Sometimes it takes a shared experience to really make change happen. One of the most effective ways of encouraging people to embrace positive lifestyle choices is through stepping up to a challenge. Todd Durkin has proved just how effective this can be.
Todd is the owner and founder of Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, California. In addition to responsibilities as a keynote speaker and author, he heads up the Todd Durkin Mastermind Group, guiding over 100 business owners around the world who are looking to maximise their success both professionally and personally.
Below, he speaks about the IMPACT 31 Challenge and how to keep a community moving through positive habits that last.
Setting the challenge for positive change
“The IMPACT 31 Challenge was an awesome way to start the year and get people fired up. As well as exercise, I had people journaling, and sharing positivity, reading, just really challenging people wherever they’re at, on several different levels. It was an awesome way of lighting a fire under people’s backsides!
“I had 10 different parameters to the challenge, with one being for participants to get their exercise in and accrue Myzone Effort Points throughout the month. We were assigning winners each week, and we had grand prize winners that were awarded at the end of the challenge.”
The IMPACT 31 Challenge focus points include:
- Work out 6+ days for 30+ minutes a week (powered by Myzone)
- Drink 1/2 bodyweight in water
- Pray/meditate and breathwork for 10 minutes a day
- Send three encouraging texts per day
- Stretch for five minutes every day
Raising health standards and money for charity
In addition to helping people to move better and become healthier, the challenge was set up so that every Myzone heart rate monitor sale also raised money for a great cause.
“The Durkin IMPACT Foundation was founded in 2012 upon the heels of Hurricane Sandy that wiped out the Eastern Seaboard, specifically my hometown of Brick, New Jersey, where the eye of the storm hit.
“The area got devastated and it was there that three of my five sisters, who still live there, got pulverised by the storm. I sat out here in San Diego and I thought about what I could do to help out. I felt helpless because we couldn’t even connect with them as the power was out. There was hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
“That was the impetus for me to start my long-term dream of setting up a good cause. The Durkin IMPACT Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation that has given away half a million dollars since that time. We’ve donated to various organisations but, primarily, to student athletes going to college who don’t have the funds to go but want to get an education.
“More recently, in the years since the pandemic we’ve also given funds to several organisations that deal with mental health and suicide prevention. Lastly, it’s also for individuals or families that have gone through difficult times and are facing tragedy or disaster. It’s a way that we’re giving back to the community to make a difference.”
Challenge yourself the healthy way
“The aim of the IMPACT 31 Challenge was to take my global community and connect them in something that was going to challenge them physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Health is more than just about big workouts and heavy sessions.
“If you’re just starting out on your fitness journey, start slow. Don’t feel like you’ve got to kill yourself every day. Go out there and work out and train so that you can feel better. When you feel better, you eat better; then you train better and you start to train more consistently.
“Consistency is the name of the game. You want to be consistently training, not just over months but over years. The person who is consistent over time is ultimately going to be the healthiest. What I always say is: He or she who has their health has a thousand dreams. He or she who does not, has one.
“What’s the one thing that matters most? Get your health, keep your health, and keep working on your health.”
What should the future look like for the fitness industry?
“What can fitness professionals do to get more people moving more often? Evangelise fitness. Motion is lotion and movement is medicine. We’ve got to move more.
“By moving more, that’s going to help us get natural medicine. When you do that, you get your mind right, and you’re your mind is right, guess what? Your body and your mind work hand-in-hand.”
Find out more about Myzone challenges or visit the IMPACT Foundation website to donate.
