Doing The Impossible: 100 Push Ups?

At the suggestion of one of my readers I realized I should probably talk more about one of the challenges I am currently undertaking.
Near the birth of this revamped blog I decided to undertake the 100 Push Ups Challenge, which is one of the first "impossible" goals I decided to set for myself. The concept is simple: Max out push ups at the beginning of the challenge to find out your beginning level, then three times a week you do sets that slowly increase in number for a period of about six weeks. At the end of every week, you try to max out again and push yourself farther. The concept is simple enough. Sticking with it has been a challenge for me.
For the first week or so, I started out well. I did my push ups thinking this was a piece of cake for my skill level (Granted I was not doing full form push ups either. Remember the grand scheme is to get to 100 with my current form, then start over again at full form.). And then a had a case of life. I made excuses. The challenge faded. I hopped back on after a few days, but kept falling off. As far as the challenge itself goes, it has been at least a couple of weeks since I have stuck to the routine suggested on the website.

But see, that's all part of the challenge of it all. Sticking with the goal is part of the process. I was not discouraged, I saw it as part of a learning process. You learn to skate, you fall down. You learn to ride a horse, a bike, whatever, and you fall. Then you get back up and keep going. It's the same with this challenge. To be honest I've done hardly a push up in a week, and I've certainly not been sticking with the challenge, but a lot of good things have been happening as a result:

• I started working out. Not just push ups, which I don't always do, but crunches and the like that can be done in my own home.
• I've been motivated to exercise for fight practice by lifting my shield and throwing shots with my rattan sword. 
• Even though I've not kept up with the challenge, the workouts themselves have been fairly consistent.
• This of course is still going to benefit the challenge itself when I finally hop back on the proverbial horse. 

And why am I not discouraged? Because the human body is this magnificent organism that can do wonderfully surprising things. 100 push ups was a decision I made because even though it sounded impossible, it sounded like the most possible thing to accomplish as a start in my list of impossible things. Starting small like this will give me an idea of some of the pitfalls I will hit in any of my aspirations. I lose interest, take on too many other projects; in the end I lose focus. As soon as the focus returns, I'm back and ready to go. But even out of focus I'm still bringing with me positive lessons I've learned from the project. My workout routine might not be spectacular, or even that long, but I'm getting myself in the habit of working out at all. That's progress enough to be proud of! 

We all run into this problem as well. We all lose interest at some point. Is it out of boredom? Do we feel like we're not making enough progress? That in the end we'll fail? For me, it's simply that I pile too many other grand schemes on my plate at the same time. The best way to finish a project is to imagine yourself doing so. I see myself succeeding, therefore I will. It might take a while but what's a hundred push ups in the grand scheme of my life? With that in mind I know that the accomplishment will be very empowering to me, but at the same time I don't feel the rush to finish it NOW, and the results, although satisfying, I understand are going to take time. The virtues of patience and all that, as you all know. 

As I write this I do still plan on finishing the challenge, since writing this has made me realize how far behind I am! 

At this point the plan is to start from the beginning. Start by maxing out and see how much progress I have made since I began the challenge, then revamp my schedule. Five minutes a day, three days a week, is really all it takes. I can do that in the morning to wake myself up faster and relieve some grumpyness I might have. Trust me, I did that one day. Groggy, tired, and in a generally foul mood, I rolled out of bed and did four or five and was good as new for the rest of the day! But anyway, I digress.

What kind of pitfalls do you run into during a challenge? What motivations keep you going? Is the end result enough to keep you going? This time it is for me, because succeeding in this challenge will also open up several items on my list of impossible things. 

By succeeding at this challenge I will make myself more fit, possibly drop some fat and help my clothes fit better, but will also help gear me towards being more capable of handling fight practice. I have been attempting to make it to practice as well, which only helps strengthen my arms and makes the challenge easier. See how they work off each other? And all of these things, together, will make authorizing at heavy weapons easier as well, because I can focus on the tips and tricks of offense and defense instead of worrying whether or not I can pick up my sword and use it in my armor. 

Keep this in mind as you set goals: If you string goals together, achieving the big goals will become easier. The smaller accomplishments you make in the string, the more empowered and motivated you will be to get to the penultimate result.