Keeping Promises: Our Experience with the #75HARD Challenge

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What the heck is 75 Hard? Why did 2 moms + business owners with already busy schedules commit to making their lives intentionally harder? And what happened when we followed the program for 75 intense days?

This episode is for those feeling the need for a kick in the pants. Maybe you’ve been in a rut or are just craving a level up with your habits, health, productivity or mental resilience. I recently sat down with my friend, Frannie Wilson, co-founder of Ampersand Studios, a commercial photography studio specializing in creating photo and video content for brands. to talk about our individual experiences completing the 75 Hard challenge.

Spoiler – Frannie was the one who inspired me to do this intense challenge when she shared her journey on Instagram..

Don’t worry, we’re not going to convince you to do the challenge yourself, unless you want to of course. Our hope is to inspire you to kick your excuses to the curb and start building trust with yourself in small ways that will have a bigger ripple effect than you can imagine.

DISCLAIMER: Frannie and I are NOT associated with the 75 Hard Program, Andy Frisella nor are we health, fitness or wellness coaches. Our conversation is simply our experience completing our interpretation of the program. You can learn more about it right here.

What is the 75 Hard Challenge?

Created by Andy Frisella, 75 Hard is not a fitness program, but rather a challenge about developing mental toughness.

It goes a bit like this:

When you’re at your best, you come up with all these brilliant ideas and goals for your life.

Tomorrow I’ll wake up an hour early and get in a workout!

I’m going to drink more water!

I’ll stop eating sugar tomorrow!

I’m going to learn how to do….

You may even go as far as scheduling things on your calendar.

But then the moment’s here and reorganizing your spice rack becomes more important than any workout.

You find any excuse to not do the dang thing you said you wanted to do..

I get it. That was me too.

Andy calls this inner voice that talks you out of things and convinces you to give up or get distracted, your b*tch voice, and we all have one.

The truth is, it’s easy to perform at our best when conditions are easy and when we feel like it, but life doesn’t work out that way. And after interviewing some of the toughest people on the planet Andy had a big realization — the toughest people aren’t just physically tough, they are mentally tough.

And they get there by intentionally putting themselves in challenging situations.

So that is what he did. He designed a series of tasks that when put together, made each day especially HARD. Then he convinced a group of people to join him for 75 days.

What are the 75 Hard Tasks?

You must complete each of the following tasks every day for 75 days, and if you miss even a single one, you start back over on day 1 (intense, right?)

Two 45 minutes workouts (nonconsecutively)
One workout must be completed outdoors
Drink 1 gallon (128oz) of water
Read 10 pages of a nonfiction/personal development book
Take a daily progress picture…
Choose a diet and stick to it
Zero cheat meals, No alcohol

YIKES, talk about HARD.

I’d seen this challenge a few times online, and had never considered it because it felt a little… in your face meat head challenge (#sorrynotsorry).

But when I saw that Frannie completed the challenge, I thought OK, if she can do this, I can totally do this too.

And that I did.

Tune into the episode for the full story, but goodness was this one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself.

And while I don’t think that everyone needs to do 75 hard, I do think that anyone who’s in a rut or struggling to keep promises to themselves, applying even a few of the principles we talk about in this episode can have a ripple effect like you can’t believe.

Episode Highlights

Why you should intentionally put yourself in tough situations
How we focused on ourselves for so long without sacrificing our businesses or families
Taking ownership of your time for the things that you want to do and truly matters
Importance of acting immediately and getting started fast as soon as an idea comes up
Giving yourself some space to unplug when you’re stuck in a negative loop
How our journey on 75 Hard impacted our business and how we show up
Figuring out your own ways of doing things (letting go of those extra things you think you “needed” to do)

About my guest, Frannie Wilson

Frannie is a co-founder of Ampersand Studios, a commercial photography studio located in downtown Boise where it specializes in creating photo and video content for brands. She is also a branding coach and course creator who is always excited to teach business owners the skills that they need to create systems and gain the confidence needed to enjoy the process. Her mission is to remind entrepreneurs why they started their business in the first place, and teach them how to have everything else working FOR them seamlessly in the background.

| Connect with Frannie

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Via Website