"I am fascinated by masochistic discipline and by those driven to experience it."

Such adherents seem to seek a realm where pain is blissful, where physical anguish is its own reward. I am not one of those people. I do enjoy self-transcendence, going beyond my own limitations, but I prefer incremental progress to quantum leaps. Balance is my goal. Balance is also, in many ways, my excuse.

So why on December 19^th, when a post passed down my Facebook feed hashtagged #2017ofEverything, did I pause? It was written by the husband of Sara Blakely who just so happens to be one of the youngest self-made female billionaires. I remembered beginning an endurance running race alongside the post’s author as well (I worked up to it for months). He was forced to drop out of 12 hours to finalize a purchase he, his wife and some other friends made – of the Atlanta Hawks. And he had written a book the prior year which I was too scared to read Living with a Seal . I originally looked up the book, fascinated by the idea of sharing a home with an aquatic animal, only to learn that the author lived and trained for a month with a Navy SEAL.

On December 19^th, runner, entrepreneur and author Jesse Itzler posted a challenge to all those who admire people like him up close or, like me, from afar– to do 2,017 repeats of callisthenic exercises in 2017: burpees, situps, push-ups, squats and chair dips. I saw that for once, I might be able to accept and complete the challenge of an extremist. I signed up and posted my interest. And I mentally prepared for an incredible 2017. I was poised to embrace the realm of the Beyond.

On January 1, I saw that the first disciples of the challenge were posting their progress, in sets of 100. “Wow, they plan on finishing a year of activities in 20 days,” I thought. “Over-achievers.” Then I looked carefully at everyone’s posts. #2017ofEverything was not a 365-day challenge but a 31-day project.

I could’ve backed out and no one would’ve been the wiser except that Jesse’s call-to-arms included a selfless motivator. For every finisher of the challenge, he and a group of friends would donate $400 to charity – up to $100,000 in total. And this charity, in part, supported the children of fallen special operations soldiers Special Operations Warrior Foundation. So, by dropping out on day one I was depriving their kids of college scholarships.

Certainly the #2017ofEverything challenge worked for me, were it not for the philanthropic element, I might not have lasted past day one.

It’s now day 5 and I’m surviving and, as expected, perhaps even thriving. I started my challenge in LA on Days 1-3, did Day 4 in Tulsa, Day 5 in NYC, and will do Day 6 in Abu Dhabi and Day 7 in Sri Lanka (I travel a lot). For masochists out there not daunted by the 20 or so days remaining in January, Jesse is issuing a plea for more participants. He really wants to give away $100,000 and wants to make sure there are enough finishers by January 31^st to ensure he does.

Below, Sanjay just completed Day 6 at the Abu Dhabi Airport enroute to Sri Lanka.