How to Play Essentials Archives - Whole Life Challenge

The Power of Small Habit Change: Building a Better You, One Step at a Time

Michael Stanwyck — Tue, 20 May 2025 16:00:37 +0000

Reading Time: 7 minutes

In a world obsessed with overnight transformations—think crash diets, intense fitness boot camps, or 30-day productivity challenges—it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that big, dramatic changes are the only path to self-improvement.

But what if the secret to lasting change lies in the opposite approach?

What if the smallest, most incremental adjustments to your daily routine could lead to profound, sustainable transformation?…

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The End of the Whole Life Challenge: Now What?

Andy Petranek — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 12:00:29 +0000

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Here we are at the end of the Whole Life Challenge, and you may be asking yourself, “Now what?”

That’s a very common question.

The answer is — you go back to your “normal” life.

Now is when you take the things you’ve been practicing in the Challenge and see what works in your regular life.

Watch this video for advice from Whole Life Challenge co-founders Andy Petranek and Michael Stanwyck.…

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How to Get Your Partner to Play the WLC (Without Nagging)

Hilary Achauer — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 12:00:00 +0000

When your partner or spouse doesn’t want to do something, no amount of cajoling or nagging can convince them.

Our house is filled with giant collections of comics. I’ve tried over the years, but each time I pick up a comic book, I get distracted by the art and can’t figure out how to read the panels. My husband — a massive comic book fan — tried to get me to read comics over the length of our almost twenty-year marriage, but he’s finally accepted my disinterest, comforted that at least our children share his love of superheroes.…

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16 Tips to Set You Up for a Successful Whole Life Challenge (and Life)

Jessica Wolf — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 15:00:29 +0000

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Over the many Whole Life Challenges I have done, I have amassed a few staple tips that I pass on to my team in the hopes that it makes the Challenge a little easier. But better still, I have received lots of tips from my teammates as well.

Here are a few of my go-to strategies for having a successful Whole Life Challenge experience, followed by some of my favorites from others.…

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Everything You Need to Know to Prep for the WLC

Ayesha Kamal — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 09:00:16 +0000

Reading Time: 6 minutes6 Tips to Prep for the WLC

When I first did the Whole Life Challenge, back in 2012, I did it on my own with no team and starting with not really much knowledge of what I was getting into. Yes, I knew I was going to be committing to some sort of lifestyle change, but just how much effort that would involve was left for me to discover.…

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How to Have Your Best Whole Life Challenge (7 Tips from Veterans)

Hilary Achauer — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 09:00:03 +0000

Reading Time: 6 minutes

“Preparation, I have often said, is rightly two-thirds of any venture.” — Amelia Earhart

Planning ahead is the key to a successful Whole Life Challenge experience. Even those of us with the best intentions run into trouble if we don’t think ahead and plan our meals, exercise, and sleep. Preparation is the glue that bonds the 7 Daily Habits, and beyond the Challenge, it’s crucial for a healthy life.…

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How Did the “7 Daily Habits” Come to Be? (#BecauseScience)

Emily Beers — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 10:00:33 +0000

Reading Time: 10 minutes

When we think about habits, we often think about bad habits — things like biting fingernails, or the five-year-old who still sucks his thumb. Part of the reason habits are so powerful is that they’re often subconscious in nature. And since we don’t realize we’re doing them, they can be very difficult to break.

But the same can be said for good habits.…

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Life After the Whole Life Challenge: It’s Not About the “Wagon”

Michelle Rees — Thu, 24 May 2018 09:00:45 +0000

Reading Time: 7 minutes

As a coach, I see some pretty cool stuff during sessions of the Whole Life Challenge. Not only do I witness physical transformations, but I get to be part of the deeper changes to people’s health, happiness, and quality of life — whether that’s helping others reach their goals, have light-bulb moments, face their demons, experience breakthroughs, or learn something new about themselves.…

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What Is a “Well-Being Practice” and Why Would I Do One?

Jon Gilson — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 09:00:07 +0000

Reading Time: 4 minutes

The Well-Being Practices are exercises in practical mindfulness — guiding you to pay attention to your thoughts, your relationships, and your automatic actions, and to alter them as needed to live a calmer, more connected lifestyle.

The Well-Being Practices span categories throughout your life, including improving your personal relationships, increasing productivity, doing more of the things you love, serving others, connecting with your thoughts and feelings, expressing gratitude, and examining your relationship with technology.…

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The 3 Foundational Well-Being Practices

Michael Stanwyck — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 08:00:08 +0000

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Our Well-Being Practices are meant to give you different ways to build your inner sense of well-being. Or, said another way, they are tools designed to help you create a Well-Being Mindset.

Each week of each Challenge, we announce an “official” Well-Being Practice, but this practice is only a suggestion. We’d like you to try it, but there are a variety of valid reasons you may not wish to engage in a particular practice.…

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Why We Keep Score (and How to Do It Like a Pro)

Jon Gilson — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 09:00:08 +0000

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Each day during the Whole Life Challenge, you’ll pursue the 7 Daily Habits — and you’ll give yourself points for completing them. 5 points each for Nutrition, Exercise, Mobility, Hydration, Sleep, Well-Being Practice, and Reflection.

Given this daily scoring, you’d be forgiven for thinking the score itself is the point of the Challenge. That line of thinking goes something like this:

Score higher and you’re doing better.

…

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The Whole Life Challenge: 7 Reasons It’s 6 Weeks Long

Andy Petranek — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 10:00:38 +0000

Reading Time: 7 minutes

I get asked the question all the time, “Why is the Whole Life Challenge so long?” People say, “It would be so much better at thirty days. Then I would be able to finish and not quit. I would go all the way through to the end and I would feel much better about myself.”

I’ve been asked this so many times that it made me wonder whether we should consider making it shorter.…

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6 On and 6 Off: A New Era for the Whole Life Challenge

Andy Petranek — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 14:40:07 +0000

Reading Time: 8 minutes

What is the “secret sauce” of long-term growth?

How can the Whole Life Challenge help players stay on the path and not lose their way?

What can we (the WLC) do to best to ensure that five years from now, players of the Challenge can look back on their progress and feel happy, satisfied, and confident that they’ve moved in the right direction — toward improved health, fitness, and well-being?

…

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The Well-Being Mindset: The Missing Link in Your Health and Happiness

Michael Stanwyck — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 10:00:17 +0000

Reading Time: 7 minutes

The picture of what health and well-being is seems so clear — exercise, eating right, good sleep, and, if you’re really dialed in, some stress relief. We’re all at least aware of this profile whether we’re fully engaged in it or simply pining for the time to get to it.

But what if I told you there was more to your health and well-being than just that?…

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The “Why” of the Whole Life Challenge Food Rules

Kristin Kaschak — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 22:05:44 +0000

Reading Time: 15 minutes

We’ve become used to fad diets giving us lists of things we can and cannot eat for seemingly no reason. This makes it impossible to transfer into everyday life. If you don’t know why you do something, you’re less likely to do to it.

And without this why, it’s easy to have an emotional response to rules that deprive you of your favorite things.…

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The Rules for Healthy Eating Made Simple: How to Choose Your Whole Life Challenge Nutrition Level

Jon Gilson — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 10:00:23 +0000

Reading Time: 6 minutes

The rules for healthy eating actually are simple — and to understand them, you’ll start by identifying the foods to avoid.

Foods to avoid come in packages and bottles, and they’re found in the interior of the grocery store — among the chips, crackers, cookies, candy, cereals, sodas, and frozen foods. They also dominate the takeout menus tacked to your fridge and the menu at your local restaurant, where manmade oils (like canola and vegetable) are the primary cooking substrate, and salt and sugar are added to everything.…

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How to Prepare Your Kitchen for the Whole Life Challenge

Jon Gilson — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 10:00:04 +0000

The only thing that sabotages a great nutrition plan faster than the twin temptations of sugar and bread: a lack of the right foods, close at hand.

Let’s prevent that.

Below, seven tasks you can perform in the next seven days to ensure you’ll always have compliant, healthy food ready to go (while facing as little temptation as possible).

Go through the steps one at a time, and by the end of the week, you’ll be ready to tackle the Whole Life Challenge’s Nutrition and Hydration Habits.…

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What Do I Say in My Reflection?

Michael Stanwyck — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 10:00:42 +0000

Reading Time: 4 minutes

A great way to think about the Reflection habit in the Whole Life Challenge is as your conscious daily acknowledgment of being in the process. Treat it as a part of your day where you consider what your actions in the Challenge provided you today — something you did that represents you being on the path. It’s looking back at the day and pulling out the gold from each day.…

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Welcome to Your Whole Life Challenge!

Michael Stanwyck — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 10:00:34 +0000

Reading Time: 2 minutes

What started as a small local event has grown into a worldwide community of over 100,000 people who have changed their lives through small daily steps in the 7 Habits of the Whole Life Challenge. It has been our experience that people playing the Whole Life Challenge experience benefits they never expected or could even predict.

This is a lifestyle challenge, not just about exercise and nutrition.…

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WLC Sample Workout for Prelims and Finals

Andy Petranek — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 07:40:33 +0000

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The Whole Life Challenge begins with you taking a personal inventory. The inventory consists of three parts: body measurements, a measurable workout, and before-and-after pictures. Your final ranking among your teammates will be partially determined by your improvement in your measurements and workout.

For something to be a “measurable workout,” it must not only evaluate your performance with a single score or time, but must also be something you can repeat at the end of the Challenge.…

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Whole Life Challenge: The Synergy of the 7 Habits

Michael Stanwyck — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 10:00:14 +0000

Reading Time: < 1 minute

The 7 Habits represent a special kind of synergy. When you take them on together as a daily practice they yield the kind of results you can’t predict — things that may have previously seemed impossible.

It’s not just that each habit is beneficial in and of itself. It’s that each habit builds on the next and creates something additional, something unattainable unless you explore all the habits.…

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