30 days to success-Join the challenge-1st January

[Evey]

Hello,

With a new year coming, it would be a good idea to start a 30 days to success – challenge, starting on the 1st of January. What do you think? We could list what we would like to try for 30 days and share our experience.
Personally, I have a multitask goal, here are there :

1-Get up at 5a.m. This will be a tough one, but really necessary as my exams are in February and I need time to study.

2-Make a diet. I haven't decided yet which one. I would like to be vegetarian but I think I will let that for another 30 days trial. First I would like to eat more healthy.

3-Exercise 6 days a week. This goal goes along with the diet one. I think they are complementary.

4-No TV (except DVD, I am a huge movies fan!) Like I said I need time to study. A movie once in a while is ok, but I'm sure I could save a precious time without watching uninteresting tv programs.

That's it for me.
What would be your goals? What would you like to try for 30 days?
I can post until Friday, then I'll be back on the 2nd of January. I hope some of you will join me.
It could be very interesting to see how people react, your motivations, etc.

Looking forward to read you
Evey

[floramorada]

Good idea! Here is my 30-day trial:

1. Get up at 6 every morning and immediately go for a 30 minute walk.

2. Do some sort of exercise daily (not counting the walk) for 14 minutes. I have a list in case I run out of ideas - jump rope, running, swimming, yoga, abs, pushups, pullups, soccer, shooting hoops, cartwheels, handstands, and the like, jumping jacks, other calisthenics like supermans, bridges, wall sits, squats, just running around, playing...

3. No internet (this one's the toughie for me), except for the bare minimum necessary. I made a post about that here.

4. Meditating and journaling daily, making sure to clear my head into my 'inbox.'

5. Maintaining a a clean, organized, and positive environment.

Two other projects of mine are a healthier diet and implementing a GTD system, but I haven't yet put them in a way where I can try doing one thing for thirty days.

I feel ambitious. Great first post!

[ditto]

My goals:

1. Exercise every day (I'll do this around 5:15am)
2. Read a book every week (I accidentally put day, edited now)

My list is a bit sparse right now, I'll edit it when I see something somebody else is doing that I might want to also.

[Matt Willard]

I don't plan to start on Jan. 1st, but my current goals for my next 30 Day Trial are:

1. Spend more time getting things done. Dunno the specific number of hours I want to work yet, but I'm more interested in cutting procrastination than total time spent working (though those two could go hand in hand). I plan to use a principle-oriented approach for this trial, a la 7 Habits.

2. Cut down on computer usage during this time (my major source of procrastination).

3. Now a journal sounds like a good idea, I might try that too. But, it'd probably be journalling about problems on my mind or my own progress (I dislike "traditional" journaling).

Good luck to all who take the challenge.

Mental note: demand a thumbs up smiley. <_<

[lolly]

Hi all

Well im not sure if when to start but i think in some ways i start last night.

1. Get fit (cycling)
2. Start a healthly diet
3. Be accountable for my life
A. Be responsible for my decisions and mistakes
B. Love myself
4. Wake up at 6am (gosh thats early for me)

post here so i know where i am in my challenge

[skydust]

Interesting how similar everyones goals are, including mine:

1. wake up at 6
2. meditate/reiki 10 minutes every morning
3. eat healthy (i am already doing this more or less)
4. trust my feelings
5. achieve my goals with confidence and ease (this is the hard part for me)
6. have integrity and stay true to my Self

[Ellesse]

Here's mine
(1) Write a quality article for my site every 2-3 days
(2) Jog at least once a week
(3) Mediate everyday

[Cath]

I'll join you, here are my goals

- wake up at 6
- meditate daily for 10 minutes
- eat healthy food
- tackle my procrastination - attitude

[laur_454]

I love this idea! I need to be held accountable. Here are my goals (except I have to start tomorrow):

1. Complete a ten day cleansing fast (not sure yet if I want to do the Master Cleanse or just a Wheatgrass/Juice Fast (any suggestions?). The fast will go from January 3rd to January 12th.

2. Give up meat once and for all!

3. Jog and practice yoga daily.

4. Meditate/visualize/read for 30 minutes each morning and every night before bed.

5. Drink alcohol only on weekends (difficult, as I am 22 and most of my friends seem to drink almost daily) and only in moderation.

6. Figure out a way to start working for myself.

I'm really excited to start

[Greed]

I have a couple of goals. Hopefully they won't be too challenging, as I already have changed my habits somewhat to make them easier to achieve.

1. I will write for my book for at least 2 hours a day. (with school and rowing practice, it'll be interesting to see if this happens from 3pm to 5 or from 8pm to 10.)

2. Become as much a vegetarian as possible

3. Maintain a 90+ grade average in every class.

[Causalien]

I only have one 30 day trial I am doing right now.
I decided to take a run down version of polyphasic sleep and seperate it into 3 sleep schedule instead.
I am on day 11 right now and you can watch the progress as it unfold here.

[kaingo]

I've started with a 30 day trial on the 2nd.

* get up at 8 am
* clean my flat for 15 minutes per day
* go cycling for about 1 hour per day (I'll start that one on the 4th)

[Unplottable]

I just started my 30 day trial on Jan 1st. My PD plan for early 2007 is mainly on fitness and it's great to see you guys have the same idea.
1. Get up at 5:30-6am , absolute no late than 6:30
2. Exercise, must including pushups, dumbbell workout, stretching.
3. Jogging daily. I changed my rented room to about 2.5 miles from school so it's very convenient.
4. Showing up on my beginning fencing class (just read the "Showing up" article)
5. Journaling daily
6. Cut down Internet usage. I threw away my TV months ago but then I got addicted to youtube and video/TV streaming!
7. Meditate/reading 10 minutes.
8. Cut down soft/energy drink

Let's continue everyone
Tim

[smallstar]

1. Fitness/weight training 3x2 hours a week, as soon as I recover from my current flu
2. Meditation/visualization/NLP/EFT 10 minutes a day, in the morning
3. Program and install a software into my computer which nags me once in 30 minutes: "Are you awake? yes/no" (the way I have found best to get lucid dreams is to ask myself this question repeatedly during daytime, but now I seem to lack the discipline for it.)

I don't know how people manage with 6-7 simultaneous trials, two active seems to be quite enough for me...

[LivingWarrior]

Great thread! I read Steve P's article "30 Days To Success" on New Years Eve and it inspired me to put some actions into place which I have tried on and off, but never put together as an integrated approach to change. So, for the next 30 days I am putting forth the following activities.
(Today is the 3rd, and I have done some of these but not ALL, my goal is to do ALL of them for 30 days straight, and I will begin, again and again, until I do so)

1. Conscious Intent/LoA Activation, twice a day (waking/going to sleep)
-Asking my subconscious to lock onto one or more areas of change
-Written affirmation
-Spoken affirmation

2. Paraliminal Reinforcement
-After CI/LoA, listening to Paraliminal sessions to reinforce my intent
-Peak Performance & Personal Genius Paraliminals

3. Theta Meditation for 30m/day (or 1 session)
-Use of Theta Brainwave Entrainment for 30 minutes a day, focused on
breathing and emptiness, letting 'excitement' pass.

4. 30m Cardiovascular exercise/day
-I am not going to worry about my eating for this month, that will come with the next 30 day project where I will follow Dr. John Berardi's "Precision Nutrition".

5. The 5 Tibetans Yoga, everyday
-Energy center opening yoga from Tibet.

Although there are a TON of more specific activities which my ego is nagging are 'more important', I recognize that these activities form the bedrock for a meaningful life. I am going to allow myself to give into some of the other vices, not-so-productive behaviors as long as I complete these 5 activities each day.

Peace and Strength to all participating!

[Evey]

Hello,

So, here my experience of the trial --> I did not succeed my multi-task goal!

1-Get up at 5a.m. --> I did for 3 days, and then I was so tired, that I give up. So I told myself that maybe 5a.m was too early for me to begin with and that it would be better to try first to wake up each day at the same time (which I never did). So I decided that getting up at 7am, including weekend, was a good start. Unfortunately, I couldn't do it rightly because, on several occasions, for my work, I had to get up at 5am (ironic?) to catch a train and consequently I was so tired the next day that I overstayed in bed.


2-Make a diet. --> This one is definitely the hardest one. I have a major problem with food because of my ex-husband who used to tell me I was fat while I wasn't (BMI 22 at that time) each time I eated something that was not a fruit or vegetable. As a consequence, I started to eat in secret, and so on and so on, and now I am truly overweight (BMI 27.5). I found very hard to change my habits now and I don't know how to start. I would like to lose weight quickly because I begin to feel the effects (my back hurts, my joints hurt, I can't walk for long because my knees hurt .. :-(( ..). But maybe, this is the problem. I tried to loose weight too quickly. I truly want to give up junk food, eat healthier and become a vegetarian, give up coffee. In other words to have a healthier life.


3-Exercise 6 days a week. --> First week was fine. Then I give up, why? I don't know. I think I like telling myself that I lack time because I've got so much to do (which is true but should not be a reason). However the good point is that I'm going to a ballroom class each week and since…October. That is a very good point and I am proud of myself for once.


4-No TV --> First three days were fine and then…

Therefore I can say that I completely failed in this trial.

I think one of my main problem is procrastination, in almost every area of my life, including studies. For example, in 10 days, I have 6 exams and I have to study 90% of the subject for 3 exams, knowing that 2 exams out of the 6 are translation (and so there is nothing to study --> how lucky I am!). So, now it is not a good time to make a diet because I'm too nervous and I truly don't have time to exercise each day. Ironically I could say that the positive side is that ultimately I will have to get up at 5am to study and I won't have time to watch TV!
To sum up, I feel like a complete loser.

Well, I'm in holiday for a week from 19th February and I will try again at that date.

So, and you?? How are you doing? Better than me I hope.
Looking forward to read your experience.
Evey

[Cath]

I screwed up as well.
I fell sick in the beginning, so my attempts at waking up at six were a failure.
The meditation was ok in the beginning, but a while ago my depression got the upperhand and trying to relax and be calm was just impossible for me when all these negative thoughts were raging through my head.

The eating healthy has been going great so far. Probably because i'm having exams, which means I'm home "studying" and able to actually cook instead of getting fast food.
Procrastinating still is my biggest problem, but yeah, i didn't expect it to be easy... lol

[JAlvy]

I think the purpose of the 30 day experiment is to focus on getting something really integrated deep, turning it into a habit. That's really hard to do when you are juggling so many different new things, trying to integrate them all.

We all want to make so many vast changes in our lives, and we want to have everything be different RIGHT NOW. But it's tough work. I don't want to rush. I want to do it right. One new, good, solid habit every month, that's a whole different life by next year!

I too failed at part of my trial, but I understand why. I wanted to start being an early riser, but I need to find that reason for getting up in the morning, that thing that I can't wait to get working on. Plus, I never pinned down a definite time in the morning to start, so I was just going at it with half effort.

Since I haven't ever done a 30 day trial successfully, I wanted to start small, to see the benefits. So I started with "shower every day, floss every day". So far, so good. Although I have had to take some pretty late night showers because I've let the goal slip from my mind, it's been worth it. I got the idea from one of Steve's blog articles (can't remember which), but it lists 20ish questions, one of which was "Do you shower/bathe every day?". It even had a "I know you don't need this..." attached to it, which made me feel somewhat sheepish.

There's a new month coming up, and so there's time to prime your mind to make a change, even if it's a small one, for a small period of time.

[Unplottable]

True, I made a fancy list for a incredible transformation and now I failed most of them. I get up late, I forgot journalling, bad nutrition... I'm glad I still keep the daily jogging. Keeping only 1 or 2 new habits is hard enough, I think we need to concerntrate our mental strength to only few trials to succeed.

[Jeizee]

I've been quite lack back lately. It's very good relax for a few weeks but as it went on, it really isn't that great. Since I have a lot of time on hand - browsing the internet, watch TV and eat all day long, go to bed past midnight - is becoming my life style which was shocking because I used to be a self-motivated and effective person. I want to kick off a 30 days challenge.

Here's want I want to achieve -

1. Exercise -
weight training - 3 times/wk
aerobics - 4 times/week 30+ min

2. Food -
moderate in a timely manner, not snack all day long.
Stay away from sugar loaded food and too much bread eating
record food journal

3. Career -
read 3 hrs + tech books (At least M-F)

4. Get up at 7:45am daily (M-S)

5. I'm 17 lb over weight, I'm going to target on that as well.

Let see how it goes. I think these are reasonable goals to follow.

I also would like to find a BUDDY to work this with if somebody is interested Please write me. Thanks.

[jason03]

Hi all,
I discovered this site recently. This seems to be a great thread, just what i was looking for. I have some new year resolutions which i want to put here. I am also looking for goal partners. I also want to post progress each month or maybe each week. Is this thread still on ? I don't see any post after Feb - 2007.
If it is, I want to join here.

[Believer]

1. Quit smoking.
2. Quit drinking.
3. Eat right.
4. Run a mile and a half (in the mornings) 2 days per week and lift weights 3 other days.
5. Do an hours worth of php/mysql every day.
6. Meditate for 30 minutes every night before I go to bed.
7. Record my dreams every night and do frequent reality checks throughout the day, (to learn how to lucid dream).
8. Keep a PMA all day every day.
9. Listen to Napoleon Hill and that style stuff on my way in to and back from work (a hour journey there and back).

Most of those are for more than 30 days, but I posted them here because I'll be starting from January the 1st, and I'm fully confident I will do it.

That is all.

[schola]

Don't you know New Years resolutions never work?

Why put it off? You should start your 30 days right now.

[Believer]

I already have started most of them, but the other things have took some preparation.

I have never had a new years resolution I haven't stuck to. :P

[ualex]

1. Wake up at 5
2. Study english for two hours 5-7
3. Create my first business online(in realy my first business)

[Gambler]

1. Sleep 9.5 hours daily(nightly I mean) mostly. No "make it up next night".
2. Send a printed catalog to my customers.
3. Buy camera
4. Shoot few guitar lessons and send it for review on web site
5. Relax

[The David]

I have a lot planned for this month. In less than a week, I will be starting a new semester, and I plan to do it the same way I did my very first semester of college. In other words, minimal amounts of caffeine (i.e no coffee after the first day of classes, this Monday), conscious eating and exercising (although I slacked on the latter my first semester), very good sleep patterns, and then the hard part: finding people with compatible lifestyles.

What's important to me isn't so much that I do all of this for 30 days, but that I can get a good idea in my head and just go for it, instead of waiting, doubting myself, or avoiding it for social reasons. The physical changes are mainly to keep my brain strong enough to handle the psychological changes.

If anyone is interested in the idea of Accountability Partners, I also started a thread on that. I thought one on one communication might be more effective than the occasional, arbitrary post telling us that you succeeded, or didn't. It would expecially work best between people with similar goals.

In summary:

1. I am minimizing junk food/caffeine/alcohol to the point of making a checklist. Ten instances of junk food (defined as empty calories, not just any processed foods), two caffeinated beverages (only one can be coffee), ideally no alcohol, but maybe a sample. This seemed simpler than 'minimizing' or eliminating altogether.

2. I want to lift weights four times a week, do cardio four or five times a week, and for the remaining two days I'll do something milder.

3. I will be getting on an earlier schedule. No more going to sleep at sunrise and sleeping until late afternoon. Well, that is a little extreme, but it's exactly what I've been doing this last week, for whatever reason. It's a horribly depressing schedule because the sun gets almost totally left out of it.

4. I will do better in school. I won't be a perfectionist like earlier this semester, but I do want to start acting like a student again.

Due to my current circumstances, this plan will start on the 7th. Until then I will just be preparing. I'm not doing too bad so far, except for the fact that I've been awake for twenty hours right now.

[Meg]

1. Write a good quality article for my blog every day.
2. Track my personal finances daily.
3. Make a daily To-Do list every evening for the next day.
4. Wake up before 9am until classes start. Wake up earlier when they do.

[koke616]

I intend to start on the 7th.

1. dedicate 2 hours a day to personal development
2. dedicate 2 hours a day to writing/drawing/storytelling skill development
3. exercise 30 minutes a day (cardio/strength training)
4. get up at 5am every day

[The David]

Originally Posted by koke616

I intend to start on the 7th.

Yay!

Down with the NYR!