Rationale behind the 21 Day Challenge

A while ago I created a Facebook page and subsequently a page on my web site called "The 21 Day Challenge".  The main purpose of the challenge was to excercise for 21 days consecutively for a minimum of 1 hour per day.  I am now on my 3rd 21 Day Challenge and have seen some interesting things which I would like to share with you.

To answer the question posed in the title as to the rationale behind the challenge, it was NOT about the excercise!  The whole idea behind it was an experiment in human behavior.  I wanted to see how people would react to a challenge in general.  There were two distinct reactions:

The first group, which was by far in the majority, immediately threw an excuse at me, often without asking me about any details.  After giving me their excuse, they would begin to gather more information and only after some serious discussion would they even consider it.  I loosely termed this behaviour "safety netting".  The worrying aspect of this behaviour is that it becomes so automated that I can see how a great many people would miss out on opportunities in life simply because their automated way of being closes them off to opportunities and possibilities without the full understanding of those opportunities.

The second and very small group of people just automatically asked me how they can do it and how to take it on, based on the information I provided, they chose to do it or not!  Could there be a link between this kind of behaviour and how successful people are in life generally ?  I think there is......