The Go Natural Challenge was the first challenge I accomplished, and it helped me grow so much! It focused on the Mental/Emotional Dimension of Health. I did the challenge for 40 days. It was a good amount of time for me to get comfortable in my skin, and I had enough obstacles to push myself outside of my comfort zone. If you work or are around people every day, you can adjust the challenge length as you see fit, maybe a month. (28 days is the length of time is takes to form a habit, so try not to do any less!)

The Challenge: No make-up for a month (see below for variation ideas)

Now, this challenge does not apply to everyone seeing as most guys don’t wear make-up and some women don’t either. This is why I named it a “Go Natural Challenge”, not a “No-Make-up Challenge”. You can choose something that you think would be a challenge for you to go without. Dying your hair, manicures/pedicures, purchasing clothes, shaving (guys?), or something that fits you specifically. This challenge is to help you depend less on looks/physical appearance and to gain a deeper confidence in your other qualities.

This challenge can get difficult at times, especially if you are eliminating something that gives you confidence. But, ask yourself, is this really where I want my confidence to originate? I’d personally much rather receive a compliment on my intelligence, work ethic, sense of humor, kindness, organization skills, or a number of other qualities before they tell me I look good. Sure, it is still nice to hear, but life is about so much more than our looks! When this challenge gets hard (which it should if you’re doing it right), draw confidence from these other qualities.

Challenge yourself to look deeper not only at yourself, but at those around you. I have attempted to do this for most of my life, but this challenge helped me get much better at this. Take a look at the people around you, and then, look deeper and see these people surrounding you for who they truly are- their strengths, personality, hopes, and motivation in life.

As mentioned in one of my posts, I truly think this challenge helped me get my footing to lose 30 pounds, train for a few races, feel happier with my body, be healthier, and draw my motivation from new places. This challenge helped me dig deeper and realize that what others think of my appearance means so little. Now, my motivation is (1) to be healthy for my family, (2) to be a good role model for my daughter, and (3) to be happy with the body God gave me to reside in. I could (and might) write a whole post about each of these! But, overall, the lesson I learned, and hope each of you learn as well, is this: physical appearance is only skin deep; draw confidence from and focus your energy on the qualities that truly matter in life.