each month, educate themselves and their audience.
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