A Bold 30 Day Challenge To Boost Employee Happiness

If you’re anything like me, you might be sitting at a desk working a 9-5 job—right in the gullet of Corporate America.

Also, if you’re like me, that can get old. Real quick. Not in a bad way… but doing the same thing all the time, every day, coming to the same desk, same people, aching lower back… it’s all the same. Know what I mean? It is what it is, but like… give me some draaamaaaa.

But I want to share with you something we do at Kinetix to keep things interesting around these parts that boosts employee morale, brings excitement, and is challenging. All at the same time. We love to keep our people on their toes.

We do a thing called “Xen-etix”—a clever little play on “zen” and “Kinetix”. HA!

Xen-etix is a monthly meeting that promotes positivity, happiness, wellness, perspective, etc.—it’s like a monthly wellness hour that covers different aspects in life, like (finance, health, mental health, goals, etc.)

And when we all get together it’s like the “work shields” come off, “humans” enter, and we exchange ideas, thoughts, questions, etc. Like—therapy, if you will.

Each month is a different topic—we’ve had:

• Finance month‚Äîhow to save money
• Fitness month‚Äîhow to achieve those healthy habits
• Goals month‚Äîhow to set smart and achievable goals
• Gardening
• Blogging + social media month

So for September, our theme is the 30 Day Challenge.

Sounds simple, right? It‚Äôs actually‚Ķ if I dare say, challenging. HA.

This is how the 30 Day Challenge works‚Äîyou choose a ‚Äúthing‚Äù you‚Äôre going to do for the next consecutive 30 days. We‚Äôre inspired by this here TED talk and the video goes into more detail about how it changed this guy‚Äôs life.

Here are some examples of what our team members are doing for their 30 Day Challenge:

• Using cash only‚Äîit‚Äôs proven you spend 30% less if you limit credit card use
• No cheese (sounds impossible to me, but do you.)
• Eat one healthy meal a day
• Wake up an hour early for ‚Äúme‚Äù time
• Train for a half-marathon
• Study 30min of a new language on duolingo.com
• Write on my personal wellness blog every day, mon-fri (this one is mine)
• Run every day
• Declutter email every day
• Call an old friend every day + rekindle friendships
• Cut back on caffeine and increase water consumption
• Yoga 3 times a week

We all message and support each other using Slack, too! It’s an awesome accountability system to help each other achieve our goals. This has been a fun process so far. Every day we ask our accountability partner if they’ve met their goal for the day, how they’re doing, how can we help, etc.

As mentioned, my goal is to write on my blog every day, Monday through Friday, for the next 30 days. I‚Äôm actually inspired by my boss who is an A-lister in the HR world (Kris Dunn‚Äîyou might not know him, but you‚Äôve definitely heard of him), and he writes on his personal blog every day and has done so for the past 7-8 years. I know. That‚Äôs a shmack ton of writing.

But I’m competitive and I want to see what can come from it. Not saying I’m going to be an overnight success after 30 days, but I know nothing bad can come from it. My boss says consistency with content is what sets apart the best from the rest.
So here I go. 

Why should you do the 30 Day Challenge at your company?

• It builds relationships between your employees
• It gives you and others the opportunity to learn more about each other
• Cultivates a culture of support and encouragement
• Gives employees a sense of purpose and something bigger than just what‚Äôs at their desk
• Encourages teams to make positive changes in their life‚Äîit can only make them a happier, healthier, and engaged employee‚Ķ right?

Considering people spend more time at work than they do at home, it’s important to create a culture of family, fun, and growth.

Start planning on introducing the 30 Day Challenge to your company to start October 1.

Your people will love you for it.