30 Day Challenge: check ✔

Remember, a month ago, when I wrote this post about how I failed my 30 Day Bikram Yoga Challenge?

Well, yesterday, I finished my second attempt.

I actually succeeded. 30 classes, 30 days: complete.

I’m writing this post, not to brag, or to say that I achieved something overly spectacular. I know, for fact, that many people are much better than I am at fitting a health regimen into their schedules. Many people run, lift, spin, everyday, without needing to put a sticker on the wall for encouragement (although, stickers are fun – you should try it).

But, truthfully, I need to admit that I didn’t think I’d be able to do it. Despite my insistence that I wanted to give this at least one more kick at the can, I thought I was going to fail.

Not because I’m lazy  (even though some days, that really was half the battle) but because I’m not. I am a busy person – sometimes impossibly so. And the thought of clearing up the 2.5 hours it takes to go to and from, each and every day, for 30 days, seemed nearly impossible as I stared at a daunting calendar of appointments, engagements and looming deadlines.

But it was my personal little mission. I had to try.

Yesterday, Jess was able to perfectly verbalize the sentiment I so often feel towards the most important people in my life. I’m incredibly lucky to be surrounded by a team of caring and supportive people. My own little cheerleading squad, constantly rooting for any project or undertaking I choose to pursue. Go, Cat!

The daily check-ins asking how my challenge was coming along, applauding me as I forged on, motivating me on my most egregiously bad days.  I knew no one would fault me if I didn’t make it to the 30-day mark, but everyone was supporting my resolve, either way. And often the simple, “you can do it”, was really all I needed to hear.

Because even when you’re determined to do something, no matter how small or large, life can sometimes get in the way.

In the last 30 days, I had meetings, doctor’s appointments, car trouble, the flu and I shoveled my driveway … a lot. I had social engagements, girls nights, coffee dates, dinner dates, birthdays to attend and thus, hangovers to endure. In some bizarre and coincidentally unfortunate twist, my roommate broke his leg, just like Meghan did during my last challenge. Drives were needed here and there, schedules adjusted. Those little happenstance insistences – no matter how preventing or unexpected – are what, in the end, makes up the days of your life. As Outkast would say, “You can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the weather.” Right?

But, all that was just to say that a 30-Day Challenge, of any kind, is a real effort-required challenge – more often in time-management than anything else.

(Although, let’s face it, scheduling aside, sometimes  the last thing you want to do is workout, for 90 minutes, in a room that is hotter than hell.)

Nevertheless, it is rewarding too.

At my last class yesterday, I was the only one in the room who was finishing my challenge at that time. There was a three-day window to start in the middle of January and I started on the last day, so many people were already done. Stacey, my yoga teacher, knew that it was my last class. So at the end of the grueling 90 minutes, as we exhaled our last breath of the 26-posture series, she asked that everyone give me a round of applause.

The 30-some people that surrounded me – strangers, really – gave me such a heartfelt cheer that lasted long enough for my usual stubbornly pale face, to turn a humbled shade of red. And although it may seem silly to admit this, I was almost moved to tears.

So where last time, I listed all the reasons why things can inadvertently thwart your goals, this time, I’m here to tell you that those don’t matter. I want to say that I highly recommend you find some way to challenge yourself, whether it is fitness-related, bad habit breaking or lifestyle changing.

Because there is only reason why you should persevere past those everyday hurdles life likes throwing your way: you will be proud of yourself.

And in a nutshell, sometimes you deserve to be.