297 - 4 Reasons You Should Consider Doing the Contentment Challenge
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Show Notes:
You may have heard of my Contentment Challenge where I give up shopping for anything extra in my life for three months straight. Today’s episode, I want to challenge and encourage you with four reasons you might consider doing the Contentment Challenge in 2026.
For the full episode, hit play above or read through below.
Much of our daily lives can be divided into two categories; work and play. Simply put, that is where our life and our legacy take place. This is a podcast all about learning to work and play well, which leads to a healthy soul and a fulfilling life. Let's dive in.
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I often think about work and play (the title of my podcast) when I'm creating episodes and I always want to make sure that it ties into the title of the podcast in some regard. Sometimes I'll just kind of go off on a limb and just, you know, talk about what I want to talk about. But I was thinking about the Contentment Challenge and how that relates to work and play in life. If you're not familiar with my contentment challenge, you can go all the way back, almost 300 episodes ago, I think it was my third episode I ever made and you can listen to my story on the Contentment Challenge and how God put it on my heart to give up shopping for three months straight after we became completely debt free, which is so funny. Like we had paid off our house and everything and I felt this kind of draw from the Holy Spirit to give up shopping when I didn't need to. Like when I felt like I had earned a pass to buy whatever I want, that was when the Lord was like, “Hey, you're actually wrong about thinking that buying whatever you want will bring you happiness. I'm really the source of joy and true happiness in life.”
So I went on this kind of fast or journey with the Lord and I called it the Contentment Challenge. I blogged about it for three months and I didn't shop. I didn't buy anything extra. I didn't buy any clothes or household decor. I mean, I of course bought groceries and gas and the things that we need in life. It was a wild ride and it impacted me so deeply; so much that I have continued to do it once a year for the last fourteen years, give or take a couple of years. A couple years in there, we moved, had babies, it looked different, but I have found it so beneficial for my heart and my life that I keep coming back to it. It's like a rhythm of my life now, which is crazy because I intended it fully to be one and done. I did not want to go back and do that again, but the rewards, the benefits of it outweighed the cost, for sure.
Which is why I wanted to share this episode with you. The four reasons why you might consider doing a Contentment Challenge next year. As I was thinking about work and play and the Contentment Challenge and how that kind of ties together… number one, I think about work. I think about how the Contentment Challenge is a form of work. You have to get resourceful. You have to look at the way that you are doing life with a scrutinizing eye, looking at your heart and your mind and your spending habits and in a way that's emotional work and spiritual work. It also just kind of makes you stop and ask yourself, “Why do we work? Why are we out there hustling and earning money? What's the point of that? Is it so that we can just buy more stuff and get more stuff all the time and fill our houses with more stuff that we have to then clean out?” That's really not a way to live. So it causes you to stop and think, “What's the point of our work? What are we doing with the work of our hands?” That question that I'm thinking about is directly related to earning money and what we are doing with our money. But even for those listening who aren't earning an income, what are you doing with the work of your life in your home and are you content with that? Are you content with that work? It really does speak to work on a lot of different levels.
Then you think about play. I remember so clearly the first time I did a Contentment Challenge, I replaced what I thought was play. Shopping, perusing the aisles of Target, or going to the sale room at Anthropologie. Those are things I did often the first time I did this. I replaced that with true play, like soul enriching life-giving play. I remember I went on bike rides in the summertime. I finished more books than I ever had. I picked up a hobby. I think that I started... what did I start doing? Sewing something? Gosh, it was so long ago. Oh I ran a half marathon too. I remember really being into running at the time of my first one.
Every time I've done it since, I have really honed in on what are the things that bring me joy that are fun and playful that don't cost me any money. The fruit of asking that question has been really good for me. Really healthy and good for my life. So that's just some food for thought before I jump into this episode. Like, what is the work in play of the Contentment Challenge? And I think that it really benefits your work and really benefits your play in a lot of ways that you don't know will happen. It has for me again and again and again. So go back and listen to episode three of Work and Play with Nancy Ray if you want to hear the full story of the Contentment Challenge.
For today, I'm just going to encourage you with where I'm at, which is I've been doing this for fourteen years now, I think. Somewhere around there. I've done it without kids. I've done it with kids. Sometimes with my Contentment Challenge, I've actually included my kids in it. Like I wouldn't buy any new kids' clothes during that time and that would take a lot of planning ahead. Sometimes I didn't include the kids at all. I would still buy whatever I needed for them, but it would just be for me. You can make it what you want. It doesn't matter. There's no hard and fast rules. As a principal, it's a fast. It's a fast from materialism. It's a fast from shopping. It's a fast from clutter. It's a fast from things. It's a fast from trendiness. It is a giving up of the normal American spending habit, where you see something that you want and you just get it. You add it to that Amazon cart. You solve that problem in your life with something that you buy. You stay up with the trend by getting that cute new pair of jeans or a new bathing suit for the summer, whatever. You fill in the blank.
This is kind of a freeze in your spending and your life to say “I'm not going to do that for a few months. Instead, I'm going to look at the walls of my home and say a declaration that I have enough. I actually have more than enough to get me through for three months and I'm going to focus my heart and my mind on my relationship with God, my relationship with people and experiences that I can have.” So let's jump into four reasons you might consider doing your own Contentment Challenge.
1) It’s a practical way to say “no” to the culture of consumerism
Number one, it really is a physical way; an action that you can take in your own life to stand in the face of our culture of consumerism and say, “I'm not going to do that for a little while. I'm going to take a stand and say that what I really need is not that thing that was recommended to me on Instagram. It's not a new top that is with the latest trend. It's not the newest skincare. What I need is more of Jesus and His voice and His presence in my home and in my heart. That is what I need.”
When you pair that prayer with the action of not buying anything for a short amount of time, there's fruit. I just want to tell you there's fruit in that. You are swimming upstream in a very materialistic driven culture, and it's very rewarding.
2) It will save you money
Number two, this one is obvious. It will save you money. Doing the Contentment Challenge has always been good for the Ray household budget because if I'm honest, I'm the one who does most of the spending in our house/all the spending. I mean, not all, but you know what I mean? Like Will, he doesn't like to shop. He doesn't like to spend. He's not the one seeing the constant churning of things that we need in the house either. I've got the eye for not only my wardrobe and my kids' clothing, but home. My home decor that I want to swap out every season or some new containers that I need to organize the kids' closet or playroom or whatever, or the new pillows on the couch that need to be replaced. Like he's not looking for those things. I am. So I'm always kind of in maintenance mode and handling the household stuff, the clothing, etc. It is very good on our budget and on the Ray household finances when I just stop for a little while.
It's not just good for, you know, not spending. It's good for me and my understanding that I don't need to spend as much as I think that I do. That's really what it's good for. That has a positive effect on our budget the rest of the year when I am still spending money more on a regular basis with needs. I just realized when I do the Contentment Challenge, every single time, I realize I don't actually need the things that I think that I need and that is healthy and good.
3) It will challenge your personal growth (self-discipline)
Number three, it can be this motivation for you to better yourself and it can sharpen you as a person. It can fine tune the ways that you are resourceful. It truly will make you a more content person. I can say that because it has for me. You train your eye to see all that you have. You actually realize you have more than enough. Like truly, you realize, I don't need to buy anything else. I have more than I need. You know, it's funny. This weird thing happens every time I do the Contentment Challenge. I end up getting rid of more stuff when I'm on the Contentment Challenge than I do the rest of the year. It's like it encourages me to clean stuff out.
But back to the personal growth, I don't know if you've heard of this. I heard of this recently. Lindsey Bomgren from Nourish Move Love. I love her workouts. She wrote something on her website with one of her workout programs that you could join about the Winter Arc. Have you heard of this? I had never heard of it until she posted about it. It's like a Gen Z thing, okay? They used to call it Winter Arc. Now they're calling it the Great Lock In Challenge. It's basically like a 12-week period from October 1st to December 31st saying, don't wait until the new year to do a hard thing. Lock in. Do a hard workout program. Eat well. Basically, it's kind of Gen Z slang (on TikTok apparently. I don't know. I'm not on TikTok) that plays off the idea of a character arc, like the growth or transformation a character experiences in a story. But Gen Z's retitle it to call to call this the Winter Arc or the Great Lock In challenge. But here's why they like it.
You choose a sprint window, doing something hard for a little amount of time. You pick three to five habits or goals that you want to do during that time. You are consistent and you track what you're doing and you focus on a mindset shift. I read that and I was like, “Huh, that is like the Contentment Challenge on so many levels.” You're taking this Great Lock In challenge or the Winter Arc and you were saying for 12 weeks, I am going to go so hard and do this thing and I'm going to change as a person and I'm going to track my progress and focus on a mindset shift and, you know, choose my sprint window and pick these habits or goals that I want to do. I was like, holy cow, that is exactly what I teach with the Contentment Challenge.
I want you to pick new hobbies to do. New habits to form. I want you to focus on a mindset shift of being so content with what you already have. I just thought that was great, like a great parallel to the Contentment Challenge is the Great Lock In challenge. So there you go. Here's some Gen Z jargon for you that you didn't know you were getting in this episode, but that's free. That's my gift to you. Now you know what the Winter Arc or the Great Lock In challenge is, but I just found it interesting. That really is my encouragement. It is a personal challenge. It is refining to you personally and your habits. Emotionally, how you handle money and things and stuff and it's good. It's just straight up. It's good for you.
4) It will draw you closer to the Lord
Alright, my fourth reason and the most important reason is the Contentment Challenge really deepens your relationship with God because it is a fast of sorts. It's not a fast from food, but it's a fast from materialism and shopping. When you go into it saying, “God bring me closer to you. Show me that you are the one that brings true contentment into my life”, your life will be changed. I think the Lord honors that sacrifice. Any time I fasted in any kind of way. Food, shopping in the Contentment Challenge, or I fasted social media, or maybe sweets, or sugar, dessert, whatever, when I set out to do it in a way that is purposeful and I am like, Lord, I want to get closer to you, He honors that. He blesses that and He will give you more than you even bargained for. This is truly my number one reason why I do it again and again. It's not fun. It's hard. But it is full of purpose. Nothing beats growing closer to the Lord.
So that's it. Those are four reasons why I just want to encourage you to do the Contentment Challenge. Now I have a resource for you. Nancyray.com/contentment-challenge or you can just go to nancyray.com and look for it. It is like a little mini course that I made. You can listen to it as a podcast or you can go through the episodes. It has prompts. It has monthly challenges for you to clean out your closet, read a book, like all these things. It gives you the prep work too. I've done this so many times. I realize you need prep work. You need to go ahead and plan for your Contentment Challenge. Don't just say, “I'm starting it today.” It will not work. You'll set yourself up to fail. Then I also share kind of what it looks like re-entering life afterwards and your relationship with stuff. All these things that really you have to do it to understand why you need it. But yeah, I've created this little mini course and you can go get it. Yes, I charge for it. It's not a lot of money, but I charge for it because I really believe in number one, the value of the mini course that I've made for you. But number two, the financial investment. It's like you're spending thirty bucks to save potentially hundreds or thousands. But when you spend money on it and lock it in, you're like, “Yes, I'm doing this thing.” You know what I mean? So truly, that's why I did it. But just go check it out.
Guess what? You don't need my course to do this. You do not need my course to do the Contentment Challenge. You can do it without it, but because I've done it so many times, I do have helpful things in there for you, which hopefully will bless you if you decide to do it. So you can go check that out at nancyray.com. I'm gonna start January. I'm doing it January/February/March. I hope you will too. I hope you'll consider doing it. I just pray that it blesses you immensely as it has me and as it has so many other people that have done this with me before.
Alright, thanks so much for listening to episode 297 of Work and Play with Nancy Ray. Everything I've mentioned today can be found in the show notes at nancyray.com/podcast/297 and you can find me at nancyray.com or follow me at @nancyray on Instagram.
If you've made it this far, thank you. Also my 300th episode is coming up. This is your last chance to submit a question. Go to speakpipe.com/workandplay, submit a question. Your voice, your question may be featured on the 300th episode. I'm probably not going to be able to take any more questions past December 10th. So please go ahead, submit your question today, if you can. I would really appreciate it. I would love for you to be part of that podcast episode. I feel like it's going to be a really fun Q&A and you are going to be my guest host.
I'm going close with words from Oprah. I love her quotes on contentment. I feel like they're some of my favorite ones. She says,
“There's no paycheck that can equal the feeling of contentment that comes from being the person you are meant to be. Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.”
Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time.
