October 1st is almost upon us and that means that there are 90 more days left in this year.
Ever since I read Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be
Seriously, she is amazing. If you haven’t read Girl Wash Your Face yet I HIGHLY recommend the audiobook. It is available on Scribd which is one of my all-time favorite subscription sites right now. You might think I’m a big giant nerd but $8.99 for UNLIMITED audiobooks is basically my dream. No more picking one audiobook per month for me! You can get a free 30-day trial when you sign up here. Rachel’s second book Girl Stop Apologizing is also available on the site. It’s little different than the first book but I appreciated her practical goal-setting advice and tips.
Anyways, this post isn’t about how obsessed I am with my favorite audiobook provider (nerd alert!).
Obviously as a Rachel Hollis fan girl when I heard she was doing the last 90-day challenge again I was super excited! I love a good challenge, I recently completed a dry 30 challenge (no alcohol for 30 days) and it left me feeling better than ever.
I was looking for my next challenge and when I saw the Last 90-Days challenge I knew I had to do it!
Keep reading to learn more about it and see if you want to join me.
I love the idea of finishing this year strong and walking into the new year on freaking fire.
I did a whole podcast episode talking about this challenge you can check out below. I will be talking more about the challenge in upcoming episodes and would love it if you subscribed over on Podbean or iTunes.
Why I’m Doing The Challenge
The end of the year is always a really tough time for me personally.
My seasonal depression starts getting bad around mid-November and by December I am usually struggling pretty hard. I love the idea of being really intentional during these last 90 days because not only will it help me finish this year strong but it will also help me manage my seasonal depression.
While I love the holiday season it can also be a really stressful and chaotic time.
Setting up these habits before things start to really ramp up can help me stay on track when things start to get a little chaotic.
I am a huge fan of setting new big scary goals in January and I like the idea of building a solid foundation to walk into the new year strong and ready to go.
They say it takes 30 days to build a new habit so giving yourself 90 full days can really solidify it.
This will give me some really healthy habits to take with me into the new year and help me be prepared to chase down my dreams next year.
If you’ve never heard of the challenge I have a whole video explaining it and sharing my tips for the last 90-day challenge you can watch below.
What Is The Last 90 Days Challenge?
The last 90 days challenge is all about finishing the last 90 days of this year strong.
I am so excited for this because not only do I love challenges but I LOVE New Years.
Starting a new year always feels like a fresh start to me and I love doing some serious goal setting, vision boarding and intention setting.
This challenge is perfect for me because it combines my love of challenges and starting a new year!
Rachel will be sending out inspirational videos and emails every week during the challenge and I highly recommend you signup here.
I created a free printable worksheet you can use during the challenge. To grab it just enter your email in the form below.
Be sure to fill out the form below to get your free Five to Thrive printable for the Last 90 Days Challenge
The Habits
Rachel has Five habits that she recommends implementing for the last 90 days of this year.
She calls them her Five to Thrive. I am going to be committing to implementing all five of these habits for the rest of the year.
I would love it if you decide to join me! One of my goals is to document this experience on my YouTube channel.
Please go subscribe to give me a kick in the butt to do video updates and pep-talks for the challenge this year!
Changing our daily habits is such a powerful way to start building the life that we want.
I am always in the process of getting rid of bad habits (fast food, smoking, alcohol etc) and building new strong healthy habits (reading more books, setting monthly goals, going to therapy, keeping a planner).
1. Get Up An Hour Earlier
The idea of this is to get up an hour earlier and to use that hour to do something for yourself.
Rachel talks a lot about how she has to get up early to do her writing before her kids get up.
I don’t have kids and I live alone but I have noticed that I am most productive early in the morning.
That is when I am most focused and able to accomplish the most work.
You guys, I hate waking up early. In fact, when I left my old 8-5 office job I swore I would never set up an alarm clock again.
I used to daydream about the day when I could quit my job and work for my own company.
In this fantasy, I would never ever set an alarm clock and I would leisurely get up at any hour I felt like.
The thing is that my business is going through a period of growth.
That means there are often days when I am stressed out and have trouble getting everything done.
I think getting up early and working during the time of day when I am most productive will help me keep my head above water and get more done.
I’m planning on using this extra hour to read and write in my journal. My favorite journal prompts come from The Five Minute Journal
- What are you thankful for?
- What would make today great?
- Affirmations for the day
I’m planning on reading the Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins for this challenge. Check out this post for my favorite personal development book recommendations.
Not into reading? One of my favorite self-care practices is walking my dog and listening to podcasts. Getting a little bit of light exercise and feeding my mind really helps me get my day off on the right foot.
Another thing I recently added to my morning routine is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). When you use EFT you basically tap on acupressure points while saying affirmations or stating what you want to let go of. It feels silly the first few times you do it but I swear to you it works! There’s something about using the acupuncture points that really helps the affirmations sink deep into your subconscious mind. There are tons of free EFT videos on YouTube (check out Brad Yates) but here is one of my favorites for starting the day.
2. Workout For At Least 30 Minutes
I spent a lot of this past month traveling which was awesome but it also knocked me out of my routine.
I know with winter coming this is a great time to get into a solid workout routine before my seasonal depression starts getting bad.
Exercising is key to managing my mental health. There are a ton of great free workouts on YouTube and I have a post of easy workouts to help with depression and anxiety you can check out here.
I’m really going to commit this year to take the fitness part of the challenge really seriously. Last year I just did a walk every day and that was great but I want to end 2019 in killer shape.
Whenever I want to take exercise seriously I use this home workout program and it kicks my butt right into shape.
I am excited to refocus on my fitness for the last 90 days of the year so I can walk into January feeling strong AF.
3. Hydrate
As part of the challenge, I am going to be committing to drinking half of my body weight in ounces each day.
I have been really bad about drinking enough water lately so I’m glad Rachel included it in the challenge.
I have a tendency to drink a ton of coffee in the morning and skip drinking water.
To start making sure I am drinking enough water I am going to be challenging myself to drink a 24-ounce bottle of water before I have coffee.
Drinking water seems so simple but it really is a good habit to build up and there are so many health benefits.
I think I’m going to buy a special water bottle just for the challenge. I’ve been eying this one with a crystal in it
4. Give Up One Food Category
The idea with this one is to give up one category of food you know you shouldn’t be eating (fried food, sugar, etc).
I am going to be giving up carbs after breakfast.
My body is really sensitive to carbs and I have found that I feel best if I don’t eat carbs at dinner or lunch.
Giving up ALL carbs just feels way too hard for me so I let myself have toast or bread with breakfast.
For lunch, I try to eat 1/3 fat, 1/3 protein and 1/3 protein and at dinner, I try to make my meal 75% veggies.
This is just what I know works for my body and helps me to have the most energy throughout the day.
After traveling last month I really started slipping up and I’ve been eating tons of carbs.
It has really impacted my energy levels and I’m ready to get back to eating healthy and feeling better.
Identify what you could give up that would help you feel better and walk into the new year strong.
It could be soda, fast food or whatever category of junk food you know you shouldn’t be eating or drinking.
I recently gave up alcohol and I’ve been feeling better than freaking ever.
In fact, I don’t think I would be ready to even do this challenge if I was still going to happy hour three days a week. You can listen to my podcast episode about why I gave up alcohol if you’re interested.
5. Write Down 10 Things You’re Grateful For
I am a huge believer of positive thinking and gratitude practices.
Although I know they work I haven’t been writing my affirmations and gratitude lists in my journal lately.
When my business started growing quickly I started cutting out anything that was taking up my time that didn’t have to get done. The truth is, this is a pretty lame excuse.
I know that writing in my journal twice a day helps me manage my mental health, makes me feel better and keeps me focused on my goals.
I am ready to recommit to this practice and part of that will be writing down ten things I am thankful for every day for the rest of the year.
If you don’t have a gratitude practice I really suggest you try it during the last 90 days of this year.
I have an entire podcast episode about the gratitude rampage exercise I do throughout the day you can check out here.
Basically, the idea is that whenever a small good thing happens to me I use that as a cue to go on a tangent of things I am thankful for in my head.
This helps me pay attention and take note of all the small blessings in my life every day and has helped me reprogram my brain to look for things to be happy about after living with depression for so many years.
TIPS FOR THE LAST 90 DAYS CHALLENGE
Here are a few things I am doing to prepare for the last 90-days and help me stick to it.
TRACK YOUR PROGRESS
It really helps me to track my progress and I’ve found that the trick to completing long challenges is just to focus on one chunk at a time.
I created a free printable tracker for the Last 90 Days that you can grab by filling out the form below.
I made my tracker one week at a time because thinking about 30 days or 90 days can make me feel overwhelmed by how far there is to go.
When you’re thinking about the entire challenge you’re much more likely to quit or give up.
Try focusing on one week at a time and using the last 90 days printable tracker so you can see your progress.
When I just focus on the week I’m in and not the whole challenge it feels a lot easier and like I can actually accomplish the challenge.
If you would like to grab my free Last 90 Days printable tracker put your email into the form at the bottom of the post.
Know Your Why
Spend some time writing in your journal about WHY you want to complete this challenge.
Making any kind of changes in your life is difficult and your why has to be strong enough to get you through those tough times.
Your why has to mean so much to you it can get you out of bed at 6 am and keep those french fries off your plate so it needs to be pretty freaking strong!
For me, I focus on being able to help more women with their mental health and have a bigger impact on the world.
I know if I can implement these habits I will be able to get more done, be more productive and create better work overall.
Helping other people is a huge motivation for me so I will be tapping into that mission as part of my why to carry me through this challenge.
Visualize It
I am a big believer in visualization and I spend a lot of time picturing what the best version of myself would be doing with her time.
I actually created a course about this concept you can check out here if you’re interested.
I create my morning routine, set my goals and try to live my life as if I am already the woman I want to become.
Spend some time visualizing what your life would be like if you already did all of these habits every day.
Picture yourself celebrating the end of the challenge and how accomplished and proud you will feel on New Year’s Eve.
Visualizing helps me picture exactly what I want to accomplish and that clear vision helps me stay on track.
Pretend that you have successfully completed the challenge and then answer these journal prompts to help you visualize.
Completing this challenge has helped me:
I feel ______________ about completing the challenge
If I could tell myself one thing when I started this challenge it would be:
Completing this challenge has improved my life in these ways:
I am so happy I completed the challenge because:
Write these prompts as if you’ve already completed the challenge is a great way to help you visualize what it will be like to finish it successfully.
Make a Plan
I am writing all of these intentions down in my planner to help me stay on track each week.
Sit down and create a solid plan of what you will need to do to complete each of these tasks every day for the rest of the year.
Identify any obstacles or challenges you might have and plan out how you will overcome them.
Having a plan in place will help me stay on track so I can complete the entire 90-day challenge.
I’ve done a lot of 21-days and 30-day challenges and I usually do pretty well with them.
I am excited to try a longer challenge but I know that it will be a little more difficult.
Creating a solid plan has made me feel like I can do it and I am really excited to get started on October 1st!
In fact, I’ve already started setting my alarm earlier just to help me get ready for the challenge!
I am so happy that Rachel created this challenge.
Here are some of her videos from last year you can watch to get excited for the last 90 days. Be sure to signup for her emails and subscribe to my YouTube channel, Instagram and podcast to follow me along on this challenge. You can also subscribe to my mental health newsletter to receive updates and pep-talks for the challenge.
If you’re going to do the challenge I would love to hear what you’re doing.
Go tag me over on Instagram and let me know how it is going! I always love to hear about how your mental health journey is going.
Want to save this challenge for later? Click here to pin it to your favorite Pinterest board!
