100-Day Goal Challenge (with Free Printables!)

It’s amazing what you can accomplish in 100 days with a little bit of consistency! Take the 100-day goal challenge and get ready to make big positive changes!

I can honestly say I have never imagined a scenario quite like the one we’ve found ourselves in these days. Worldwide pandemics seem like something you see in a movie, not something you actually expect to experience in real life.

[If you are reading this at a later date, this post was published as we were in the midst of the coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic. Much of the world is quarantined or practicing social distancing, keeping mostly to our homes and trying to limit social interactions to prevent the spread of the virus.]

I am a homebody at heart, so when the recommendations to stay home began, I thought to myself, “This will be easy! I’m home all the time anyway! I’ve been training my whole life for this!”

I love being home. I love spending time with my family. And I have a great support system of family and friends. But still, I find myself struggling.

I’m getting frustrated more easily. My temper has a shorter fuse. I feel sad and discouraged sometimes. And I crave “normal life” as it used to be just a few short weeks ago.

And I figure that if I’m experiencing these things– and I have really only been affected minimally so far– certainly others are having similar feelings as well.

How can we stay positive?

So I started trying to think about upsides. How can I have a good attitude and improve my mindset in the midst of all of this craziness? Where is the silver lining? What blessings are coming out of this seeming struggle?

While there are many, one thing that has especially jumped out to me as a positive is an automatic interruption of bad habits and routines.

One reason that habits can be so hard to change is that when our day-to-day stays pretty much the same, it’s easier just to maintain the status quo rather than make an effort to improve.

But for most of us, our day-to-day has now been thrown into total upheaval. So what better time to set a new goal, adopt a new habit or routine?

Setting a 100-Day Goal

So I came up with the idea to set a 100-day goal. I like 100 days for a few reasons.

First, if we spend too much time focusing on the negatives of our current situation, we’ll start wallowing. It will start to feel like life will always be difficult. Like we’ll always be separated from friends and family. And like we’ll never be able to do anything fun again.

But I figured that if we could focus on a point when [hopefully] we’ll be mostly in the clear from all of this coronavirus stuff– 100 days from now– we won’t feel as stuck in our current situation. We’ll have a goal to focus on and something to look forward to.

I also like the idea of a 100-day goal because it’s long enough to make a serious impact, but short enough that it still feels attainable. Amazing things can be accomplished if we can be consistent with a task– even a small task– for 100 days.

100-Day Goal Ideas

• How much healthier could we be if we committed to do some sort of exercise for 100 days in a row?
• Where could our faith be 100 days from now if we studied the Bible for 100 days in a row?
• What could we learn if we decided to study a particular topic for 30 minutes per day for the next 100 days?
• How organized would our house be if we decided to devote 30 minutes to decluttering and organizing for 100 days?
• How would our health benefit if we decided to eat at home rather than eating out for the next 100 days?
• If you spent time working on that blog you’ve been wanting to start each day for the next 100 days, how far could you take it?
• How many books could we finish if we set aside time for reading for 100 days in a row?
• And so on!

How will we use our extra time?

A lot of times when I teach about organizing or productivity, I say, “You’re never just going to have this big chunk of time open up in your schedule to work on that goal you want to accomplish…”

Well, guess what?! A lot of us just had a big chunk of time open up in our schedule that we can use to accomplish one of those things we’ve been putting off!

We can choose to waste away our extra time on mindless activities. OR we can choose to see the bright side and take advantage of all of this extra time we’ve been given to build a new, healthy habit!

If we can get ourselves into a new positive habit while we have some extra time on our hands, when life starts to get back to “normal” and our schedules become busier again, those habits that we’ve trained ourselves to follow will more easily make their way into our everyday lives.

Yes, this time we’re experiencing right now is difficult for a number of reasons. But we can also choose to see it as a gift, an opportunity to use our time to reach a goal we’ve always wanted to accomplish.

Free Printable 100-Day Goal Tracker

As I often do, I created a simple printable to go along with this 100-day goal challenge.

Click here to download the 100-Day Goal Challenge printable!

There’s room to write our goal at the top. Then there is a box to check off our goal for each day of the 100 days. (Because is there anything more satisfying than checking things off a list?! 😉 )

I’ve also included a line for each day that I envisioned being used in one of two ways.

First, for some goals I think it’s helpful to make the plan of attack ahead of time. For example, if I’m following a specific fitness program, I like to write out– in advance– what workout I’m going to do each day so there’s never any question. I show up and automatically do what’s written on the list for the day.

But for other goals, it makes more sense to track after the fact. For example, if I’m reading for 30 minutes per day, I could use the line to write down the number of pages I read on that particular day. If I’m organizing, I could write down what I organized that day, etc.

Use the line in the way that makes the most sense for your goal. But whether you’re planning out your steps in advance or writing them down afterward, I’ve found that keeping a written record can really help to hold me accountable for what I want to accomplish.

I know that the current state of things has been– and probably will continue to be– a struggle. But while I can’t wave a magic wand and make it all go away, I can choose to try to make the very most of a tough situation. And that’s what I hope that this 100-day challenge can help us do.

(And if you’re reading this at a later date, it’s not too late! Having a quarterly goal can always be an effective method for getting things done if you stick to it!)

What will your goal be?

I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy during this crazy time. If you’re planning to take the 100-day challenge, please let me know what your goal will be in the comments below! I will be cheering you on from across the web!

Want to come back to this post later? Be sure to pin the image below so you can find it easily!

And if you’re looking for more helpful tools for getting through social distancing / quarantine, these posts can help:

Two-Week Organizing Plan

Free Printable Stay-at-Home Binder

The easiest way to access all of the printables on our site (more than 200 printable pages!) is through our VIP Printables Vault. You can preview all of the printables here or sign up to be a VIP via the button below.

Thanks so much for following along! Have a great day!