What I learned from a 30-day Fast Cash Challenge

During the month of July, I participated in a 30-day Fast Cash Challenge offered by one of the marketing communities I belong to.

Right off the bat, I'll tell you that I got off to a weak start.

I was on vacation when the challenge started. I cherry-picked my actions, and when I returned from vacation, I had to catch up on work and it took me a while to recover from the travel.

In other words, I admit that I was a slacker who did the bare minimum, and on some days, nothing at all.

HOWEVER...

Around Day 20, I decided to rally and give it my best shot during the last third of the challenge.

I'm really glad I did. Here's what I learned:

📌 Setting MTO (minimum, target, outrageous) goals helps to prevent overwhelm

If you are an overachiever like me, you have big goals.

Here's the thing: big goals are scary and intimidating, so we often do nothing at all.

When you set a minimum target that you know you will hit no matter what, you're already winning and building momentum towards a target goal and even the outrageous one. (Here's a link again to the 3-minute MTO goals video.)

📌 Taking one micro-action per day builds confidence and momentum

This challenge asked me to take one easy action per day towards my goal.

Nothing big or flashy or complicated.

I had to stop myself from writing down and committing to a bigger action, which is my default.

By writing down one easy action and then executing it immediately, I moved the needle every day.

📌 Celebrating wins (no matter how big or small) is important

The challenge asked us to celebrate a win every day and share it with the group.

It could be a business win or a personal win, and it didn't have to be a seismic accomplishment.

Instead of looking for shortcomings and failures, I shifted my mindset to searching for wins, which felt much better.

The wins were acknowledged by the group. Yes, maybe we blushed or stammered a bit, but it felt good.

📌 Group accountability helps with motivation

We reported our activities and shared our wins with each other daily.

I would get a boost just from reading the updates from others in the group, and it prevented me from feeling all alone in my quest.

The group was carefully monitored and there were no Debbie Downers or negativity.

Mind you, we did not all see a linear upward trajectory, but it was helpful to see how others were moving along, regardless of whether they were faster or slower than I was.

📌 Tracking your progress daily makes a difference

We had a simple system to track our progress every day.

It took anywhere between 10 seconds to a few minutes.

This commitment helped me create a new habit that had little to no friction.

Historically, I have resisted tracking things because I get bored by administrative tasks.

In this case, I became interested in seeing how I moved up the scales during the challenge, and noting how I felt every day.

The system's simplicity and low time commitment helped me measure my progress, which became gratifying as I saw the numbers climb.

❓❓❓ So, how did I do? ❓❓❓

Glad you asked!

I reached 2.1x my minimum goal, which felt amazing and was far beyond what I had expected for July. I was well on my way to my target goal.

Keep in mind that I jumped in around Day 20!

In the spirit of the challenge, I won't beat myself up for slacking off during the first 20 days.

If I had stayed with it for the entire 30 days, I do believe I would have hit my target and maybe even hit my outrageous goal.

In fact, two people in the group actually hit their crazy outrageous goals! 🥳