I liked yesterday’s sprint challenge so I decided to do it again and end it with a cold shower. I don’t like sprinting, but now that I’m trying to feel discomfort, sprinting is great. What a simple way to find discomfort.
Challenges
Dash: Take a cold shower.
Shlomo: Ask for a free drink at 7-Eleven.
Shlomo’s Challenge: Ask For a Free Drink
My BFF Shlomo met me at 7-Eleven to do his challenge. He picked out a seltzer for me so I could hydrate for my sprint back. What a generous man!
Ukulele in hand, Shlomo asked the 7-Eleven cashier, “if I promise to enjoy this seltzer can I have it for free?”
The cashier answered yes. But after some discussion with his co-cashier the cashier realized he misunderstood and said no. Oh well!
What was uncomfortable about it: Shlomo felt comfortable asking the question. But he felt uncomfortable wondering how the patrons were judging him for needing to get a free seltzer.
Challenge: Cold Shower
Much like a 5 year old, I don’t like bathing at all. I can go a long time without it. Living in a van for three years further exacerbated this bad habit.
So throw cold water into the equation and the idea is very unpleasant to me.
After my sprint to and from 7-Eleven, I hopped in the shower.
To hype myself up I searched “cold shower” on the podcast app and played the first result, “Cold Showers” from The Art of Learning podcast with Daric Liebing.
The podcast talked about the many benefits of cold showering, but the one most interesting to me was the mental strength aspect. Mental strength is why I’m doing this whole discomfort challenge.
I started with room temperature water which wasn’t so bad. Then for last few minutes I turned the water all the way down to cold. I stayed out of the water mostly just rinsing my hair. CHEATER!
So finally I set my timer for 10 seconds, during which I fully submerged myself.
First on my back. It wasn’t so bad! Maybe because I was expecting and hoping for the discomfort in order to fulfill my challenge.
Then I turned around to wet my front side. For some reason this was unexpectedly shocking. My body did this involuntary jump which made me laugh.
The biggest problem with this challenge was it was one of the shortest showers I’ve ever taken and I didn’t come out very clean.
This is a problem as I already do whatever I can to avoid the heinousness that is bathing. If I continue this habit I’ll stick to hot water for the main event and then do a few seconds/minutes of cold at the end.
Much like sprinting, this was an easy way to feel physical discomfort, and probably easier for those of you who already regularly shower.
Join The Challenge
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