Majesticzero's 30 days to success: Media fasting / Meet someone new every week

[Majesticzero]

Welcome everyone,

After my first succesful "30 days to succes" I continue the series to develop a better Self Discipline.
The previous "30 days to succes" was definitely a succes. I will make it a permanent change in my life.

Let's talk about the next 30 days.
The last time I've read a lot about media fasting. It's something I think is almost impossible to do because I work behind a computer every day. But let's change the media fasting idea a little. Instead of media fasting the whole day, let's only do this when not working. So when I get home, I'm not gonna grab my laptop and checkout the news or stevepavlina.com. I'm also not gonna watch TV or play video games. Between 9am and 5:30pm I can check websites on the internet (like stevepavlina.com). The No TV and No News rule will still stand, also when at work. So this will basically be the idea of my media fasting challenge:

- No TV
- No Computer (when not at work)
- No News

I don't mention internet and video games because they are part of "No Computer". I know I can easily achieve this goal, so I need to have a second one.

The second goal for this challenge is to meet someone new every week. Maybe you think "This shouldn't be so hard? Why not try and meet someone new every day?". The thing is that my social skills are not really developed and I'm also afraid to talk to strangers. Meeting someone new every week is probably hard enough for now. The place where I probably meet new people will be at my sportcentre, because there is always a subject to talk about: "Sports!", the one thing I love!
It's not that I want to learn someone very good in one week. With meeting someone new I mean, just talking to a stranger every week. It doesn't really matter if it's a woman or a man. In future challenges I can change the requirements to i.e.:

- Meet someone new every day
- Talk to a stranger (female) every day

For this time I'll just keep it to someone - male or female - once a week.

I will be starting the test on:
02/09/2009

I will end the test on:
03/11/2009

[Majesticzero]

Day 1:

No TV: failed. This is harder than I thought. I still live with my parents, and they always watch TV. So it's kinda hard to not watch it when I come home.
No Computer: success.
No News: failed. Because I've got the habit to always go to a news website. It's time to change this habit.
Meet someone new: succes. But the person started talking to me. But I had a good conversation! Once in a week is enough. But I'll try to talk to more people this week

Day 2:

No TV: failed again. It's something I do unconscious. I need to become more conscious about this.
No Computer: success.
No News: success.
Meet someone new: didn't meet someone new. But talked to some people I already know.

[Majesticzero]

Day 3:

No TV: failed
No Computer: success.
No News: success.
Meet someone new: success. Talked to someone I didn't knew. It was a good conversation

[Trey Baird]

It seems like the no tv aspect is where you can stand to do your most growing. If I were you, I'd consider deleting the rest of your trial and simply doing the no tv part. You've got all the time in the world to work on the other things.

Do your parents know that you are trying not to watch TV? By telling them, you are giving yourself more incentive to stick with it, plus dropping a subtle hint to them not to trip you up.

Good luck on the rest of your trial.

[Majesticzero]

Day 4:

No TV: failed again. I'm gonna change the goals a little. I don't think this is the good way to go.
No Computer: success.
No News: success.
Meet someone new: success. I talked to a girl from the company next door. And I already finished this goal for this week so..

[Majesticzero]

After a couple of days I see that these goals aren't the ones I really would like to test.

I'm gonna drop the TV goal. It's impossible for me to not watch TV. When eating, my parents always watch TV. And the TV is on for the whole evening. So that means I need to be in another room the whole evening, and also when eating. And I need to see my parents sometimes

I'll also gonna drop the no computer and no news. They don't attack my self discipline, so they don't have any effect.

I'll keep the meet someone new every week.
I'm gonna add another goal...

The goal will be not to lie to anyone. I use to lie a lot. Almost every day.
I do it unconsciouss, so I really need to change this. I feel really bad after lying.

So the goals will be:

- Meet someone new every week.
- Do not lie to anyone.

[Majesticzero]

Day 5:

Meet someone new every week: success. met 2 new people today!
Do not lie to anyone: failed.

Day 6:

Meet someone new every week: didn't meet any people today.
Do not lie to anyone: success.

Day 7:

Meet someone new every week: didn't meet any people today.
Do not lie to anyone: success.


This week:

This week I'll try to talk to new people again. It feels so good! I'm also going to align myself with truth more by trying not to lie.

[Majesticzero]

Day 8:

Meet someone new every week: Talked to a stranger again. But not for so long.
Do not lie to anyone: failed, I lied unconscious. Afterwards I know that I was wrong, now I need to know that before I lie.

[Majesticzero]

Day 9:

Meet someone new every week: didn't meet anyone I didn't knew already
Do not lie to anyone: success.

[Peaceflmeadow]

Majest...

If you decide to try the no TV challenge again, here are a couple of thoughts that might help.

I completed a no media challenge from Jan 13th - Feb 12th. No TV, no internet, no PC games, no news, no personal email or texting, nada. I allowed music, and reading. I work behind a PC as well, so I had to clearly outline what I could do at work, which was internet searches for work related issues only, which rarely come up in my job. All email work related, ect.

I had to analyze my usage of each item, and outline goals and 'rules' around each. For example, my husband and I eat in front of the TV as well every night. SO, I asked him if he would join me at the dining table several nights a week. On the nights he didn't, I popped open a book and read while I ate. If he was watching TV while I was working in the kitchen or around the house...yes, I could see the TV, but usually I would pop on some headphones so I never even noticed.

One thing I also had to do, was REPLACE all this free time I was creating without the PC and TV. I outlined a ton of productive goals around the house.....cleaning out my office closet, ghosting and cleaning up an old PC, working on a bulliten board with my goals and plans for the future, ect. If you don't have an outline of how to replace all that freetime, you will struggle. At first I was going to limit my reading, but found that I had SO much freetime without electronics, that I ended up loading up at the library on both self help books, and fiction. My goal was not complete deprivation from 'freetime', so I used fiction books to fill in the gap, and some non fiction books to fill some of my productive time.

Result...LOVED the challenge. It was very refreshing and head clearing. I would highly recommend you try again at some point when you feel ready. I am finding the more planning I do, the more people I tell, and the more I get the people close to me on board with keeping my in line (husband in my case, maybe your parents in yours)...the better. Another alternative if you struggle with the parents and thier TV time, is maybe limit yourself to 30 minutes of TV a day. So then you can sit, eat dinner, but make sure you move on as soon as your time has expired...even setting a timer if need be. I personally found it easier to 100% abstain, since one show usually tends to lead to another, and so forth.

Lastly, the ONE thing I did in my last 30 day challenge, was to set an ultimate goal for the end of the 30 days, so I could relate all my efforts to that goal. For me, I needed to get my head clear so I could plan some future goals, and secondly, I needed to improve my productivity at home and at work. So if I had any 'question' about any of my rules set for the 30 days, I could always relate back to the main goal of the 30 days. I was removing media to clear my head......and that reminded me why I was doing something that was seriously challenging for me and my habits.

Best of luck on your current goals and any you may have in the future!!

[Majesticzero]

Originally Posted by Peaceflmeadow

Majest...

If you decide to try the no TV challenge again, here are a couple of thoughts that might help.

I completed a no media challenge from Jan 13th - Feb 12th. No TV, no internet, no PC games, no news, no personal email or texting, nada. I allowed music, and reading. I work behind a PC as well, so I had to clearly outline what I could do at work, which was internet searches for work related issues only, which rarely come up in my job. All email work related, ect.

I had to analyze my usage of each item, and outline goals and 'rules' around each. For example, my husband and I eat in front of the TV as well every night. SO, I asked him if he would join me at the dining table several nights a week. On the nights he didn't, I popped open a book and read while I ate. If he was watching TV while I was working in the kitchen or around the house...yes, I could see the TV, but usually I would pop on some headphones so I never even noticed.

One thing I also had to do, was REPLACE all this free time I was creating without the PC and TV. I outlined a ton of productive goals around the house.....cleaning out my office closet, ghosting and cleaning up an old PC, working on a bulliten board with my goals and plans for the future, ect. If you don't have an outline of how to replace all that freetime, you will struggle. At first I was going to limit my reading, but found that I had SO much freetime without electronics, that I ended up loading up at the library on both self help books, and fiction. My goal was not complete deprivation from 'freetime', so I used fiction books to fill in the gap, and some non fiction books to fill some of my productive time.

Result...LOVED the challenge. It was very refreshing and head clearing. I would highly recommend you try again at some point when you feel ready. I am finding the more planning I do, the more people I tell, and the more I get the people close to me on board with keeping my in line (husband in my case, maybe your parents in yours)...the better. Another alternative if you struggle with the parents and thier TV time, is maybe limit yourself to 30 minutes of TV a day. So then you can sit, eat dinner, but make sure you move on as soon as your time has expired...even setting a timer if need be. I personally found it easier to 100% abstain, since one show usually tends to lead to another, and so forth.

Lastly, the ONE thing I did in my last 30 day challenge, was to set an ultimate goal for the end of the 30 days, so I could relate all my efforts to that goal. For me, I needed to get my head clear so I could plan some future goals, and secondly, I needed to improve my productivity at home and at work. So if I had any 'question' about any of my rules set for the 30 days, I could always relate back to the main goal of the 30 days. I was removing media to clear my head......and that reminded me why I was doing something that was seriously challenging for me and my habits.

Best of luck on your current goals and any you may have in the future!!

Thank you Peaceflmeadow!
I'll try this again. With this information I think I can do this!


Day 10:

Meet someone new every week: spoke to someone new. But I didn't start te conversation, he did. But I tried to keep the conversation going which helps me also in fighting the believe that I haven't got much to say.
Do not lie to anyone: success.

Day 11:

Meet someone new every week: didn't meet anyone I didn't knew already. But, I had a meeting at my new work (starting April) where I needed to give a lot of input (I'm becoming a project leader there) so this also helped me a lot with my social skills I think.
Do not lie to anyone: failed. I still think I need to tell lies so that I think I'm a better person.

[Majesticzero]

Day 12:

Meet someone new every week: didn't meet anyone
Do not lie to anyone: success.

Day 13:

Meet someone new every week: didn't meet anyone.
Do not lie to anyone: success.

Day 14:

Meet someone new every week: didn't meet anyone.
Do not lie to anyone: success.

New week, new chances!

I really don't like this way of "30 days to success". I'm thinking of changing to a "month to success". Every month something else. And I want just ONE thing instead of 2 or 3 things a month.

[Majesticzero]

Day 15:

Meet someone new every week: didn't meet anyone
Do not lie to anyone: success.

Day 16:

Meet someone new every week: Spoke to 2 people.
Do not lie to anyone: success.

Day 17:

Meet someone new every week: didn't meet anyone
Do not lie to anyone: success.

It feels like this isn't really working. I'll stop this 30 day trial at the end of februari.
In march I'm gonna work on:
- getting together a list of all the costs for living on my own
- working on 'what is my message to this world'.

[Majesticzero]

Day 18:

Meet someone new every week: didn't meet anyone
Do not lie to anyone: success.

Day 19:

Meet someone new every week: didn't meet anyone
Do not lie to anyone: success.

Day 20:

Meet someone new every week: didn't meet anyone
Do not lie to anyone: success.

I'm going to stop this trial now. This is not working.
I'll start by putting things into months instead of 30 days. First I'm going to think of good things todo, instead of just join things.

I'll keep you guys posted.

[Eric Roosevelt]

The way to take consistent action is to consistently remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing. Then exclaim to yourself "I WANT to do this". As long as you truly want to do what you're doing, you will probably succeed.

[Majesticzero]

Originally Posted by Eric Roosevelt

The way to take consistent action is to consistently remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing. Then exclaim to yourself "I WANT to do this". As long as you truly want to do what you're doing, you will probably succeed.

It's not that I don't succeed. It's that I need goals that need a lot more self discipline.