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A Test, A Competition, A Feat, An Exploration, Not A Challenge
"I challenge myself everyday" can mean two widely different things. Either you put yourself in unplanned situations and try to overcome them or you carefully plan for a little discomfort everyday in order to keep growing. It depends by who is listening.
The word "challenge" is used interchangeably and more often than not it replaces words that would convey a more specific meaning. What everyone understands is that a challenge is an event that gets you of your comfort zone. An event that forces you to make an temporary adaption in order to get over it. Since the comfort zone is different for everybody and everybody has a different approach on getting out of it, a challenge means a different thing for everyone and is perceived in a different way by everyone.
This gap leads to a misunderstanding of what each one of us is capable doing and it skews how we assess the capabilities of others. Somebody who plans carefully sees a challenge as a failure. The same situation is seen as an opportunity to grow and thrive by somebody else.
A clear example is how people practicing any sports in general, and KettleBells in particular, approach a so called "challenge". "On a given date, we will do such and such for this long and record the results". Some people start preparing right away, some assess their relative capabilities, some get hyped up, some dread the date, some find other things to do on that date. The proposition is quite a vague for an events that gets you out for your comfort zones. How do you prepare? What's the purpose of it? Do we do it just for sake of it? Will anything good will come out of it?
If it were to be called a test, then you know that you have to prepare and if you succeed then you are able to move to the next level. If it were a competition then you know where is your place among your peers and if you do it very well you might even win something. If it were a feat then you could obsess over a short time period on a single exercise in order to show off. If it were an exploration then you know the existence of new possibilities and determine if you are ready to take them on or not.
Even though these things are challenges, they have a specific outcome and convey more meaning for one time events with determined outcomes. It gets everybody to be aligned on the same page, to know what is expected of them and what can they expect to get out of it.
The generic challenge can be, and should be, much more than one time events. The challenge has the potential to be the mechanism of growth when given a more specific meaning so it has a determined outcome. A generic challenge only ends in success or failure but a test, a competition, a feat, an exploration puts you in a feedback loop within which you can improve. It should be an everyday thing. Big or small, harder or easier is irrelevant. A moment of discomfort what's important.
Either a specific or a generic challenges, they will arise and you will have to go through them. Take the time to name them properly so that you can prepare so that you can learn so that you can make progress.
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