The Direction Checkpoint Exercise That Changed My Life
Adapted from Dan Koe. Softened for ADHD and sensitive nervous systems. Still tells the truth.
Today’s the day. 60 Real starts now.
If you missed it, you can read the full post HERE:
I Love Extreme Challenges. Here's Why I Changed the Rules
A new section of Not Your Average Athlete. If it’s not for you, skip it — no hard feelings.
My version of 75 Hard, made for people who can’t stand the thought of such an extreme challenge without spiraling into self-loathing. Adaptable but challenging. Accountability with acceptance built in.
This is the Day 1 tool for the Career & Life Direction pillar — a future-cast exercise inspired by and adapted from Dan Koe’s “how to fix your entire life in one day” post.
You don’t have to do 60 Real to use this exercise: it helps either way.
I actually did this one myself last week, and honestly, it’s what inspired me to build this whole challenge.
Dan Koe’s writing has shaped a lot of how I think over the years; his “anti-vision” teaching changed how I think about life and purpose almost as much as a rabies scare did, (that’s a story for another day).
I’m not going to hand you my exact answers — this only works if the truth that comes up is actually yours, not a version of mine.
But I’ll say this much: all of these questions came back to my diet, exercise, and body. I zoomed out and realized that continuing to bake cookies (and eat them) wasn’t going to help me with my future goals of returning to competition, renewing my personal trainer certification, or help me be happier long-term.
And imagining what someone would guess I want based on my actions, not what I said I wanted, hit especially hard.
I said I wanted to get fit again, lose the extra 30 pounds I’d accumulated in the last three years, and feel better about myself and my athletic capabilities. Yet I ate chocolate every day, didn’t train as consistently as I should have, and ended every gym date with a cappuccino.
None of these were getting me closer to my goals, no matter how much I said I wanted them. My actions had to start matching up.
I still think about that whenever I start letting myself off the hook, to be honest.
Seeing yourself as others would see you, through actions alone, is a bit creepy but also really powerful.
So if you’re in, today’s ask is simple: log your first move, hold your one rule, and try the checkpoint below if you want the full Day 1 experience. Comment below for added accountability!
Use the below exercise on Day 1, Day 30, and Day 60 of 60 Real.
A Note Before You Start
The original version of this exercise is designed to hurt a little on purpose — it’s built on discomfort as the mechanism. That works for some people. For a lot of us, that same discomfort tips into shame, and shame doesn’t produce clarity. It produces shutdown, or a shame spiral, or a decision to close the notebook and never come back to it.
So this version keeps the honesty and drops the interrogation.
A few ground rules:
Type, talk, or write it out — whatever gets it out of your head. Voice memo to yourself counts.
Skip a question if it’s not landing. Come back to it later, or not at all. This isn’t a test with a passing score.
If a question makes you spiral instead of think, stop. That’s not weakness, that’s data — it means today isn’t the day for that particular question.
Set a timer if that helps you start. Not to rush you — to give you a container.
Morning: Naming What’s Actually True
Fifteen to twenty minutes, first thing, before your phone gets its hooks in you.
What’s the low-grade dissatisfaction you’ve just learned to live with? Not the big obvious stuff — the thing you’ve stopped noticing because you’re used to it.
What do you find yourself complaining about, over and over, without ever actually changing it? Name the one or two you hear yourself say most.
If someone watched what you do — not what you say — what would they guess you actually want?
Cast five years ahead, if nothing here changes. What does an ordinary Tuesday look like? Where do you wake up, what’s the first thought, how do you feel by the end of the day?
Now cast further — is there someone already living further down this same road? What comes up when you think about becoming them?
If you did become that person, what would you have quietly given up along the way to get there?
Then flip it:
Forget what’s realistic for a second. If you could just be living a different life three years from now, what does that ordinary Tuesday look like instead?
What would you need to believe about yourself for that life to feel like yours, not like a performance?
What’s one small thing this week that person would just... do?
During the Day: A Few Interruptions, Not a Barrage
The original version schedules random check-ins all day long.
For a lot of us, that many interruptions becomes its own source of overwhelm — so this version is three, not nine. Set them as calendar reminders, spaced out, ideally during a commute, a walk, or downtime — not stacked back-to-back with tasks.
Midday: What am I avoiding right now by staying busy with something else?
Late afternoon: Am I moving toward the life I actually want today, or just away from discomfort?
Evening (before the synthesis below): What did I do today because it felt genuinely mine — and what did I do because it’s just what I always do?
Evening: Bringing It Together
Ten to fifteen minutes, whenever the day’s winding down.
What feels most true right now about why you’ve been stuck?
Name the actual thing in the way. Not a person, not your circumstances — the pattern or belief that keeps steering.
Write one sentence for what you’re done letting your life be. It doesn’t have to be polished. It should feel true when you read it back.
Write one sentence for what you’re building toward — knowing it’ll change, and that’s fine.
Then, instead of setting a goal, set a lens:
One year out: what’s the one concrete thing that would tell you the old pattern actually broke?
One month out: what would need to be true for that year-mark to still be possible?
Tomorrow: two or three specific things you’ll actually put on the calendar — the kind of thing the person you’re becoming would just do, without a whole negotiation first.
How This Fits Into 60 Real
This is the Career & Life Direction checkpoint — Day 1, Day 30, Day 60.
You’re not doing all of it three separate times from scratch; Day 30 and Day 60 mostly mean revisiting what you wrote and being honest about what moved and what’s still stuck.
The point isn’t the exercise itself.
It’s the comparison — what Day 1’s answers looked like next to Day 60’s.
That gap is the actual proof you’ve changed.
What came up for you if you did this exercise? Which question hit hardest? Lmk in the comments.