Well Being: Daily Challenge uses tiny tasks for self-improvement

Every morning about 7, Lou Perseghin hears a ding on his smartphone and receives an e-mail inviting him to accomplish a daily challenge designed to improve his health and well-being.

Some days the challenges may be physical, such as rising on your toes 10 times, or doing hip rolls, or flexing and stretching your fingers.

On other days, the challenges may be aimed at emotional well-being - compliment yourself; take a few minutes to imagine a place that's beautiful to you; view three photos of a happy time in your life; change the playlist for your walks and workouts.

Still other daily challenges promote better nutrition - add a salad to one of your meals; use skim milk instead of cream in your coffee; find a farmer's market in your area.

Or safety - check your smoke detector.

Some promote social well-being and engagement - encourage a woman you know to get a checkup; give high-fives to three coworkers; visit a website to learn more about volunteering.

Accompanying the challenge is an explanation of how and why to do it as well as a "fun fact."

"It's a mix of everything, and that's what makes it interesting," says Perseghin (pronounced PURSE-agin), 27, who recently began working as the social media coordinator in the admissions department at the University of the Arts.

"It's today, just this once, do this. You don't have to commit to it for a week. And it usually takes less than five to 10 minutes. So if you don't do it, it's because you've chosen not to."

The challenges are provided free by a Boston-based company called MeYou Health, which calls itself "the social well-being company."

The Daily Challenge (www.dailychallenge.com) includes elements of gaming and a reward system. By accomplishing challenges, you earn points and online stamps and keys that unlock more than 30 different premium tracks, such as Stress Relief, Fit at Work, Money Matters, and Rich Relationships. (The company makes money by offering these premium tracks to employers and health plans for a fee and then monitoring the ensuing well-being of participants.)

Like others who sign up, Perseghin has a personal profile that charts his progress, displays his stamps and shows how many points he's accumulated (91,132!).

He can describe how he tackled that day's challenge and share his achievement with family, friends and, if he chooses, the entire online community. That, in turn, may prompt comments, suggestions, tips, virtual smiles, and pats on the back.

"We're leveraging social connection theory," says Christine Fiske, head of marketing for MeYou Health, which is a subsidiary of Healthways, a disease-management company based in Nashville. "Essentially, we're all connected, and your habits affect my habits."

If you're trying to lose weight, for example, or you're about to make a significant change, "there's a whole community you can rely on for help," Perseghin says.

By enlisting in a community, you're enlisting the encouragement of others as well as the motivation that derives from virtual peer pressure. Perseghin, for one, appreciates the friendly, gentle, nonjudgmental tone of the challenges.

"They're not necessarily asking you to change what you're doing, but to augment what you're doing," he says. "They're getting you to think about things you can do to make your life better without chastising you about it or being overbearing."

The social aspect of the Daily Challenge "creates a rich discussion" about methods and benefits, Fiske says. No one checks, of course, whether you've really completed the challenge. It's all based on self-reporting, a sort of honor system.

"Even if you don't do it, we're still creating a moment of mindfulness," Fiske says, "and that's almost as important as doing the act itself. In the behavior-change process, that is a very meaningful act, just begin mindful."

A pillar of the company's philosophy is that small actions are more effective in fostering long-term behavior change than big goals, a notion rooted in the research of social scientists such as B.J. Fogg at Stanford.

It's a stance that's particularly timely because MeYou Health is resolutely opposed to New Year's resolutions. In fact, it has created a website (www.antiresolution.com) that encourages folks to pledge not to make resolutions.

"Stop the cycle of shame," the website declares. "Eighty-eight percent of resolutions fail."

Most resolutions are too ambitious and unrealistic, the website continues. "Instead of making a huge year-long goal, we believe in the power of small daily actions."

Hence, the Daily Challenge.

Nearly 200,000 people around the world are participating in the Daily Challenge, mostly in the United States, Fiske reports, and Perseghin is among only a handful who have completed the daily tasks every day for more than a year.

"It's become an automatic part of my life," he says.

Perseghin calls the challenges "little pieces of wisdom that will help me not only today but in the future."

"It's just made me more aware of how small things can really add up, so that I focus on them instead of the big picture," he says. "I haven't used it to lose weight or anything like that. It's more of a changing mindset that little stuff can come together to make a big difference."

Plus, he says, "they're fun."