Start the New Year With a 30-Day Trial (Blog)

[Savage]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

Start the New Year With a 30-Day Trial

[Dan.Linehan]

quitting smoking
becoming vegetarian or vegan
launching a new online businesses and/or blog
learning to invest
getting out of debt
starting a new exercise program

Aha!

[Jake Birkett]

My Aikido sensei has just asked me to go for 2nd Dan in 2008. It takes 5 years to reach 1st Dan (black belt) and 6 years minimum before he invites us to take 2nd Dan. I teach twice a week and have found it invaluable (along with Steve's advice of course) to my daily life. So I need to boost myself up a level in 2008.

I'm already Vegan and I don't take caffeine and my diet is OK, plus I exercise hard for 5+ hours per week, however I *know* I can do more :-) so...

2008 =

1) Go to bed by 12pm and Get up by 8am.
2) Meditate and do breathing every day.
3) Keep junk food/treats to an absolute minimum.
4) Reduce alcohol intake (it's pretty minor anyway).
5) Exercise like crazy every day (isometric exercises, pressups, sit ups etc, running).
6) take up swimming.
7) focus on moves required to pass 2nd dan.
8) Keep my positive attitude strong.

Alongside this I need to keep my Indie game development business going strong (2007 has been a *fabulous* year!), increase family time, keep working on self-improvement, increase personal hobby time, and go on more holidays. Achieving a good balance between these is a key goal for me for 2008...wish me luck!

[Catlover]

Is the 30-day trial for one specific goal, rather than multiple ones?

[Savage]

Originally Posted by Catlover

Is the 30-day trial for one specific goal, rather than multiple ones?

You can do multiple simultaneous trials. I recommend no more than about 3-4 though, and it's best if those goals are mutually supportive, such as changes to diet, exercise, and waking up early. My experience has been that when people do 5 or more goals at once, especially across different areas of their lives (work, health, relationship, etc), they often fail at all of them.

It's like when someone through you one ball, you can catch it no problem. But if they toss you several balls at once, you may get so confused that you miss all of them.

If you do go for multiple trials, I recommend picking a single primary goal, so if the going gets too tough, that's the goal you'll keep while letting the others go for a future trial.

For further details, be sure to read the original 30 Days to Success as well as the Postmortem. You can also pick up some extra tips by reading the comments after those posts.

[chuchuva]

I will post at least one message to one of ASP newsgroups every day. But I will not spend more than 30 minutes a day there.

[dsguy1247]

Hi,

First of all, a huge thanks to Steve for the enormous contribution to the life of millions of readers. I really benefited a lot from the the posting about waking up earlier everyday. Now, I wake up every day at 4:00am and work out thrice a week.
Using the posting about breaking a habit, last year I broke my habit of social drinking. I never drank once during 2007 after the new year's party on 31st December, 2006.
I also followed my passion of public speaking and technology and reached the finals for toastmasters district championship and also taught all across North America and Canada partnering with IBM.

My goals for 2008 are:

1. Breaking the tea-drinking habit.
2. Focus more on my passion of public speaking and technology.
3. Planned dates with each family member with each of my two kids and spouse.
4.Continue the exercise routine.
5. Regular meditation and divine communion with the Universal Consciousness.
6.Focus on building the training and consulting business with a singular focus.
7.Regular contribution to the education of under-privileged kids (tithing).
8.Focus on building positive relationships (Relationships which build positive vibrations in our lives).
9. Regular time to reflect and plan for the big picture and to connect with my core values. To strive for peace and live each day with the attitude of gratitude for the wonderful life we already have.
10.Focus on doing at least "one act of random kindness" each day without any expectations.

My best wishes for a wonderful, exciting and absolutely wonderful New Year for all our brothers and sisters on this forum. May we all achieve all our goals in a healthy way and with the spirit of common good for all!!

Amen.

[carenkh]

I just started Cheri Huber's Making a Change for Good. She's the author of There's Nothing Wrong With You, one of my favorite books, and one I frequently recommend. At the end of Making a Change, she leads you on a 30-day "retreat" to incorporate a change you wish to make.

Interesting timing, no?

I'm digging for clarity about which area of my life I'll be working on - finances? exercise? home organization? It seems like there's something more "core" than all of those - it may come down to me just picking one, and knowing that core stuff will get worked on no matter what I do.

[bart]

Will decide on the ones I want to pick up today, but one in there had me curious and I wonder if anyone could give me an idea on how to proceed?

- improving social/dating skills

I would not have a clue where to start, what book or books to read on it (most dating books I have seen are sleazy manipulative oriented). Any advise out there would be welcome !

[kthdsn]

I'm going to try going to the gym first thing in the morning for 30 days. I already go 2 or 3 times a week at lunch with my sister, but I feel that I could use a burst of energy in the morning and some time to myself with my ipod. I've been wanting to do this for a while, I don't know why I didn't think to do a 30 day trial

[munish]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I’ll reveal my upcoming 30-day trial experiment.

Thanks for this post and looking forward to Information about your Upcoming 30 day trial experiment !!

[Akashic_Librarian]

Hey bart, I like that one!

I think I will improve my dating skills. (but I've been told I am pretty good anyway lol)

My MAIN trial, which I was thinking of doing anyway, is vegetarianism, waking up early AND exercise.

I wish you all, and myeslf, loads of luck

[Tobias Zimpel]

There's a lot I would like to change in my life, and I'm still not quite sure where to start. I tent to want everything at once, and of course have failed every single time.

Here's a short list, prioritized as far as I'm able to with the most important item on top:

1. Implement GTD, using the Software LifeBalance
2. Use the Blog Mastermind Course to grow my blog to 10.000 RSS Subscribers and/or 50.000 daily readers and monetize it to make a living from it
3. Implement the techniques from FlyLady.com to do the chores efficiently
4. Change my diet to at least vegan whole-foods, if not raw
5. be financially able to quit my day job
6. Get out of debt
7. try bi-phasic sleep

I think I'm gonna try and do GTD, blogging and FlyLady.com at once, and add a good portion of self-discipline to it.

This will not be a straight 30DT, since I am going to increase the level of what I do over time.

I started on this process already, but with not too much success, and blogged about it.

[bart]

Originally Posted by Akashic_Librarian

Hey bart, I like that one!

I don't !

- improving social/dating skills

I mean, I quoted it from Steve's blog entry and I am lost on how to proceed with that one, but I want to. Books, blog entries, anything tips are welcome, but I should probably make a thread for it rather then hijack this one !

Bart

[Tobias Zimpel]

Originally Posted by bart

- improving social/dating skills

I mean, I quoted it from Steve's blog entry and I am lost on how to proceed with that one, but I want to. Books, blog entries, anything tips are welcome, but I should probably make a thread for it rather then hijack this one !

Bart, Steve wrote a few articles on that:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...social-skills/
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...-to-extrovert/
You can go deeper from there by following on the related articles and other recommendations in the posts.

I personally believe that "improving social/dating skills" is a quite unfocussed goal. I have no idea what that may look like when you have reached that goal.

I would suggest that you ask yourself what would be different in your life when you have improved your social/dating skills. What do you want to change that you think will be better when you improved your skills?

I have some form of asperger's, so for me social skills are not that easy, too. I'm not able to just chit-chat for more than a minute, but upon our first meet-up, I had no problem with a deep discussion about almost anything I have only the remotest interest in.

So do you have an area in terms of social interaction that you think you can use as a starting point?

I'd really like to help you more, but without clarity of what you mean by improving your skills, this is quite hard to do.

[Jake Birkett]

If you do go for multiple trials, I recommend picking a single primary goal, so if the going gets too tough, that's the goal you'll keep while letting the others go for a future trial

Good advice thanks Steve. I'll do that. But I pretty confident that I can do several trials at once (because they are all health related, so kinda blend into one new regime). I've done it before, when going for black belt 5+ years ago. We'll see anyway ... ;-)

Good luck to everyone else and their trials too! Hope they pan out nicely and you can stick to them all year (and beyond) if they work out well for you.

[Ninja]

My 30-day trial will be... not biting my nails. In my case, I might as well try to find a cure for AIDS. It's probably easier...

[ualex]

My 30-day trial will be wake up 5a.m, because I was studying and working and if I achieve this goal it will be wonderfull, but I have tried for last three years... and failed.

but 2008 I will achieve this goal!!!

[Andrew Brunelle]

My goal for this year is to work on my comedy career with full force. I would also like to write more in my blog, which has taken a backseat to other things in my life right now. There is one goal I will not pursue, and that is waking up before 8 AM. I'm sorry, but I love sleep too much. My dreams are amazing. You know what? I'm not sorry. Good luck with all your goals.

[Kylark]

My first 30-day trial will be giving up coffee for 30 days.

[Lynn 007]

From January 1st to January 31st, 2008, I will:

1. Eat breakfast daily (within 2 hours of getting up)
2. Exercise a minimum of 30 minutes each day for 5 days of the week
3. Start a "food diary" so I can honestly see where improvements can be made in my diet.
4. Have 2 litres of water each day.

Good luck to everyone with all their 30 day goals.

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you reach all of your goals.

[Andreas]

I hadn't planned on sharing this publicly, but Steve is right. Announcing your goals publicly makes the goal easier to achieve.

So, my 30 day goal for January 2008 is threefold,

1. Go to bed before 23:00
2. Wake up before 07:00 every day
3. Exercise 6 times a week for 30 minutes (alternating between anaerobic and aerobic)


Some may view #2 as incredibly easy, but it's an area I quite struggle in, so I'm going to start with something that seems easy to my subconscious mind. In reality, 07:00 would be the absolute latest I would get up, most likely rising at 06:30 when my alarm goes off. If I'm doing very well, I'll push it to 06:00 next week. If that goes well, I'll push it to 05:00 the following week, but I will not rush into it. Sleep patterns take time to hold.

Best of luck to all.

[rachelMT]

My goal, like some others, is to get up at 5 am and exercise. Today was my first attempt, and not only was getting up easy (even after a bad night's sleep), but I feel great - very energized!

I'd really like to make this a long-term change.

[Rosie]

I find this trial extremely interesting. It's really fascinating since it completely contradicts the average american diet. But I also thinks it's really unhealthy. We humans need to consume variety, and we can't just eat fruit. Fruit is great as a snack, dessert, or addition to a meal, but not as a meal itself. Not to mention it will become really boring!! I don't know about you, but I get sick of foods if they all have the same taste. If I consume too many sweet foods, I need something like bread, to balance it out. I am not surprised that you are feeling tired. It's a sign that your body is lacking something. I think that extremes are never good, and I believe that balance is the usually the best choice. I am really interested to hear the results, good or bad. I commend you for being so brave and trying something new

good luck!

[MaxRoeleveld]

First off: thanks Steve, for the many insightful articles on your blog. I've been reading for a while now, and your "going raw" announcement (and some of the related posts) kinda struck a chord within.

I know there's lots of things in my life that I can (and should) improve on. To start things off "easy", I've made it my 30DT to quit coffee. I'm a very heavy coffee drinker, and even though I've known for ages that there's downsides to that, I've always given in to that inner voice that kept nagging for more.

Well, not this time. I'm going coffee-clean for a month, and if possible, for longer. If that works out, it should give me a little more confidence to tackle the other addictions: smoking, bad food, nail biting, running away from problems... the list goes on and on. No big alcohol or drug abuse though, thank $deity.

Everyone else who takes part in the 30DT: good luck!

[Kaspian]

Originally Posted by Bruce Achterberg

What I'm interested in, however, is what you (ie. Steve + the other people participating in the 30 day trials) use to manage your trials. Ie. What documents do you use, if any?

To be a bit more specific, do you just use a paper calendar and cross it off as you go? Do you use certain software? Do you just wing it and remember what day you started on and what day you will finish? Do you keep any logs, and if so, what type of data do you record and what format do you use?

Bruce,

I've been using a spreadsheet with the days of the week in the first column and days of the month in the second column. Each goal has its own column after that. For goals that can be measured with a simple, "Yes, I did it," or "No, I didn't," 1 is yes, and 0 is no. At the bottom of the column, I can tally the number of yeses at the end of the month. Some of the goals I set were time-based—things like, "Do 4 hours of yard work per week." For that kind of goal, I recorded the number of hours spent per day rounded to the nearest quarter-hour.

[Tobias Zimpel]

Originally Posted by Bruce Achterberg

Hey guys,What do you use?
___________________________

What I'm interested in, however, is what you (ie. Steve + the other people participating in the 30 day trials) use to manage your trials. Ie. What documents do you use, if any?

I just put together a notes template on my PDA, that has 30 "bubbles" on top that I mark off every day:

xx-xooo
ooooooo
ooo...

I think you get the idea. Under that, there is a detailed description on what I want to do, what I consider a success, the benefits of reaching my goals, and maybe some additional reward that I put up if the "natural" benefits of success are not enough to motivate me.

However, a friend of mine uses Click Here to Rename Your Seinfeldian Chain | smarterfitter.com to visualize his success and motivate himself to follow through on it. It follows basically the same principle, but is more visually appealing that a .txt on a 3-inch display :-)

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by MaxRoeleveld

I know there's lots of things in my life that I can (and should) improve on. To start things off "easy", I've made it my 30DT to quit coffee. I'm a very heavy coffee drinker, and even though I've known for ages that there's downsides to that, I've always given in to that inner voice that kept nagging for more.

Well, not this time. I'm going coffee-clean for a month, and if possible, for longer.

I recommend you approach it from the standpoint of:

Once I complete the trial I can decide whether or not I'd like to continue drinking coffee or not, but for 30 days, I'm going to give it my all and not drink any coffee.

I find it's the "this is only temporary" that's part of the motivation. If you see it as permanent, you tend to complicate things and don't approach it from the right mindset.

[MaxRoeleveld]

Originally Posted by Bruce Achterberg

I recommend you approach it from the standpoint of:

Once I complete the trial I can decide whether or not I'd like to continue drinking coffee or not, but for 30 days, I'm going to give it my all and not drink any coffee.

I find it's the "this is only temporary" that's part of the motivation. If you see it as permanent, you tend to complicate things and don't approach it from the right mindset.

Exactly what I had in mind. It's not that I'm planning now on never drinking coffee again, but I'll postpone it for at least a month, and I'll go from there.

My dad quit smoking years ago, but he says he never quit. He just hasn't lit a smoke in 15 years or so.

[mikeschu]

My 30-day trial for 2-31 January: Eat at least one piece of fruit per day.

It's a small step compared to going raw vegan, but I have to start somewhere.