The Benefits of Joining a MyLife Challenge
We all know how hard it can be to commit to something new – be it a class, gym membership or Couch to 5k. Making sustainable fitness and lifestyle changes is challenging for a whole host of reasons – we lead busy lives, often juggling work and family life. This makes it hard to find time to prioritise our health - in fact, research has found that only 20% of us are successful at maintaining weight loss long-term.
The MyLife App
To effectively change behaviour, we need three factors to be present; motivation, capability and opportunity. And that’s where the Irish Life MyLife app comes in. This handy tool allows you to take part in fun challenges at a time that suits. What’s more, it’s easy to use and packed with helpful health tips and insights from our AI coach. Once registered on MyLife, you'll better understand your health and fitness level through your unique scientifically calculated 'Health Score'. This can be tracked and improved in real-time, and MyLife has a range of great challenge activities to keep you motivated. But don’t take our word for it... we recently surveyed our MyLife users, and here’s what they told us in terms of the benefits of joining a challenge.
1. You'll Feel Motivated to Move
The users we spoke to join challenges to get active, and their activity levels pre and post challenge increase significantly, from an average of 0-3 days per week up to 4-7 days. This helps them improve their MyLife health score and earn points, inspiring them to keep going. Challenges include 5 and 10km runs supporting the Irish Life Dublin Race Series, WorkLife Fitness (bringing organisations nationwide together in an intercompany activity challenge), and an upcoming Alzheimer’s Memory Walk.
2. You'll be Accountable
The app is community-led, so you’ll feel encouraged to get involved! Challenge activations create accountability and a social contract between our members. Once you’ve committed to a MyLife challenge, you’re less likely to pull out.
ESC22 Niall Moyna from Irish Life Health Wellbeing on Vimeo.
3. Increased Social Wellbeing
Our users also reported that MyLife challenges help them feel connected to their communities, whether that’s through work, their local GAA club, Pride, or marathon training. As well as that, we’re delighted to hear that they experienced an improved overall satisfaction with their quality of life.
4. You'll Reap Rewards!
While taking part in challenges, users earn points that can be redeemed against rewards supporting their health and wellbeing. Each challenge also has a prize draw (eg. Fitbit, Nike Gift Cards, Ireland’s Blue Book Voucher). Challenges like GAA Healthy Clubs, WorkLife Fitness and Step It to Stonewall also help to raise funds and awareness of GAA clubs / nominated charity organisations nationwide.
5. It's on Your Terms
You can take part in MyLife challenges wherever suits you. So even if you complete a solo 5km run around your neighbourhood, your stats will be uploaded to the app and you’ll see your progress on the MyLife leader board. And it obviously works - 99% of our survey respondents report they would like to take part in a challenge again!
Interested? Click here to download the app. Whether you're training for the Irish Life Dublin Marathon, or simply want to increase your fitness, there’s a challenge to suit!
*MyLife is provided by Irish Life Financial Services & is not a regulated financial service.