Countdown to Day 30
April 25th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
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Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.
- Sam Ewing
For those of you taking on the 30-Day Challenge, how are you doing so far? If you’ve started by April 20th, you should have finished at least 5 days by now. If you’ve managed it this far, congratulations!
Day 1 is usually a breeze. Motivation is highest when you overcome inertia and begin something new. Day 2 is usually a little tougher but still manageable. Then somewhere around days 3-7, it’s common to hit your first hard day. You’ve just begun and haven’t invested that much into this yet, so it’s easy to turn back. Maybe an unexpected obstacle hits. You’re tempted to mentally redefine your commitment and perform a lesser version of what you intended. This is the point where your initial motivation fades, and now you must switch to your secondary fuel to continue onward — the fuel of self-discipline. Motivation will get you off the ground, but it won’t provide enough power to reach escape velocity.
Here’s a poem you might enjoy (author unknown):
Don’t Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sighWhen care is pressing you down a bit
Rest, you must - but don’t you quit
Life is queer with its twists and turns
As everyone of us sometimes learnsAnd many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow
You might succeed with another blowSuccess is failure turned inside out, the silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are, It may be near when it seems so far
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit
It’s when things seem worst, That you MUST NOT QUIT!
There are no shortcuts or secrets to building self-discipline. It’s hard work to keep moving towards a goal when you desperately want to throw in the towel and take it easy. But every time you quit, you reinforce your tendency to give up in future situations and progressively weaken your willpower. Whenever you stay the course through a hard day, you strengthen your will, allowing you to handle future challenges with greater ease.
Hard work is always hard, but self-discipline builds tolerance for its bitter taste, increasing your capacity to enjoy the sweet aftertaste of success.
Imagine what you could accomplish if you only had enough self-discipline. You wouldn’t need a complicated fad diet or fancy exercise equipment — you could succeed with the simple notion of eating natural foods in reasonable quantities and exercising vigorously. And a well-disciplined mind would keep your goals and projects organized and on track, regardless of what kind of personal information system you used.
As of the end of the 24th, I’ve finished 5 days so far. Every day I got up at 5AM, put in a minimum of 4 hours of writing, and went running 25-30 minutes. The hardest day for me was day 3 because I had a scheduling problem and had to stay up later than usual in order to squeeze in my run on a windy night, so I went to bed later and got less sleep than I would have liked. This made it harder to get up at 5AM and get in 4 hours of creative writing on day 4, but I still did it. I realized that the desire to wait for inspiration before working on creative projects is largely a form of procrastination — a lot of inspiration comes from sitting down and getting to work, whether you feel like it or not. And putting in the time every single day frees me from the tyranny of trying to base my work around unpredictable spurts of creativity.
April 25th, 2005 at 8:10 am
Although I did not post my resolution to work on my abs and my back muscles every day for the next 30 days (morning gymnastics), I am currently on my 7th day. I work out five times a week in the gym but on most days did not do exercises for those muscles.
After reading your post today, I am going to do something like your four hours of writing a day too. Will help me to get my work back on track.
As always your post was very inspirational, thank you.
April 25th, 2005 at 2:39 pm
Just as you say Steve, I was doing ok at first but then slipped. Now I’m going to start at day one again. You’re right that it’s a matter of discipline. In my case, I found that getting up at 7 am isn’t the problem for me. The problem turned out to be that I don’t have the discipline to go to bed early enough so I can get enough sleep to get up at 7. Going to bed late is a bad habit I developed while I was in college, and I’m going to focus on making sure I go to sleep early now. When I started this challenge, subconsciously I was thinking that if I just get up at 7 am every day I’ll naturally start going to sleep sooner. That was pretty naive, and is apparently the same belief that caused me to fail in my previous attempts to change my sleep schedule. No matter how little sleep I get, this bad habit will try to keep me from going to bed before the usual time of about 2 am, even if I’m sleepy. So now I know what I need to focus on.
April 25th, 2005 at 2:46 pm
I’ve been doing great in the past week, it hasn’t been that hard, just one day I couldn’t excercise in the morning, as I usually do, and ended doing my cardio session at midnight! but I did it, I am motivated to continue, I’m convinced this is the way to go, I visualize myself all the time and how after some time sticking to this new routine I will look better and have a better health and more physical resistence, so that keeps me going.
April 25th, 2005 at 3:12 pm
This 30 day challenge is turning out ot be rather hard. It starts off simple, seems okay then suddely it is really difficult. So far I am just hanging in there. I suppose if it was too easy it wouldn’t be a chllege, I just wasn’t expecting it to get so difficult so quickly.
Has anyone else had difficulties early on?
April 25th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
I’ve done these 30-day challenges many times, and they’re always hard, even when the new habit is very simple. They don’t seem to get any easier the more I do them; however, my capacity to endure the challenge increases each time.
When you stick it out to day 30, the power of self-discipline becomes clear. By that time the benefits of whatever you’ve done begin to show up. In my case I’ll have the output of 120 hours worth of writing effort, and the 24 hours I’ve done so far is already looking nice. The self-discipline required to go from day 30 to day 31 is like 5% of what it takes to go from day 3 to day 4.
April 25th, 2005 at 5:32 pm
Yesterday was very hard, but running for 30 minutes today was a breeze. I think I made my best time yet. (Walk 3 minutes to warm up, then run 12 minutes straight, then walk for 6 minutes, then run 9 minutes straight.)
On saturday and sunday, my legs were really sore and tense, so it was really hard to jog for more than 3-6 minutes at a time without needing slow down to a walk. So I’m glad that I didn’t have any distance/calorie/speed requirements to meet. Otherwise, I’d probably would have quit on Sunday.
April 25th, 2005 at 8:58 pm
Hey Steve, glad to hear that you are on track. I have found for myself that sheer will power does not work. After a few days I invariably quit. I have tried many things and found the following three usually work the best for me.
1. Make a game out of it. Set the rules, choose your teammates and set a schedule. Make sure you have some competition. I am really driven by competition and coaching. I think your site is a great coach and I’m not about to let you finish 30 days and wimp out myself. In the real world of sports it would be almost unthinkable to miss a game as a player. Treat your game the same way. Today is the only time you can do it.
2. Get a picture of what it will be like at the end of the finish line. Take the Body for Life program as an example. They have many before and after pictures of real people who have had success on the weight training program. They have you take a picture of yourself on day one and at certain milestones along the way. Create a picture. If you can see it you can do it.
3. Use the I-Force. Inspiration thru Information, Innovation & Imagination.
1. Get more information on what you are trying to accomplish.
2. Innovate by trying a new twist on your project
3. Use your imagination. Invent new ways of doing things
.
I find these 3 things help me keep going when things get tough.
Keep up the good work Steve. You should have a great book at the end of 30 days.
April 25th, 2005 at 9:46 pm
Well, I have managed to meditate every day for the past 10 days (I started on the 15th, when I first read your post).
I did feel at times that I should not bother, especially since I hae got the flu, and for at least one day I just felt like collapsing into bed and falling asleep.
I am very impressed with myself for sticking it out even this long, since I quit very easily.
April 26th, 2005 at 6:10 am
Mine seemed pretty simple “Stop eating snacks at work” but has turned out to be more difficult than I expected. Other than eating a free Ben&Jerry’s bar that someone was handing out at my office’s Earth Day event I’m on track.
How deeply must a habit be ingrained that I would take that, eat it, and not even notice until after it was gone? Then the head slapping and the moaning “the 30 day challenge!”.
I’m being a jerk and saying that it didn’t count. But that’s the “one strike”. Anything else at all and I’m back to square one.
I managed to stay off all the usual stuff so far though. The doughnuts, the chocolate bars, the bags of chips, etc. But it’s hard. The only thing keeping me going right now is sheer stubberness. I keep thinking that I’m not going to let this one stupid habit win. I may have given up on diets, exercise programs, sleeping habits, and countless other self improvement ideas…. but not this one. This is where I draw the line.
April 26th, 2005 at 6:30 am
One thought on how to make this easier.
The title of the article is countdown. I think that’s a great idea.
When we count up to 30 we see the number grow and feel like our burden gets a little heavier each day. You think about how much you’ve done, how far you’ve gone… which leads to feeling tired and worn down under the weight of it all.
On the other hand, if we count down from 30 we feel better each day. The number keeps shrinking and you think about how little time you have left to go, how few meditation sessions or early rises you have left. You feel like you only have to hang on for just a little bit longer.
Only 24 more days to go!
April 26th, 2005 at 7:24 am
I’m doing great so far with my pilates every day (i feel great, i look better :-)) and eating an apple every day (no problem). But my third challenge is giving me a headache: “spend 45 minutes a day learning new things considering my work in computer design,by reading all the books and interactive cd-s I collected but never opened.” turns out to be a hard one. I guess because it’s no fun, like the first two, and i can’t see the resultes right away. Still , I’ll try to accomplishe that too. So far I’m doing it somehow. Like Sukotto said:
Only 24 more days to go!
April 26th, 2005 at 2:09 pm
My update:
I want to jog 20-30 minutes a day for 30 days in a row. I started 9 days ago.
Today my countdown shows 29 — the third time! (oh dear!)
My personal record is 3 days in a row (the first three days). I run 5 out of the last 10 days (including today). My personal “anti-record” (no jogging) is 4 days in a row. To be exact: (J=jogging, N=no jogging) J-J-J-N-J-N-N-N-N-J
Not bad though. I never took such a challenge before and I didn’t do regular exercises for just too many years. So this start is better than it could have been.
I won’t give up … even if it takes 6 months until I run 30 days in a row!
If you also missed some days … just read some articles and blog entries from this site, smile
… and try again! (like I did today)
April 27th, 2005 at 2:15 am
I’m on day 9 of my three 30-day challenges: to eat a low-GI diet, to contact someone new every day on the online dating site I’m a member of, and to put brush/pen/pencil to paper each day (even if it’s only doodling to improve my fluency). Each one has been very hard at times in different ways, but it’s teaching me a _lot_ - among other things that I need to plan ahead (i.e. have low-GI food with me so I don’t grab sweet things out of hunger) and that I can’t do everything (if I want time to paint and draw, I have to give up other things). Obvious stuff, but this daily commitment is really bringing it home.
May 3rd, 2005 at 7:33 am
Sorry I didn’t respond earlier.
I set three goals:
1. Go to bed by midnight
2. Get up by 9 a.m.
3. Do my yoga
Of all the three goals the hardest turns out to be going to bed early enough. I must confess that for the last 13 days I have slipped past midnight a couple of times by 10 to 15 minutes, once by half an hour, and once by an hour, but I still consider it to be pretty close to what I expected and I continue building the new habit.
Getting up was much easier. Only once (on the second day) did I get up 30 minutes later than I should have.
Doing yoga is the easiest part. I haven’t missed a day so far.