Create your mission on our planning map. If you want, you can set your mission up as a fundraiser for a charity or your own cause or you can elect not to fundraise with your mission at all.
Then just go out and do your usual exercise such as walking, running, swimming, cycling or whatever and log each of your distances into your mission page or smartphone app.
Your progress along your mission path will be updated and you'll get to see just how far you've gone and how far you've got to go.
You'll be obsessing about exercising in no time!
Your mission can be anything you want. From a lap around your city to a full traverse across the country. You are only limited by your imagination.
Remember, you wont actually be packing your bags and heading off for a few months on your mission!
Instead, your regular exercise sessions such as in the pool or on a treadmill, running, cycling etc will be added together and count towards the total distance of your mission.
If you want to, you can dedicate your mission to one of our pre approved charity/causes and accept sponsorships from your friends and family as you progress along your mision path. Or you can easily set up your own fundraising cause to raise funds for! Check out our fundraising page for more details
Once you have set up your mission, you then go out and do your regular, distance based exercise such as walking, running, cycling, going on the treadmill, swimming laps at the pool or whatever type of exercise you're into.
After each exercise session you enter the distance you just completed into your mission page via either the website or the My Virtual Mission smart phone app and you will see your position along your mission path update towards your finish line.
If you happen to be positioned on a road, then you can check out your virtual surroundings on Google Street View!
Having a visual representation of how far you have exercised helps keep you focused and motivated.
Imagine getting up in the morning and thinking "I really want to exercise today so I can get in to Timbuktu by the end of the week" Well that’s exactly the kind of thing you'll be saying to yourself!
Read more about why it works below.
Is your regular day to day exercise very inspiring? ... probably not, right?
Well it can be. When you set up a mission on My Virtual Mission you're heading off on an inspiring journey that lets your see progress after every exercise session.
You can casually drop in conversation with your friends that you're walking across the country and (optionally) raising funds for charity or your own cause along the way.
Not only will you be inspiring others to do something equally as impressive, you'll be inspiring yourself to keep going towards your mission destination.
You may have seen or heard about the reality TV series called "Biggest Loser". The contestants start the show in a very overweight state, the majority have tried and tried to lose the weight but have failed.
So how do these people suddenly find the motivation to lose hundreds of pounds?
Accountability...that's how.
The contestants suddenly add in external accountability to their exercise. They become accountable to their trainers, team mates, family and friends as well as to a global audience. Whether you want to lose some weight or not, the take home lesson here is that it is often easier to let yourself down than it is to let other people down.
By starting your mission with My Virtual Mission you are ensuring that you become accountable to others, which is a good thing!
There are no shortage of fitness gurus that will tell you that having a SMART goal is really important.
Your mission is instantly a SMART goal because it is:
| Specific | e.g. "My mission is to cycle the distance from my house to the other side of the country" |
| Measureable | e.g. "which is a distance of 1,200 miles/Km" |
| Achievable | e.g. "if I cycle 20 miles/Km, 3 times per week for the next 20 weeks then I can complete my mission" |
| Realistic | e.g. "while it will be challenging, it is realistic that I will be able to do this" |
| Timely | e.g. "my goal is to complete my mission within 20 weeks" |
When you create a mission you are actually also creating a SMART goal. This will help you maintain focus and motivation in order to stick with your exercise program and reach your mission target.
After all that heavy talk its important to realize that doing a mission is also great fun and adds another dimension to your exercise sessions. Start your mission today!