Do you belong to the people who need a reason to get outdoors?

Then you’re in luck: Coming from the top of the food chain is your Permit to go Outside. Skip work and get outdoors by joining the European Commission’s #MyWeek #BeActive Challenge - and win some sweet prizes, too!

Getting outside often involves numerous steps:

• Get off from work
• Ask for permission from family members if it’s alright if you go for a run/ climb/ cycle/ swim
• Then you need to dress up correctly
• You’ll need to bring the rubbish out on the way, too
• And on the way home, please bring milk and bananas, thank you

Finally, you’re able to enjoy the fresh smell of the forest, taste the salt in the air while you swim in the Baltic Sea, get sweaty palms four meters up on a Highball and look forward to the downhill run. This week is different, however.

This week is part of the European Commission’s #BeActive week which gives you basically a free pass to be active outdoors and do fun stuff in nature. The week is for everyone, regardless of age, background or fitness level - yes, also you sitting in front of that screen. Just grab your shoes and go for a stroll in the park, take your swim suit and take a dip in a lake, swing your leg over the bike and cycle to the top of the next hill, climb a rock or maybe even go camping!

Even better, you can win some sweet outdoor kit by taking part in the #MyWeek #BeActive Challenge. It’s as easy as walking:

1. Sign up!
2. Pick a single week between 15 June and 28 August in which to take the Challenge (So this is the last week - Get OUT there!)
3. Engage in sport or physical activity 3 days (minimum) in that week
4. Take a picture or video of yourself engaged in each of your activities
5. Post a minimum of 3 pictures or a video, adding the hashtags #BeActive & #MyWeek, and post them on either Facebook, Instagram or Twitter
6. Invite your friends to take part - the more, the merrier!

I’m so good I’ll even make it dead easy for you and help you decide what you could do:

1. Today you go for a run.
2. Tomorrow you go swimming.
3. Wednesday you go cycle (even to work!).
4. Extra Day Outdoors: Thursday evening to Friday morning you go on a Microadventure and sleep outside for a night OR go climbing!

And I will do the same, too! So stay tuned on the Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for photographic evidence and feel free to comment underneath if you join the campaign & post your photos in the comments, too!

btw, you can win some sweet prizes, remember? The winner who posts three photos this week can win an Outdoor kit which consists of a Nordisk tent, an the North Face backpack and sleeping bag, a Therm-A-Rest air mattress, Merrell Capra hiking shoes and a Katadyn Outdoor Kitchen-Set - so pretty much everything you’ll need to go out backpacking and camping!

Also going on is the Its Great Out There campaign. It’s part of the EC’s European Week of Sports and aims to promote our beautiful, fascinating, and relaxing outdoor environments and their positive influence on our well-being by spending time in them. Check out their #TakeSomeoneOutdoors initiative to get you started and introduce a loved one to the outdoors!

The #BeActive, #ItsGreatOutThere and #MyWeek Campaigns are part of the annual European Week of Sport which is this year from the 7th to 13th of September and aims at getting people being more active. The reason is simple: Participation in sports & physical activity is stagnating, and in some EU Member States, even declining. As being outdoors means being active taking part in these campaigns, and maintaining the habit of doing sports, helps you to lead a healthier, less stressful life.