The hardest thing you'll ever do is to commit 99 %. Committing a 100 %, however, is the easiest thing in the world.
The 30-day Challenge is when you set out to do something every day for 30 days or not doing something for 30 days. It is a great strategy for implementing habits or gaining control of bad ones.
Sometimes, you need to zoom out and evaluate whether the things you are doing and not doing allign with whatever goals you have. It's easy to convince yourself in the moment about all the changes you are going to be making, but most habits have extreme gravity. Homeostasis is a term for how all systems seek to gravitate back towards its normal, balanced state. Habits are systems of behavior, and their gravitational force usually gets the upper hand on people's willpower in the long run.
It requires enormous motivation to set out a goal that has no time limit. Eating healthier, working out more, wasting less time etc. It's virtually impossible to commit a 100 % if a goal has no end-date. Therefore, you need to be more realistic. You have to intelligently design new habits and destroy old ones in a way that is achieveable. The 30-day challenge is easier to commit to a 100 % because it's only 30 days. It's short enough for it to be successfully completed, but it's challenging enough make it have a profound impact after its completion - and long enough to really make it a fun project to be proud of.
Sometimes, you have to really pull the breaks in order to stake out a new course, or you need the initial momentum to start something new.
30-day challenges have really made my life more interesting and have had some very significant long-term impacts on the way I live my life. Here are some of them:
Cutting out all meat
I used to be crazy on the meat. I usually had 2-3 meat based meals every single day, sometimes more. I simply could NEVER see myelf cutting it out. However, moving to hippie San Diego for one year had an effect on me, and while I was living there, I suddenly felt an amazing inspiration to try a vegetarian diet for a full month. I was extremely surprised at how well it all went, and I found myself enjoying food much more.
After the challenge, I did not start eating meat again. Today, 4 years later, I almost never eat meat and consider myself a full-time vegetarian.
Making something new every day
My new vegetarian diet sparked my interest in cooking, but in busy times I would often find myself on autopilot making the same things over and over again. I needed some real momentum in the kitchen, so I decided that every day for a month I would make something that I had never made before. I created a Facebook event called "Making something new every day", to which I invited people I knew would be interested in it, who might contribute with ideas, or simply might want to join the challenge themselves. The Facebook event made sure I didn't slack off a single day because I committed to posting a picture of what I had made every day.
I am of course back on autopilot in the kitchen today, but with a significantly expanded repertoire of dishes to draw from. Therefore, my kitchen habits today are a lot more diverse than they were before the challenge.
Gluten-free
Yes, I gues I was carried away with the fad. But why not just try it out, if only for the challenge? I do believe that a certain proportion of the population have, not celiac desease, but degrees of gluten intolerance, for which it may be a good idea to reduce or cut the consumption of it. However, that was definitely not me. In fact, I did not feel any different - and that was despite the fact that I replaced one or two daily meals of bread usually With really healthy salads. You would expect to feel better from eating that no matter if you're gluten intolerant or not.
I went back to eating gluten and looked back on it as a fun challenge. I have at least gained quite a bit of awareness of how many products actually contain gluten, which is always useful to know, I guess.
30-day video blog challenge
A couple of years ago, I was invited by a friend to a closed Facebook group to do a 30-day video challenge. It was simply just making a video every day about anything. We were a handfull of people holding each other accountable to doing it every day and comment on each other's content.
This thing really refined my speaking skills, and it made me more relaxed in front of the camera. It feels so incredibly weird in the beginning to talk into a lens, but could be a very useful skill to have. Shortly after, a lot of people in the group, including me, embarked on another 30 consecutive days of videoblogging to keep the momentum going, needless to say my speeaking-to-the-camera skills were slightly sharpened after 60 days of speaking to it.
No alcohol or sugar
This one is simple. Since I decided to not eat sugar for a month, I figured it might be easier if I just cut all alcohol as well. It would be impossible to completely eradicate all sugars, so decided it would be all candy, cakes, jam, sweet drinks etc. I did eat whole-grain bread, i.e. some carbs, but without the added sugar.
I was craving less sweets after this challenge, but I'm not sure if it had an effect in the long run.
Meditation
I did meditation for 20 minutes a day for 30 days and kept it going for a lot longer. All I can say is, wow. Just read my blog and find my experience with it.
Your ideas?
I would be really interested in hearing your 30-day challenge ideas and experiences; let's draw inspiration from one another. Here are some further challenges that I still have not done and/or ideas that I have:
- Vegan diet. I don't have an ambition to become vegan, but it would be fun to try.
- Write a song every day. I am a musician, but I am fairly blank when it comes to writing lyrics.
- Write a journal every day and think of 5 things to be grateful for every day.
- Learn 5 new Spanish words every day.
- Give a compliment to a stranger every day.
- No caffeine.
- Write a post on Steemit it every day. No, wait, I don't need the 30-day challenge for that.
The list could go on and on.
Plan it ahead and get prepared
Every time you embark on a 30-day challenge, make sure to plan it properly. Give yourself a week or two to mentally prepare and make sure that the challenge is actually doable in the time window you have set. Do have everything ready on your day 1, such as removing as much meat, gluten or sugar as possible from your kitchen ahead of time. Also make sure to tell your friends about it or whatever you need to do to keep yourself accountable for completing the challenge.