Life is one long list of challenges. From the moment we are born, we are challenged to learn new skills. We learn to crawl, to walk, we are educated and challenged to test our intelligence. We take part in recreational challenges in sport and games, and we are challenged to develop a career and earn a crust, supporting ourselves and our family. Well, getting older is no different. However, the need to constantly challenge ourselves becomes of greater importance as we look to improve our physical health, maintain our cognition, and prevent the need for future care by completing activities to support our future independence.
Challenge is a very personal thing. What one individual finds challenging, others will find simple. And what some may find simple, others will find more challenging. But the key thing is, challenge must be sought after and must be embraced. And that is because it is only through challenge that we will develop and improve the areas of our lives of which we are focusing on. For example, to improve our strength we cannot lift the same weight for the same amount of times without progressing over time, we need to challenge our muscles by lifting heavier weights (or using a stronger resistance band) or by doing more repetitions. Or to improve our general fitness, we must challenge our bodies and do more than we did before. In doing so our body adapts to the exercise and our fitness improves.
But challenge isn’t just a way to improve our physical health. It is also an excellent way to improve our psychological health and improve our life satisfaction. When we challenge ourselves we enhance the chance of making little improvements to our physical health and we feel good for having challenged ourselves a little more than we did last time. In doing so, we develop a sense of achievement, and it is these feelings which are so beneficial to our psychological health, improving our life satisfaction and our subjective well-being. Research highlights that those individuals who obtain a sense of achievement in their daily lives will positively contribute not only to their overall health, but will significantly enhance their chances of successful ageing (living in good physical, social and psychological health during senior years).
But the benefits of challenge do not end there. Through our developed feelings of achievement we are able to develop a new sense of pride. These feelings of pride stem from our ability to complete tasks and objectives despite our age, complete activities that others of a similar age may struggle with, and from our own sense of personal accomplishment. From these feelings of pride our self esteem strengthens and our outlook on life improves. We feel more positive about life, our fitness improves and our confidence develops, and it all started by that little challenge we set ourselves. But not all challenges are planned. There will be occasions where challenge finds us, and we need to push ourselves beyond what we thought possible to overcome what we have been faced with. It might be an injury, illness or something completely different, but like the saying, ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’, in conquering these unplanned challenges, we develop, we grow, and we become stronger for doing so. And although unplanned, conquering these challenges harbour similar benefits to those planned challenges.
So don’t be afraid to challenge yourself that little bit more. Walk a bit further, exercise a little bit more or just try to be more active in general. It could be the best thing you ever do.