What's Next for TheChallenge.Org? A Year in Review and Our Future Plans

As we wrap up our latest challenge—the December Gratitude Challenge—we're filled with gratitude ourselves. This year has been nothing short of extraordinary, and it happened because of you. Over 100,000 people from around the world joined us in exploring what happens when we commit to daily habits that truly matter.

With 12 challenges completed in 2025, we're ready to share what we've learned, celebrate the incredible impact we've created together, and reveal what's next for TheChallenge.Org.

The first year was a blast, and you made it happen! Here are some remarkable statistics about the impact we brought together in 2025:

101,189 People Signed Up: Over one hundred thousand people from around the world joined us for at least one challenge. Our global community spanned continents, with the biggest participation coming from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Netherlands, France, and Germany—in that order.

10 Ultimate Challenge Champions: We want to give a special shout-out to the 10 incredible individuals who completed at least 10 different challenges throughout the year. Congratulations! We are extremely impressed by your commitment to trying new things and pushing your boundaries month after month.

The Biggest Challenge: The December Gratitude Challenge took the crown with 17,360 people joining to journal daily. A close second was the April Meditation Challenge with 15,674 participants—both proving that people are hungry for practices that nurture mental well-being.

Beyond the participation numbers, the real magic was in what we discovered about sustainable habit change:

1,228 People Quit Alcohol for Good: Through the Sober October Challenge, over one thousand people expressed their intention to continue the practice after the challenge ended—effectively choosing to quit alcohol altogether. This represents life-changing transformation for over a thousand individuals and their families.

The Best Way to Stop Doomscrolling: Based on our data, the most effective way to limit mindless scrolling on digital devices is surprisingly simple: read around 20 pages of a book daily. The November Readathon Challenge was dramatically more successful at reducing phone use than even the Digital Detox Challenge. The key insight? The way to limit phone use isn't just restriction—it's finding something better to do.

The Biggest Physical & Mental Health Impact: The January Ice Challenge delivered the most dramatic improvements across both physical and mental health metrics. However, it's also extremely difficult to do daily, and we believe an ice bath every 2-3 days would likely bring similar results with better sustainability.

The Winner: Best Impact-to-Difficulty Ratio: And the champion of 2025 challenges for bringing the biggest impact on physical and mental health relative to its difficulty? The February Yoga Challenge—and nothing else even came close! Just 15 minutes of daily yoga is easy, pleasant, has free materials available everywhere, and delivers top scores across all physical and mental health metrics. So if you only have 15 minutes per day to take care of your wellbeing, start doing yoga daily and feel the difference!

After an incredible year of running 12 consecutive monthly challenges, TheChallenge.Org will now be entering a new phase. We're pausing new challenges for a while to transition into a mode focused on spreading the scientific learnings from our 12 past challenges with the world.

From Participation to Education: The website will evolve to refocus on the results and impact we've discovered. We want to make this knowledge available to as many people as possible, completely free of charge.

Why This Matters: We've collected data from over 100,000 real people doing real challenges. This isn't theory—it's evidence from everyday individuals discovering what works and what doesn't. These insights deserve to be shared widely so everyone can benefit from our collective learning.

What You Can Expect: In the coming months, we'll be:

• Publishing comprehensive study results and analysis from all 12 challenges
• Creating easy-to-understand resources about which habits deliver the best results
• Developing practical guides based on what actually worked for real participants
• Making all our findings freely available to researchers, health professionals, and individuals
• Potentially partnering with organizations to spread these evidence-based practices

We are deeply grateful for each and every one of you who took on at least one challenge this year. You didn't just participate—you contributed to a body of knowledge that will help countless others make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing.

You showed up. You tried new things. You shared your experiences. You inspired others. And together, we've created something truly special: a community-driven exploration of what it means to live well in the modern world.

Whether you completed one challenge or ten, whether you stuck with it for the full month or learned something valuable by trying, your participation mattered. Every data point helps us understand what works, what doesn't, and how we can help people live healthier, happier lives.

While we're pausing new monthly challenges, this isn't goodbye—it's a new chapter. We'll continue to share insights, publish findings, and create resources based on everything we've learned together.

If you want to stay updated on our research publications, new resources, and any future developments, make sure you're subscribed to our newsletter and following us on social media. The best discoveries from 2025 are still being analyzed, and we can't wait to share them with you.

Here's to a year of bold experiments, unexpected discoveries, and the courage to try new things. Thank you for being part of this incredible journey.

With gratitude,
The TheChallenge.Org Team

Based on our 2025 data, here are the most impactful habits you can start right now:

Best Overall: 15 minutes of daily yoga (easiest, most effective)

For Mental Clarity: Read 20+ pages daily (beats doomscrolling)

For Sleep: Daily meditation or reading before bed

For Physical Health: Ice baths 2-3x per week or daily walking

For Emotional Wellbeing: Daily gratitude journaling

You don't need to do everything—just pick one and start. That's what we learned from 101,189 people: consistency in one habit beats perfection in none.