The POWER OF THE THREE-MONTH CHALLENGE
If you’ve ever set a goal, made a plan, and then had life get in the way until you give up… you’re not alone. As working moms, we juggle careers, kids, relationships, health, and the never‑ending list of “shoulds.” It’s no wonder we often feel overwhelmed before we even begin.
Inside the For More of What Matters coaching program, we use a simple but powerful tool to break that cycle: challenges. You may already be familiar with our 30‑day habit challenges — one month of focusing on a single small change until it becomes automatic. These challenges build momentum because once something becomes a habit, it stops draining your energy and starts fueling your next step.
But today, I want to talk about something bigger. Something deeper. Something that helps you build the skill of following through:
The Three‑Month Challenge
A three‑month challenge isn’t just a longer version of a 30‑day habit-building challenge. It’s a commitment to a bigger plan — one that includes multiple habits, multiple steps, and multiple opportunities to grow.
And here’s the key: This challenge is not about perfection. It’s about learning to follow through even when things get messy.
Why Three Months?
Because 90 days gives you enough time to:
Run into obstacles
Watch yourself struggle
Learn what gets in your way
Adjust your plan
Try again
And keep going
In a 30‑day challenge, you don’t always get the full cycle of plan → fail → adjust → succeed. But in a three‑month challenge? You do. And that’s where the real transformation happens.
Achieving The Goal Isn’t Actually the Goal
This might surprise you: The purpose of a three‑month challenge isn’t necessarily to achieve the goal.
It’s to become the person who can follow through on a plan.
When you commit to 90 days — knowing you won’t do it perfectly — you give yourself the gifts of:
Honesty
Awareness
Resilience
Skill‑building
Momentum
And that momentum carries into every area of your life.
Weekly Check‑Ins: The Secret Ingredient
One of the most important parts of a three‑month challenge is a weekly check‑in. This is where you look at:
What you planned
What you actually did
Where you followed through
Where you didn’t
What thoughts pulled you off track
What adjustments you need next week
This is where coaching becomes incredibly powerful. When you bring your “I didn’t follow through” moments to a coaching call, we can uncover the thoughts that are getting in your way — the ones you don’t even realize are running the show.
My Current Three‑Month Challenge: Calendaring
Right now, my personal three‑month challenge is focused entirely on calendaring — or what my business coach (Sam Laura Brown, founder of Perfectionists Getting Shit Done) calls Power Planning.
Instead of working from a to‑do list, I schedule everything into my calendar. Then I use my calendar as a living document throughout the day, making small adjustments and notes so that at the end of the week, I have a clear record of:
What I planned
What I did
Where I followed through
Where I didn’t
And why
This gives me the data I need to make a better plan the next week. It’s clean tracking. Clean measurement. Honest evaluation.
Why Calendaring?
Because over the last six months, I noticed a pattern: I wasn’t following through with my plans.
I kept thinking:
“I’m trying to do too much.” “I’m overwhelmed.” “There’s not enough time.”
And those thoughts were exhausting me — not the actual tasks. My coach helped me see that I didn’t have a time problem. I had a thinking problem.
Calendaring gives me the structure to follow through and the visibility to see where my thoughts are getting in the way.
What My Three‑Month Challenge Includes
Calendaring is the foundation, but here’s what I’m actually planning for and working toward:
1. Weight Loss Phase
Hitting my calorie target daily
Staying in a calorie deficit
Keeping activity high: 10,000 steps + ~750 active calories burned (based on my Oura Ring baseline)
2. Build Business Momentum
Recording and publishing 10 podcast episodes each month
Showing up more boldly and honestly
Letting people see the real process — the wins and the messy middle
3. Everything Else That Matters
Because I’m not just building a business or working on fitness. I’m also:
A full‑time financial analyst
A mom of four
A wife
A homemaker
A coach
A woman building systems to support a full, meaningful life
Calendaring helps me make space for all of it — without drowning in overwhelm.
The Messy Middle: The Part We All Want to Skip
There’s a moment in every goal where things feel awkward, uncomfortable, or downright discouraging. You show up for the workout and feel lost. You try to track your food and realize you’ve been underestimating everything. You sit down to work on your business and your brain suddenly insists you have nothing valuable to say.
This is the part most people interpret as failure. But it’s actually the part that matters most.
The messy middle is where you build the skill of following through.
It’s where you learn:
How to show up even when you feel unsure
How to keep going even when it’s not pretty
How to adjust instead of abandon
How to trust yourself to figure things out
Sometimes the most important thing you can do is simply show up and let it look however it’s going to look. The awkward workout still counts. The imperfect podcast episode still moves your business forward. The messy attempt still teaches you something you couldn’t have learned any other way.
We want the polished version of ourselves — the one who knows exactly what to do and does it flawlessly. But the polished version only exists because the messy version kept going.
And that is exactly what a three‑month challenge teaches you: Don’t quit when it gets uncomfortable. That’s where the growth is happening.
Why You Should Try a Three‑Month Challenge
Because it gives you:
A clear plan
A long enough runway to learn
Space to fail without quitting
Weekly opportunities to adjust
A deeper understanding of your thoughts
Momentum that compounds
A sense of capability you can’t get from perfectionism
You don’t need to do it perfectly. You just need to not give up.
Ready to Create Your Own Three‑Month Challenge?
If this resonates with you — if you’re tired of feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure how to follow through — I’d love to support you inside the For More of What Matters group coaching program.
You’ll get:
Step‑by‑step guidance
A plan you can actually follow
Weekly coaching
A community of moms doing this work right alongside you
You don’t have to do this alone.
Leave a comment, shoot me a DM, and send me all of your thoughts and questions about starting your own three-month challenge!
If you found this helpful, you’re going to want to join us in the For More Of What Matters group coaching program.
Inside the program, you'll have step-by-step guidance of making plans and actually following through with them to reach all of your goals, and you'll have the added support of working with me as your coach and accomplishing your goals alongside other busy moms who are facing the same challenges that you are. You can join us in the For More Of What Matters group coaching program on Patreon, or follow me on Instagram @andrea.wieneke to learn more.
If you’ve ever set a goal, made a plan, and then had life get in the way until you give up… you’re not alone. As working moms, we juggle careers, kids, relationships, health, and the never‑ending list of “shoulds.” It’s no wonder we often feel overwhelmed before we even begin.
Inside the For More of What Matters coaching program, we use a simple but powerful tool to break that cycle: challenges. You may already be familiar with our 30‑day habit challenges — one month of focusing on a single small change until it becomes automatic. These challenges build momentum because once something becomes a habit, it stops draining your energy and starts fueling your next step.
But today, I want to talk about something bigger. Something deeper. Something that helps you build the skill of following through:
the three month challenge.