The 12 Tasks of Christmas

Here's the deal. I am an advocate for always keeping my body and mind guessing. Learning new things and pushing my body to new extremes are among my favorite hobbies.

I've developed a holiday program which should not only whip your body into shape, but also expand your empathy, politeness, poise, patience, knowledge, and cooking skills (hopefully).

This is not a challenge, it's a way to improve your life.

Unlike the song "The 12 Days of Christmas", this is not about receiving gifts. BUT, like the song "The 12 Days of Christmas", this is about adding something new each day, starting on December 25th. With this program you are adding one task each day while repeating the tasks from previous days.

The 12 Tasks of Christmas

PS: You can save the image above and use it in your social stories so your followers can track your progress.

1. Tell someone you love them. Easy? Maybe, or maybe not. This can be directed at anyone, but you have to be sincere and mean it!

2. Decrease social media usage by 10 minutes from the previous day. We all love social media and we all know that it's poisoning our minds. For as much good as social media brings to the world, it brings just as much bad. After 12 days, you should be reducing your social media time down to zero, unless you currently spend more than 120 minutes on social media each day. Use your Screen Time app to track this and don't lie to yourself. This will probably be the most difficult task for most.

3. Workout twice for 30 minutes each. You'll need to complete this task 10 times, so workout twice a day for the final 10 days of this program. This does not need to be a HIIT inspired activity or heavy weightlifting, you can go on two separate 30 minutes walks each day to qualify. Just make sure you put in the effort.

4. 1 random act of kindness. This goes beyond holding to door for someone (although that's very kind). Think outside the box, "how can you be kind to someone today?"

5. Read 15 pages of a non-fiction book OR listen to 45 minutes of a non-fiction audiobook. I've included both because I feel like audiobooks serve a great purpose as well for us multi-taskers. This has to be a non-fiction book. Preferably a self-improvement or business-related title.

1. Cook 2 meals (at least 1 healthy meal). Home-cooked meals, not order in, not reheating leftovers. Put some thought into it.

2. Avoid using negative words, especially contractions. This includes but is not limited to can't, won't shouldn't, etc. The point of this is to think positively. Instead of saying "I don't want to go for a run", say "I'd rather go for a walk".

3. Implement your New Year's Resolution and stick with it. How many people actually stick with their resolution? Stick with it, starting on January 1st.

4. No cheat or treat meals. This is self-explanatory.

5. Take a cold shower. I'm not saying the entire shower has to be cold, but make at least 5 minutes (in the beginning or end) cold rather than hot. If you shower more than once per day, only one of these has to be cold.

6. Video chat with a friend or family member. Thanks to Covid-19, many of us do this anyway, but try to focus on someone who you don't talk to often. Maybe you haven't talked to someone in a year. This is a good time to reconnect.

7. Plan a future activity which is outside of your comfort zone. This could be traveling solo, trying a new sport, jumping out of an airplane, or forcing yourself into an extroverted environment where you're typically an introvert. Plan it and get it on the books.