As of August 1st, 2026, I completed my own 75-day challenge… for the second time in a row.
Seventy-five renewed is a 75-day challenge I created that is dedicated to coming back to and showing up for yourself. There are four categories, with four tasks in each category. While listening to yourself and your body and what your day looks like, you pick one thing from each category to complete each day. The 75-day challenge comes with a tracker to help hold yourself accountable and see the rollercoaster of what progress looks like.
At first, when I completed it mid-May, I felt like I didn’t truly give it my all and didn’t push myself physically; I was great in the other categories, especially spiritually. So, I repeated the challenge and showed up for myself in all four categories. Truly, I have never felt better.
Physically
Low key… at first I was taking a lot of naps. I kept saying “I owe it to myself.” Yes, I was exhausted, and it is important to rest. However, it was starting to become a habit that was getting out of hand, so instead of napping for an energy boost, I started choosing to workout and do walk-run situations around my neighborhood. After a while, I started to feel rejuvenated physically, and I started to see a bit of a change in my body. I spent a good portion of last year being scared to workout because of an old ankle injury, but this challenge has helped me get back to doing what my body needed. The combination of listening to my dietician and increasing how often I workout/simply move my body? Undefeated.
Mentally
I’ve always been an avid reader, and this challenge forced me to pace myself and find another way to cope mentally. When I had the desire to pick up a book, I would maneuver to journaling, another analog activity that’s good for the mind. I even rediscovered my love for painting, especially guided painting. In doing analog activities, I inherently ended up spending less time on my phone, which was good for the stage of life I was in. Still, I did choose to do some reading, and I believe it helped me achieve my reading goal by June.
Emotionally
Boy oh boy, I love screaming into a pillow. It helped me get out so much tension and anger that I could feel building up internally. I started this challenge in a season where a lot of bad things happened, and screaming into a pillow was top tier therapeutic emotional release. Same goes for crying it out while taking a lengthy, relaxing shower. Saying five affirmations started off super hard for me, but over the months I completed the challenge, I started believing what I was saying. Genuinely, I started feeling better about myself and maintained a good self-esteem while it was being attacked. Speaking of being attacked, I maintained professionalism by listening to albums that brought me joy and kept me calm, kept the tears at bay.
Spiritually
Truly, I did not understand the power of meditation and intentional breathing until I did this challenge. So much tension left my shoulders, and if I started the day with meditation, it was game over for everybody. I was literally impenetrable. Now that I’ve completed the challenge (twice), I am still looking to incorporate a five minute meditation into my morning routine. Once I get settled into my new job, I’m sure I will have a good moment to meditate. Although, if I’m unable to meditate, simply taking a moment to do some deep breathing exercises has also worked wonders for helping me find and remain within myself. When I needed to remember exactly who I am, I called loved ones I trust; it was incredibly healing for my inner self but also improved those relationships, especially since everyone is at a physical distance.
Overall
Yes, there are two more categories in this challenge, and the finance category definitely helped me with investing and taking the reins on some mounting debt; you better believe I took myself on a couple of mini shopping sprees as well. However, the daily focus was on the four aforementioned categories.
The best thing to come out of this challenge is creating a daily routine that incorporates multiple things from the main four categories, and its helped me romanticize life a bit more. Physically, I have a weekly workout schedule, make sure I do some version of a walk/run, and sneak in a quick nap. Mentally, I have added reading in my daily morning routine, spend waaay less time without my phone, and have taken to journaling a lot more to cope with adult/being Black stressors. Emotionally, I’ve listened to more joyful music, say affirmations to myself almost daily, and am finding mechanisms to release emotions instead of holding them in. Spiritually, I make an effort to do a daily phone call with someone (still a work in progress) and stop to smell the roses whenever I’m outside.
Since starting this challenge before the time turned for spring, multiple people have told me I “glowed” despite what was happening with my career, and I give all of the credit to completing this challenge.
