Why Do A 30 Day Challenge?
Have you ever tried to build a new habit? You get started for a few days and then it slips your mind, or you get bored, or you are onto believing there is a new, faster, and easier way to achieve what you desire.
I have good news and bad news.
The bad news first. I'd love to promise you an easy, simple, way. But habits are the systems of our lives. And they take time. No matter how our urgency culture wants to press us to do everything faster, we are human and like Rome, we cannot build our ideal lives in a day.
I've always loved this that someone once shared with me when I was in a rush. You cannot take 9 women and have them each pregnant for one month and create a baby.
New habits take repetition and consistency over time.
The good news, so much research has been done around how to successfully build habits, in the work of James Clear, Charles Duhigg, and BJ Fogg. We know that certain frameworks can help us build a habit. And a 30 Day Challenge is one of those frameworks.
Here are the three big benefits of doing a 30 Day Challenge to build a new habit.
#1. Narrow the focus of change for better success.
Often when we get inspired we think of everything we need to do or change and it is easy to get overwhelmed. Focusing on one thing at a time can shift to real results. As we know from our work with Tiny Habits, small is better so you can be successful.
#2. Cultivate commitment and eliminate the daily indecisions of life.
Often when we think too much about something, it is harder to decide. Making a very specific commitment to do something for a finite amount of time is easier. Waking up and knowing you will walk for 30 minutes and having a system to make that happen and track it means you’re that much closer to having it become a habit. Repetition makes new activities easier. Every day of doing that new practice, you create a stronger mental pattern, and the new practice gets easier.
#3. Connecting with someone who can support you.
Change is significantly easier with the support of an accountability partner and the research on success shows your chances increase when you embark on a new habit with a friend.
I once did a 30 Day Challenge of taking a photo every day to help me slow down and look more closely at what was beautiful around me (to cultivate Joy!) I had two friends I would text the photo to and posted it on my Facebook page. It was awesome to have the support from these friends and their appreciation of my photos to keep me going. On day 30, I felt like I was just getting started, so I expanded the project to go for 180 days.
The practice of this daily challenge became something I looked forward to because I had made that commitment to go for a walk to see what I’d discover daily.
Are you ready to embark on a 30 Day Challenge? This year we're exploring breathwork practices and every month we'll be kicking off a different breathwork practice on our sister site, The Infinite Center.
One more detail about 30 Day Challenges…how to mark your progress.
Some people like the big calendar with a big X approach. Here is a template for you guys. Others like something where they can write on the box details of each day. Or maybe you like tracking your new habits on an app. I like Day One and I’m sure there are others.
We’re here to cheer you on, support you, and celebrate your success.
Lastly, check out a master of 30 Day Challenges, Matt Cutts, who was with Google, to hear why he likes them in his TED talk.
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