What’s that one thing in your life that you’ve always wanted to do, but never got around to doing? Maybe you’ve always wanted to surf, or ride a motorcycle. Maybe you wanted to travel to Asia or run a marathon. We all have our own mountains to climb. The mountain I tried to climb over and over again was learning how to play the guitar.
I have been an on and off guitar player for years. And by on and off, I mean mostly off. I’d pick up the guitar, play for a few days, maybe a week, and then get discouraged or distracted and stop playing for weeks or months or years. Then I’d get inspired, pick it up again and start the cycle once more.
But something happened last September that changed my entire perspective. I read an article about a 100-day challenge. The author challenged himself to ask for something he wanted – something he really wanted – every day between September 23 and Dec 31 – 100 days. His challenge was to make serious requests of other people.
I have heard of such challenges before without ever considering doing one myself. But something clicked for me when I read this article, and I decided to take on the 100-day year-end challenge. My challenge to myself was this:
Take on playing the guitar, for real. Play every day for 100 days. See if you can really do this. It’s hard, your fingers will hurt, and you may still be a terrible guitar player after 100 days. But try anyway. Commit to it. And do it.
And that’s exactly what I did.