[This post is part of a series on the Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activity (SIDCHA). If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.]

New Years Day conjures thoughts of resolutions. Here is a list of SIDCHAs that work for many people.

Please share other ideas I haven’t thought of — ones you’ve done, heard of others doing, thought of but haven’t done, or whatever. I’ll keep adding to it.

1. Burpees
2. Meditation
3. Biking
4. Yoga
5. Lifting weights
6. Running
7. Cross-fit
8. Writing
9. Cooking a better meal than you have to
10. Cold showers
11. Taking classes
12. Dancing (so you break a sweat)
13. Singing (so others hear you)
14. Acting (so others see you)
15. Swimming (if you have easy access to a pool so you can do it daily)
16. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator (more than five flights)
17. Practicing social skills
18. Taking care of children
19. Many hobbies (challenging ones)
20. Push-ups
21. Pull-ups
22. Public speaking

Reader contributions

1. Eating no added sugar (I would hope people could easily not adding sugar — just don’t add sugar! — but I can see how it could be difficult if you haven’t done it before if you aren’t used to reading ingredients or if you have intense coffee habits. So for some people I could see it a SIDCHA that I would hope would stop being challenging.)
2. Write ten ideas every day (a former client told me he got it from James Altucher’s post “How to Have GREAT Ideas” … It looks like he has several other SIDCHAs, as described in this post “How to be THE LUCKIEST GUY ON THE PLANET in 4 Easy Steps“.)
3. From another reader: “My SIDCHA list has grown to 3 AM activities: 15 burpees, 5 cycles of a sun salutation, and deep knee bends (funny one here: my Aunt was visiting and saw me use my arms to arise from kneeling and she said “you are too young to do that” so I now make a point of not using my upper body to rise and I am trying to strengthen my legs).”

Poor SIDCHAs

I wouldn’t count the following as SIDCHAs. They may be valuable for other reasons, but they don’t give what SIDCHAs do. You could combine ones you can’t do daily into a series — like swim Monday, Wednesday, Friday; rock climb weekends, and lift weights Tuesday and Thursday.

• Your job (not self-imposed)
• Brushing your teeth (not challenging)
• Rock climbing (unless you can do it daily)
• Playing video games (not challenging)
• Reading (not challenging)
• Walking the dog (not challenging)
• Watching TV (not challenging)
• Talking to friends (not challenging)

• ← An inspirational SIDCHA video
• The Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activity (SIDCHA) series →