Stop Counting Down. Start Counting Up.
Why I’m taking life—and our next challenge—one day at a time.
Today is Day 22 of 68.
That wording matters.
I could tell myself how many days I have left until my next HYROX. I could stare at November 21 on the calendar and repeatedly think:
Am I ready yet? Am I doing enough? Am I running out of time?
But that countdown mindset hasn’t always served me well.
Sometimes, a deadline makes me work harder. Other times, it makes me procrastinate until I feel behind. Then the pressure builds, I become overwhelmed by everything I haven’t done and eventually enter the classic: “Well, WTF—it probably doesn’t matter now anyway.”
That may help explain the unintentional three-week taper I performed before each of my last three HYROX races.
Not ideal.
This time, instead of counting down, I’m counting the days I have intentionally invested in myself.
Today isn’t “only 46 days left.”
It’s Day 22 of showing up.
That shift has changed how I look at each day. I’m no longer demanding that I already be ready for race day. I’m asking a much more useful question:
How can I show up as my best self today?
I have a very good reason to show up
For this HYROX, I’ll be racing Women’s Pro Doubles with the one and only Jaime Filer.
Jaime so graciously accepted the résumé I submitted to become her doubles partner (kind of a joke, lol but Hyroxers get it)—even though she is an absolute baller and now I HAVE to arrive in my best possible shape so I don’t embarrass myself next to her.
No pressure.
If you don’t already follow @jaimefilerfitness, check her out. She’s strong, hilarious, has built a community of more than 180,000 followers and owns matching chicken-nuggy workout sets.
Racing with someone of Jaime’s caliber raises the standard for me. But instead of letting that pressure turn into anxiety about November 21, I’m using it as motivation to honor the day directly in front of me.
I don’t have to race HYROX today.
I need to complete today’s workout. Fuel my body today. Prioritize my protein today. Recover today. Go to bed knowing I did what I could with the day I had.
Then I wake up and do it again.
Then Diana Nyad put words to it.
This mindset became even more meaningful after I listened to Diana Nyad on Julia Louis-Dreyfus's podcast, Wiser Than Me.
Diana returned to her dream of swimming from Cuba to Florida at 60 and finally completed the 110-mile swim at 64. Today, at 76, she says she still performs 1,000 consecutive burpees every Tuesday and Friday.
Yes, one thousand. Twice a week.
But as impressive—and slightly unhinged—as that is, it wasn’t the burpees that stayed with me most.
Diana explained that when her head hits the pillow each night, she asks herself whether there was anything more she could have done with that day.
That stopped me in my tracks.
The journal I started using daily this year asks nearly the same question every night:
What could I have done better today?
It felt like confirmation of something I had already started discovering: meaningful change doesn’t happen because we obsess over a deadline. It happens because we repeatedly make the most of the individual days leading to it.
This isn’t about criticizing yourself or demanding perfection every night.
Doing your best will look different from one day to the next.
Some days, it means completing the difficult workout.
Some days, it means taking a walk instead of doing nothing.
It may mean preparing an actual meal, drinking your water, going to bed earlier, asking for help or intentionally resting because recovery is what your body truly needs.
The question isn’t, “Was I perfect today?”
It’s: “Did I make the best choices I reasonably could today—and what can I carry into tomorrow?”
This is how we’re approaching the next challenge
Our Fall Challenge begins October 27 with Day 1 and our kickoff workout.
From there, we’ll take all 57 days through December 22 one at a time.
We aren’t going to spend the challenge obsessing over how many weeks are left or deciding we’re “behind” because one weekend didn’t go as planned.
We aren’t letting Halloween candy become a lost week.
We aren’t letting Thanksgiving become a lost month.
And we definitely aren’t waiting until January to start caring about ourselves again.
Instead, we’re going to focus on making the most of the day we are currently living.
Not 57 perfect days.
Fifty-seven opportunities to practice showing up.
One workout.
One walk.
One meal.
One glass of water.
One honest check-in.
One decision at a time.
Those individual days compound. That is where the change happens. And where you create sweat mark looking sculptures on the floor LOL
You don’t have to do it alone.
Maybe your goal is to rebuild consistency.
Maybe you want to get stronger, increase your steps, improve your nutrition, drink more water or stop disappearing from your own priority list whenever life gets busy.
Maybe you’ve been stuck in the “I’ll start again Monday” cycle—or you can already feel yourself preparing to say, “I’ll start again in January.”
This challenge is for you.
You’ll have accountability, optional partner support, community check-ins, in-person events and people working toward many of the same goals you are. You can also participate remotely if you aren’t in Kansas City.
You don’t need to wait until you feel completely ready.
You only need to be willing to show up for Day 1.
Then we’ll take care of Day 2 when it arrives.
JOIN THE FALL CHALLENGE Day 1 begins October 27.