Suggestions for Future 30-Day Trials (Blog)

[Savage]

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

Suggestions for Future 30-Day Trials

[Manifesto]

Hi Steve,

I think your main interest and focus is to bring consciousness topics to a wider audience. That said, I think the most pressing topic in the next few month will be the coming overhaul of the economic system. I believe most people still don't realize what's going on.

It seems at first glance that the economic system is something that has nothing to do with consciousness and personal growth. However at second sight it is a result of our current thinking model.

How to put this into a 30 days trial? You could have a 30 goal to reach for example 10 Mio people with a specific topic. Or you may come up with a new economic plan that you and other people can follow.

Cheers

Thomas Herold
CEO Dream Manifesto
Dream Manifesto - The Quantum Method for Manifesting Your Dreams

[nemoco]

Steve,
I have been a reader of your blog for a very long time, however this post made me jump and want to suggest something.

You are a smart guy and look like a typical male, How about dressing as a religious minority for thirty days. Now I realize that going as an African American would be too complex and costly (makeup, etc...), however a white minority such as Muslim or Jewish would make for a fascinating read. (30 days each)

Contact me if you need help with a the outfit.

[Michelle]

The first thing I thought of was "he should try something musical". Perhaps you could find something different than piano? Saxophone comes to mind. Double Bass? Harp? Singing?

The other thing that comes to mind would be learning a foreign language - perhaps as efficiently as possible. I'm waiting for the EasyLearn Language program (French) from Learning Strategies, and hope it will facilitate the process.

In any case, I think it should be something "soft", if you know what I mean. These things are increasingly lost as time goes on in our culture, and they are of utmost importance. It would be great if you could demonstrate if and how they contribute to your life and personal growth.

[Angela]

How about Generating Love in Every Single Conversation for 30 days? EVERY conversation, with everyone from your wife to your kids to the mailman to every one of your blog or forum posts to strangers to well, you get the picture.

[tjonestoday]

I would greatly benefit from this, and I'm certain a large number of other people would also:
Lucid Dreaming and/or Astral Projection.

There are some sites that give methods, but a 30-day first-hand experience trial would be much easier to relate to and understand.

[impaul99]

30 Days of Developing YOUR (not Erin's) psychic abilities. You could do tarot readings for people, track and report dreams, make predictions, etc.

[tjonestoday]

Originally Posted by Angela

How about Generating Love in Every Single Conversation for 30 days?

I agree. This is also a great idea.

[stormylee]

I'd like to see you try some more diets just because you did such a good job of following and documenting this one and I'm curious about some others. Low carb would be top of my list.

My more diverse list would include:

• low carb diet
• not buying anything for a month (except food?)
• doing a favor for a stranger once a day
• visiting a different school/library/you pick it each day
• learning something new (like reading about a country) every day
• taking x number of pictures. Pioneer Woman (www.pioneeerwoman.com) takes 75-150 pictures a day to get her awesome pictures. I'd like to try that.

[Erki]

How about "living meditation"? Trying to notice every little thing in Life, immersing yourself in Here & Now. Add Angela's suggestion as a dressing.

[811rv]

Some interesting sugggestions already.

*****How about a 30 day fast?

Either an old-skool water fast, or the Master Cleanse.

I like the musical ideas. The important question question here is : what sort of music do you listen to Steve?
If you listen mainly to 80's electro-pop there's no point taking up the bassoon.

*****Play an instrument that's prevalent in the music you can't live without.

*****Wear a blindfold for 30 days, dictate everything

*****Don't speak for 30 days, still blog it though!

*****take up smoking for 30 days

*****don't wash for a month

[Erki]

Originally Posted by stormylee

taking x number of pictures. Pioneer Woman (www.pioneeerwoman.com) takes 75-150 pictures a day to get her awesome pictures. I'd like to try that.

Link is not working. Clue from universe to go out and do it myself, it seems.

edit: do you mean her? Flickr: Photos from Pioneer Woman

[impaul99]

Another idea would be some form of "Make Money Blogging" 30 day trial.

Like, maybe starting a brand new blog from scratch, on any topic, and without diverting traffic from this one see how much you can build it up in 30 days.

[RyanTM]

attempt to get elected to a public office in 30 days.

[hpmons]

I wouldnt mind if you did another diet related one at some point in the future, but there are lots of other things to focus on.

Something that is social in some way is interesting - such as, previously said, "Generating Love in Every Single Conversation", but I also like the idea of not speaking for a month! Could raise your awareness of communicating without words.
Or meeting someone new every day, trying to strike up a conversation.

I also like someone elses suggestion of not buying anything except food (or other bare essentials)

Read a book a day! Admittedly, without photoreading you'd have to pick quite thin books or spend your time doing little else...
Write 2000 words of fiction a day. Or perhaps when its November, go in for the NaNoWriMo and write about your experiences.

Take up chess and play with a different person each day? Eh...Dont use your mobile for a month? Do some charity work every day?

[BillPerry]

I second tjones' idea for something regarding Lucid Dreaming.

But I have something more specific in mind.

In my last Lucid Dream, I tested my theory that I should be able to do Deep Trance Identification in the Lucid State.

I wrote about it at my blog, but basically, it involves using the Lucid Dream to have your mind to generate a model of a person that is based on everything you've ever seen, heard, and known about a person to "try on" that person's identity. I haven't done "full" identification yet. What I focus on right now, is simply "talking" to the dream characters once the unconscious mind completes the model. I ask the character questions, and it actually helped get insights into this person, and we get along much better now in "real" life.

Anyway, Steve, I think you could do a 30-day trial of using lucidity to "try on" certain aspects of different people you admire, or even doing 30 days as someone else, to see hot it enhances the current version of you.

One idea I want to try, but haven't been in lucidity again to do it, is to do the same process, but use the dream to talk to a future version of myself.

Bill Perry
LucidBlog

[Ninja]

Watch the sunrise every morning? Learn a new language? Wait till November and participate in National Novel Writing Month

[PringlesAreVegan]

I know it's Winter in Nevada and usually that would be a good time to go outdoors, but have to put this out just the same:

Do something that takes you out of your comfort zone, out of your office and away from your computer a set amount of time each day. I'm not sure what mind you, but do it for this generation of homebody computer geeks, home based entrepreneurs and telecommuters and the masses of people sharing there life with a computer & cubicle every day - it might get people thinking 'outside the box' a little and how each of us can do something small and yet meaningful a little each day...a couple quick ideas off the top of my funny shaped head:

- Sidewalk interview: quick intro (establish you're not a quack), then ask a question, what would 'a perfect day be like for you'? 'a perfect life?'...'chocolate or vanilla?'...just kidding on that last one

- Visit a nursing home or 'assisted living facility' and talk to someone with at least twice your time in this world - report on what you expected and what you didn't expect - maybe what changed your viewpoint on something

[grogan]

How about working on movement/body usage efficiency for 30 days, as applied to your every day activities such as walking, sleeping, gym workouts, preparing meals, using the computer.

Use techniques such as Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method, Yoga, even tapping etc. Choose a selection of techniques that best resonate with you and locate experts that give lessons, read books/sites etc.

You could blog about how your improved usage affects mental clarity, energy levels, strength, fitness etc

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by 811rv

Don't speak for 30 days, still blog it though!

I did that for a few days a while back when I had a sore throat. It was really enlightening!

I discovered that (A) so much of what we say is unnecessary, (B) you can communicate a great deal with body language and facial expression alone, and (C) people don't really need you to talk to them for them to react/respond -- a lot of what they say to you isn't about what you've said, but their own personal conditioning that they just play out.

(I found that last part pretty scary. It showed me how inauthentic most people are. "Real" communication seems rare. But as Ghandi says, be the change you want to see in the world.)

If Steve tried this, it sure would make going to Toastmasters challenging! You'd want to be good with props!

[Kita]

I'd personally be most interested in a language acquisition trial, specifically some kind of intensive course. It might be possible to find an out-of-the-box program that would have the potential for surprising results. For example there's a program called 'Remembering the Kanji' that's interesting to me because it's both incredibly effective and never taught in school. I started last week doing 50 a day, and have learned stroke order and keyword association for 450 kanji with almost perfect recall. In the past year of traditional study I learned maybe 200.

Unfortunately this obviously requires intrinsic interest in a language or culture. Maybe with a little research you could find other indirect benefits. A quick Google search gave me this article. It seems it applies best to those who learn young, but that's the point of a 30 day trial

If nothing else you might pick up some new learning and memory tricks.

Something more appropriate to you personally may be charity work though. Try joining some organized charity work and see how it affects your perceptions and self awareness. Some areas would have the potential to be both confronting and rewarding, which would be interesting.

[seeker5]

How about you test your hypothesis that you alluded to recently? That you start believing that you can eat whatever you want, and still be healthy. You take all these test daily, and you eat stuff that logically would make you worst.

[Designer M]

I'd be interested in seeing a few things, not sure if they'd all make 30 day trials though:

-Reducing your environmental impact (carbon footprint etc)
-Looking into ethical banking
-Reducing non-essential possessions and consumption.

[Erin Pavlina]

Those are some great ideas. I like Angela's idea of infusing love into all his conversations. That would be a very high vibrational thing to do.

I also liked the idea of talking to strangers once a day. That's something I would totally love to do. Maybe i'll swipe that idea if Steve doesn't want it.

A 30 day vow of silence... that would be so interesting. I would always get the last word. rofl. I would yabber his ear off!

I also like the one about going to an assisted living center and talking to someone twice your age. Very thought provoking and interesting.

Keep the ideas coming.

[impaul99]

Here's another idea:

Eat crap for 30 days.

Meaning, eat like McDonalds, fastfoods, cakes, chocolates, twinkies, pizza, pop, just junk like crazy...

Here's the twist though...

While eating it, visualize or try to believe that the food is good for you...

See what happens for 30 days.

[Andrew Brunelle]

I believe a 30 day vow of silence would be very interesting to hear about. Well, read about because you couldn't exactly do a podcast about it. I tried a vow of silence for a week a few years ago and it was an enlightening experience. Could be one that would be interesting, but I don't know if 30 days could maintain readership. Well, good luck choosing something else to grow with.

I also like this idea:

Originally Posted by impaul99

Here's another idea:

Eat crap for 30 days.

Meaning, eat like McDonalds, fastfoods, cakes, chocolates, twinkies, pizza, pop, just junk like crazy...

Here's the twist though...

While eating it, visualize or try to believe that the food is good for you...

See what happens for 30 days.

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by Andrew Brunelle

I believe a 30 day vow of silence would be very interesting to hear about. Well, read about because you couldn't exactly do a podcast about it. I tried a vow of silence for a week a few years ago and it was an enlightening experience. Could be one that would be interesting, but I don't know if 30 days could maintain readership. Well, good luck choosing something else to grow with.

What's the point of a 30 day vow of silence?

[Savage]

Lots of cool ideas here -- I can see it's going to be hard to pick the next one. Keep 'em coming.

I like the general idea of learning a new skill for 30 days, like chess or a new language. I'm not sure that would make for interesting blog posts along the way though. Hmmm...

Not buying anything for a month aside from the essentials would be too easy -- I get close to that already since I'm not much of a shopper. This assumes I pay my usual bills like web hosting.

Charity/volunteer work might make for interesting blogging. I did a good bit of that when I was younger, including spending a lot of time in a convalescent home and a school for handicapped preschoolers. Due to my checkered past, I also had to do some court-ordered volunteer work on a couple occasions. So if I did this I'd want it to be something new and different than what I already experienced.

Launching a new web business is an idea I considered, but to me that seems like more of the same, and I wouldn't be able to blog it along the way without pouring traffic into the site, unless I somehow kept the URL secret (and I'm terrible at keeping secrets) or waited until the end of the 30 days to post the first entry. What about trying to help my kids (ages 7 and 4) start their own web business? Even if I sent them traffic, the kids would have to find a way to offer something of value. Maybe my daughter could try to sell her original drawings online -- she's pretty good at art for her age.

Some other ideas:

• Try writing an original poem or a new short story each day
• Spend an hour doing something new with the kids each day
• Talk to someone from a different country each day
• Study a new city or country each day
• Try to outsource a different part of my life each day, such as to a virtual assistant
• Make daily improvements to this web site (i.e. design changes or new features, not content additions)

I like the ideas that are off the beaten path. Spending more time in front of the computer wouldn't be as much of a growth experience for me. I'm especially attracted to doing something more social this time.

[Fullcrum]

Hey Steve, hope it's going great in Las Vegas!

All these ideas are good. I love them all.

However, what is ONE THING that could AUGMENT any future 30-day trials? In fact, what could make it easier to GENERATE 30-day trials?

Image streaming. The Genius Code by Learning Strategies Corporation.

I wonder if you've ever done this program before. If not, rest assured, I'm doing it and it's wonderful, both in making school work even more of a breeze than it already was (I was always straight A's) and making me more peaceful. Mostly, though, image streaming seems to make me MORE INTELLIGENT and INSIGHTFUL and also to come up with the (seemingly) craziest ideas as answers for deep and profound questions. That turn out on later examination to be true.

I'm saturating myself in this program and it seems to be having a profound impact.

This isn't about "image streaming." Think of it like SUBCONSCIOUS COMMUNICATION. So in this thirty day trial you would do the program for one hour a day (the high think-tank exercise is actually a 30 day trial in itself - an idea) or simply do a generalized image stream for 30 days, 30 minutes a day. I actually prefer the second, because a generalized image stream is the most "pure." In fact you don't even need to buy the program, just image stream. It's easy and if you wanna do it you can find it on the Project Renaissance website or I could tell you. Both you and Erin would most likely benefit from this and it's something that both of you appear to be interested in (subconscious communication). The results of your discourses with your genius mind would benefit people for decades, it would be like the things psychologists have tried to do for decades but have only been successful to varying degrees.

Of course this is different from your journaling stuff. You actually speak aloud, to another listener or to a tape recorder. You and Erin could do it together . Now, wouldn't THAT be something?! You'd be trialing how having a partner affects you on the trial at the same time!

These exercises mainly focus on bypassing the conscious mind. Your results would be very tangible - you could just tape yourself image streaming and then podcast yourself with the image stream and THEN the analysis. In this respect your experiment could help ALL OF US interpret symbolism. Kinda like poetry. Do you see how this could benefit and augment many parts of your life and also benefit all of us?

Hope you consider it .

[memandala]

Because I've been trying to do it myself and experienced some challenges. The suggestion I was given was for 21 days but I'm sure you could make it 30 : ) This is a 21 day fast from all negative speaking - meaning no complaining, no criticizing, no gossiping, no bitching, etc. It's okay to think these things, just no speaking them. The way this was given to me is if I slip I must forgive myself and start over at day 1. That part doesn't exactly fit in with the 30 day trial concept so maybe some tweaking could be involved.

I consider myself to be a fairly aware and positive person so I was surprised when I started this how often I engaged in negative speaking that was just a habit - like at work. Most of the talk in my office centers around complaints about the company. I didn't realize that I was tending to put my 2 cents in there with them. The first week I tried this I had very little to say in the office.

One day I made it all day and was feeling very positive until our small dog ran away and wouldn't come back. There is no chance of catching him because he is too fast so it took a long time to convince him to come back. When I finally got him in my hands I put hands around his head and whispered, "a**hole," in his ear. Then I had to laugh at myself!

I've been told that we lose a lot of our power through negative speaking and that this fast results in us regaining that lost power. I've had days where I really felt it. For me this has been a process. The longest I've made it so far is 2 days. But I've had more good days in the past two months since I began. And I feel confident that I WILL make it 21 days.

Steve is so positively inclined to begin and more practiced than many; he might have an easier time. It would be nice to get his observations on the experiment.