My 30 Day Trials

[Rod_Smith_1982]

Hi, this is my first post on this forum. I want to make a public commitment to my ongoing and new thirty day trials.

(1) Exercise at least thirty minutes every day.

I am on day 22 of this trial. I have completed the trial successfully everyday so far. I will finish on the 14th of August.

(2) Read at least 40 pages of a non-study related book every day.

I am on day 22 of this trial. I have completed the trial successfully everyday so far. I will finish on the 14th of August.

(3) Meditate for at least fifteen minutes every day (from the 6th August - 4th September).

I will by meditate by keeping my mind silent and using a stopwatch to record the length of time this is done for. Whenever a thought enters my head the stopwatch will be reset and the time recorded.

(4) Write blog material for at least forty-five minutes per day (from the 6th August - 4th September).




As you can see, habits (3) and (4) are just beginning today, whilst (1) and (2) are on day 22. Completing four thirty-day trials at the same time may seem difficult, but hell I know I can do it. (Only positive feedback please - can't afford enthusiasm to wane.) I will record my results here as often as possible, though I will be on holiday as from next week, which will make internet access less frequent.


All the best,

Rod

[seeker5]

Great! I look forward to hearing of your success.

[MadHyeNa]

Glad to hear your determination, Rod. Thumbs up!

Keep us posted.

[Rod_Smith_1982]

Thank you for your support Seeker and MadHyeNa. The public commitment and your support have encouraged a successful day.

(1) Exercise at least 30 minutes every day

Day 22: complete

(2) Read at least 40 pages of a non-study book every day

Day 22: complete

(3) Meditate habit

This was the first day of this habit and I decided to alter it so that I concentrate on my breathing and/or a single noise tone for fifteen minutes. I did this. (Under my system of 30 day trials, alterations are acceptable on the first day - as they, in effect, mean that you have failed and started a new 30day trial in a single day; but, any alterations to the plan on another day constitute a failure of the 30 day trial and a new trial must be started.)

(4) Blog habit

This was also the first day of this habit. I decided to alter this to 30 minutes of writing, which I completed. I thought this seemed like a more realistic 30day trial.

Very happy with my continued progress. And, the plan seems more realistic than the one posted this morning.

[Trustme]

Just curious - how long can you go without a thought before you have to restart your stopwatch?

[Rod_Smith_1982]

Trustme: it's hard to say, which is partly why I decided to focus only on breathing. The reason I found it difficult is because it's often hard to determine what constitutes a 'thought'. Clearly, verbalised 'internal chat' is a thought. But, what about an image or a memory? In order to do it properly, I felt I had to class these as thoughts, but some times the imagery is so vague it wasn't immediately obvious it was occurring. If I were to include any mental episode or occurrence as constituting a thought, then I couldn't hold a silent mind for very long at all (it certainly never surpassed 10 seconds).

In one of Steve's articles he mentions that he worked up to holding a silent mind for around 90 seconds. Once I've completed this 30 day trial (on breathing or focussing on the tonal noise), I may try the silent mind again.

[stephencp]

Yes, the meditation is both the hardest, and in my opinion most valuable part of your trial. The best advice on meditation is Bill Bodrin and Master Nan.

Stephen

The Internet Largest Free Give Away Ever - ****************************

[Rod_Smith_1982]

7/8/07

(1)

Done

(2)

Done

(3)

Done

(4)

Done

Thanks for the inpute Stephencp. Actually, I've been finding the writing the most taxing. Writer's block has been a real problem for me in the past and I've chosen to bust it with regular blog writing.

[finandom]

Cool! All your goals were done today! Congratulation!

Just keep writing for your blog! This is the best way to solve your writer's block problem

[Rod_Smith_1982]

Thank you for your support ********. (This forum is proving a very supportive and effective way of working on these goals - thanks everyone!)

Update for today: (1) - (4) done successfully!

In terms of (4), although it's only my third day of doing the writing, it seems to be getting a little easier to begin. (By day 30, I will have made major progress towards fighting writer's block.)

[Rod_Smith_1982]

Hi,

(1)

Day 25 - 7 - complete!

(2)

Day 25 - 7 complete!

(3)

Day 4 & 5 complete. Day 6 fail

I did my meditation in my bed for privacy reasons. Owing to tiredness I fell asleep! Very silly. I've decided to discontinue (rather than restart it) this one for just now and concentrate on the others. I want to ensure that I nail every remaining day of the others (henceforth, '(3)' will refer to blogging.)


(4)

Day 4 - 6 complete!

[Kaspian]

Originally Posted by Rod_Smith_1982

I've decided to discontinue (rather than restart it) this one for just now

Why not just continue where you left off?

When I've done 30-day challenges, I've measured my success in a couple of ways. First, did I complete my goal every day? 29 of 30? 25 of 30? Second, if I missed a few days, why? What can I learn from that "failure"? For the June Challenge in particular, I learned at least as much from my "failures" as from my successes. Figuring out what motivates me, how to frame my goals, how to measure success, and what to adjust to make success easy are all as important as actually completing the goal.

What I learned about meditation so far is this: If I meditate laying down, I fall asleep. Meditating when tired is hard. There are many ways to meditate, it's worth trying a variety of methods, some appeal more to me than others, and that's okay.

A few relevant blog posts:
Vera Nadine - Active Meditation
Slade Roberson - The Reason Why You Suck at Meditation
Paula Kawal - The Wisdom of Stillness Part 1 and Part 2
Jeff Lilly - Meet a Guide: Free Guided Meditation
Erin Pavlina - Visualization Meditation Exercise: Go to Your Room

[Rod_Smith_1982]

First, two 30 day trials are complete! (Yesterday was day 31 and I also managed to complete them successfully on these days.)

The third trial (blogging) is also going successfully and I haven't yet missed a day.

I plan to write a post shortly with some tips that have helped me on my way.

Thanks for your pointer Kaspian, you're right to stress the importance of using failure as a learning experience. I've written you a more detailed PM with my reasons for discontinuing it.

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by Rod_Smith_1982

First, two 30 day trials are complete! (Yesterday was day 31 and I also managed to complete them successfully on these days.)

That's terrific! Congratulation.

Originally Posted by Rod_Smith_1982

I plan to write a post shortly with some tips that have helped me on my way.

I look forward to it. I'm curious how you managed to read 40 pages a day and how long that would take you.

[Trustme]

I really like the concept of this thread and I wonder whether it would make sense to have a subforum for these kind of posts (a journaling subforum that is).

It's surprisingly interesting to follow the progress on a day to day basis and I guess it's motivating for the person as well to receive feedback and to be accountable.

If there is not enough demand for a forum the question is where such posts belong to and whether it bothers people when they see a couple of 30-day-trial-journals?

[Rod_Smith_1982]

Thanks Seeker5. In answer to your question, it's hard to say how long it takes - it really depends on the complexity of the reading material. I'm not a speed reader, but my reading speed has got faster since I've been reading regularly. I have been reading Dickens' David Copperfield and that was taking me at least an hour to read 40 pages (so 90 seconds per page) I have just started a study skills book and that takes more like 40 minutes.

I prefer setting a minimum number of pages to read than a minimum time for reading. The advantage of the former is that you can calculate how quickly you will get through a book and, roughly, how many books you will read in a year, which is in itself motivating. Also, if you carry a book around with you, you can chip away at the pages through the day (whilst it would be difficult to accurately chip away at reading time). I suppose the disadvantage is that it takes varying lenghts of time. If you have less time, however, you just set a minimum number of pages that, on average, would be possible to complete in the time you have available.

[Rod_Smith_1982]

It's been a while since I've updated. I said I would post some of the insights I have acquired into successfully completing these trials. You can read that here: 30 Day Trial Reflections

I'm now on day 20 of my blogging trial. I've yet to complete the trial for today, but will do so soon. On the past 19 days, it has been perfectly completed. It's actually become quite fun and 30 minutes is really no length of time, so it's over quickly.

I'm on day 41 of my exercise and reading trials. The reading trial was increased to at least 50 pages. I have yet to complete the exercise and reading yet (it's been a late start today), but will do so soon. Unfortunately, I had my first failure on day 33 for my reading and exercise trials. I felt very disappointed. I fell ill and managed to complete the trial despite this, but on day 33 I felt considerably worse. This is just an excuse, though. I wasn't sufficiently unwell to stop exercising and could have certainly read. My bad. I was also in two minds as to whether this meant I should restart these trials or not. In my notes on 30 day trials (http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/p...lections.html), I decided to allow myself the liberty of not restarting trials if I fail after day 30. This may seem ad hoc, but I decided it was too impractical to extend my rule about there being no exceptions to the first 30 days to day 31 and after.

[Rod_Smith_1982]

I completed my trials today. It's quarter to three in the morning and I just completed my blog trial. Today was very hard. Last night I was out especially late and got back at 9.30 am this morning. After a long night partying I oversleep the next day (a habit I want to change). I got up at 20:00 today, which is pretty good going! It was a real struggle to get started. I feel delighted that I got my trials done.

The day taught me an important lesson. That however many days you've consecutively completed, there will always be personal challenges to completing your trial on a given day. Whether you stick with a habit is ultimately a question of how you perform on these days. As said in my post providing my reflections on my 30 day trials, challenges are the greatest opportunity for growth. Whenever you overcome them, the easy days are even easier and the hard days are less challenging. These days are, in the end, your best friends.

[Calculusaurus]

Congratulations on your progress.

I've always found that meditation 30-day trials are the hardest.

It's like journaling: some days journaling is very appealing and effective. Other days you just feel like you really have no need to do it. Most journalers go in phases of writing and taking breaks. They may write daily for 20 days because their life demands it. Then they may not feel the need to journal for the next 3 months. It's weird how it works, but it does work that way...

I've sometimes told myself to meditate daily but eventually I run into a day where I just don't "feel" it, you know?

[Rod_Smith_1982]

Thank you Calculusaurus. Yeah, it's unfortunate I failed the meditation trial. I decided to discontinue it. I will certainly start it again, but my next trials (which I will start soon) will be different. I'm working through them in order of priority, and regular meditation is currently a lower priority.

[Livgivare]

Just to be sure you read it, I post twice, wont happen again that I post twice!

Many good points there. Hey, since you gave me the idea of this trial-working out progress could we keep in touch in any way so we give each other support and hoorrays when we do it. Since your idea (even if it is actually someone else that came up with this programme) triggered me to even start to think that it was possible to make it (me who are having such a hard and bad starting-point since I start from litterly point zero). What do you think of it? Can we who does those 30 DT really be there for each other, since it is easier to tell someone totally into the same thing the goods and the bads...

Love Leelene

[Rod_Smith_1982]

Hey Leelene, I'm happy to give you support (just sent you a msg on your own thread). I don't logon that frequently, so if I'm quiet for a while I'm still supporting you! Will msg you when I can.