What Bhava’s 30×30 Workout Challenge Taught Me About Myself, My Teammates and Friendly Competition
Google Calendar is my basic lifeline support. Almost every single hour of my day is outlined with tasks, errands and meetings—to the point where I even have a slot in my calendar for weekly trash pickup. With such a jampacked day, I was finding it hard to make the time to go to the gym and stay healthy.
While pondering this problem, I noticed one of my fellow Bhavans, Erica, often making her way to the office gym despite an equally busy schedule. When I asked how she found the time to exercise, she responded, “I schedule the time and don’t let anything else get scheduled over it. I do whatever I have to in order to make sure I get that time.” Her response was so simple and yet I needed something to motivate me to make a change.
Last year, Bhava completed a summer “Unofficial Fitness Challenge.” I remembered being excited and motivated by the challenge and decided to create my own version of it—scheduling 30 minutes per day for 30 days.
The Snowball Effect of Creating a Challenge
In the same way that Erica had inspired me to make time to exercise, I found other Bhavans being inspired by my idea, and before I knew it, my plan had become the “Official Bhava 30×30 Workout Challenge.”
After the challenge was issued, more than half the office joined in. We had a crowd at our weekly yoga sessions in our company yoga room, a line for a post-workout shower and plenty of people found unique ways to exercise that they’d never tried before.
What Makes Bhavans Successful, in 30 Days
Along the way, we learned things about ourselves, saw what we were capable of and witnessed how hard we were willing to work. I often used my workouts to do a little bit of thinking (and a whole lot of sweating), and began to realize that the challenge brought out many of the traits that Bhavans share that make us successful.
- • In addition to being smart, creative and genuine, Bhavans will work as hard as they can until a task is complete and done successfully. Given that participants had to share proof of their workouts each day, I often received messages in the middle of the night from Bhavans who were walking up and down stairs in their homes at midnight or getting up super early in the morning before a client meeting to use their new gym membership or work out in the onsite gym.
- • Our competitive side came out as well. We had some folks who thought working out twice a day gained them extra points. This doesn’t mean we compete with one another to be the best in the office, but rather that we compete with ourselves to try something new or challenging and that we encourage each other to strive for success.
- • Collaboration and teamwork are vital to the Bhava DNA. Bhavans worked together to come up with new workout ideas, pushed each other to keep going and often found time to work out with their home teams—their families. One of my favorite moments from the challenge was when another Bhavan, Joe, sent me a photo of himself playing basketball with his son on a Saturday evening.
Inspiring Others to Push Themselves
In the end, not only did I find the time that I was searching for, but it was also rewarding to see that my idea had allowed others to prioritize the time for themselves, too. Erica’s motivation inspired me to start my challenge and my motivation inspired other Bhavans to find time for themselves.
If you’re inspired to try a similar 30×30 challenge, here’s how we did it:
- • We drew upon Lauren Gleisberg’s blog of workouts for our inspirations.
- • Participants had to work out for at least 30 minutes each day, for 30 days in a row.
- • Proof of completion was accepted in the forms of photos, SnapChats, Instagram posts, etc.
- • Participants were allowed to miss up to 3 days in the 30 day timeframe, which they could make up during a make-up week at the end of the challenge.
- • Our prize was something that everyone on the team could look forward to: at the end of our challenge, we had a pizza lunch and a group fitness training session at the Oakland Fitness Company, just a short walk from our office.