Our Thursday challenge is the same as Monday: five sets of 15 squats, as gorgeous as you can make them, preferably in a place where squats make people stare. It’s getting easier, yes?

Yes!

Except maybe no.

Thursday is day 6 of our 92 days together. Your muscles are waking up and adapting to what’s being demanded of them. You’re a little sore, sure, but you can do 5 sets of 15 squats throughout the day and you know it. Physically, thing are getting easier. It’s mentally where things may be trending in the opposite direction right about now.

It’s Thursday, after all. You have work to do. TV to watch. Revolutions to plan. Not right now, you’re telling yourself – later, later, later – I’ll do the squats later…

As you may have come to suspect, this first 30-day squat/push-up challenge is designed to create in each of us a new habit: constant movement throughout the day. We want to start noticing all the times during the day when we can do some push-ups or squats and using those times to, well, do push-ups and squats. We want constant motion through the day to become your default. We’re trying to turn this into a habit, so it feels strange not to do 15 squats while waiting in the security line at the airport.

But here’s the thing about habits – when you’re trying to form new habits, the toughest days are days 6 to 21. These next stretch of days are when the old ways of doing things are going to leap up out of the muck and do their damnedest to drag you back to how things used to be. We’re entering Mordor, and the orcs are everywhere.

You’re not going to let your teammates get eaten by orcs, are you? Do you 5 sets of 15 squats and find a way to help someone else get theirs done too. Text, call, forcefully drag.

Let’s get this done, dear hobbits. Squat away!