Lockdown State of Mind with HEW

9th December 2020

.Helen Williams from Helping Entrepreneurs Win gives an update on her "Lockdown State of Mind" charity campaign in aid of the Sheffield Children's Hospital.

Saturday 31st October it was announced we were going back into Lockdown. The gyms were set to close and routines were going to have to change, AGAIN!

So I got to work on how to make this more palatable, with a challenge thrown in to create a little bit of edge to it!

  • 28 days
  • 5k a day
  • 140k total
  • 1 mind
  • All your support

This was my initial brief I drew up as I set an accountability goal for something I don’t even like doing... running.

But then I thought a little deeper into this and realised it would be totally selfish to keep this challenge to myself and knew that people around me could also enjoy getting involved and benefit from it too.

What I wanted to do is to create positive, inspirational waves.

Waves that give people hope, purpose, a realisation of their own strength and capability and then displaying it in a can do-will do attitude.

It’s been a tough year for everyone, some more than others, and we aren’t out of it yet.

This lockdown wasn’t going to take people down on my watch... we as individuals need to keep strong and resilient against the challenges we face now, and in future occurrences.

Here is a more accurate account of what happened:

  • 28 days
  • 5k a day
  • 98 amazing participants UK wide and International entries from Italy, Barcelona and Karachi in Pakistan
  • Collective total km unknown – North of 1000km easily, as individuals have been inspired to challenge themselves further and continue their activity levels.
  • £1539 raised for The Children's Hospital Charity *
    * This is just what I have been able to track. Further donations have headed directly in to the charity.

Just over half way through and the game plan had to change. I redefined the plan to include walking and biking to complete the daily 5k.

For two reasons, firstly, to be more inclusive and enable more people to take part. And secondly, I had my right knee strapped up after it was rather angry with me at 65km.
So my 5k a day commitment had at this point been slowed down into a walking pace.

I eventually was side-lined altogether for 5 days meaning I had a 25k deficit to catch back up on over the final weekend.

A question that was asked over the course of this challenge was ‘did the change of plan mean failure?’. Here was (and still is) my response - As with any goal in life or business, sometimes we hit road blocks which forces us to reassess how we reach the destination. A slower pace or a change in strategy isn't failure if the march continues. The only way to fail is to give up.

The personal messages I have received about how valuable it has been, how it’s constructed a positive purpose, kept people accountable, and inspired to do more and move more have been phenomenal.

It is safe to say the Lockdown State of Mind demonstrated what we are made of, especially here in Sheffield. The outcome was nothing but positive, active and carried an all round feel good factor about what you can achieve when you come together! 

 

Helen Williams

www.helpingentrepreneurswin.com

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