30 day trial is one of the most powerful personal growth tools that I have learned recently. It is an extended version of 21 days trial by Steven Covey in his book “ The 7 habits of highly effective people.” But I have found the 30 day method much powerful than what Steven Covey shared in his book.
Why 30 day trial?
I don’t have any specific reason for this but at what I can say is that if you tried anything for 30 day it sticks with you and becomes your habit. You need some self-discipline and you need to choose something that really excites you to make it successful. You can take it as an ultimate practice zone. If you could do anything for 30 days without missing even a single day, I am sure you will learn a lot about that habit.
What if you failed?
There is nothing to lose. You can pick any other habit or hobby that you want to explore by devoting only 30 days of your life. Moreover it will be your own experiment and not an exam where you pass or fail. Just take it as a learning process, where you will learn about how self-disciplined you are and how much you enjoy trying new things in your life. Believe me; even if you fail you will not be in the place where you are today. You will learn something more than other people who haven’t given it a try.
Why you might fail?
Most of the people fail to stick with this challenge because:
• They didn’t start it with positive frame of mind
• They tried a lot of things at once.
• They lacked self-discipline
• Getting over excited and trying to do much at the start
How to do it?
-First of all be clear about why you want that habit in your life. If that is a big motivator to you, this challenge will be helpful for you otherwise it will be more fun than learning process.
-After you select one habit that fascinates you, go slowly. Do not try to overdo it. Trust me. It will be difficult in the beginning. Set the least limit that you will devote to something. Like if you are planning to read 1 hour daily early in the morning, try to start with 10-15 minutes in the early days and then slightly increase your time. Go slowly; you will reach your target by the time the trial ends.
-Don’t share it publicly with your friends through any sources like Facebook or Twitter. I haven’t found people being giving much support when you are challenging yourself. If you have a few friends whom you think will support you in this challenge, share it only with them.
-Try to replace a bad habit with another and not dropping it completely. This method works better than dropping one habit completely. When you are dropping one habit completely you might feel exhausted. So replace it with something more exciting to you. Like, if you want to cut your time you spent watching TV, try going outside and have fun with friends. You need to replace it with something you enjoy and not with something that drags you down.
-Write down the result in your journal. Yes! You will feel good. You will feel like doing a self-analysis on how you performed and what areas you need to improve so that you do it better. It is needed to motivate you. You need to write exactly how you felt and what sort of change the challenge is bringing in your life. Personally I use Excel sheet to track the days and time that I did it and the journal for descriptive purpose.
Did I mention above that you need to do stick with that new habit for 30 days in a row? You can’t skip it even for a single day. If you miss it you will have to start from the beginning.
Benefits of 30 day trial:
I won’t say it is easy but it is manageable
-You don’t have to lose anything. It’s not about your success or failure. It’s your own self experimentation. You don’t have to answer anyone. If you liked the change you can continue otherwise you can discard it.
-30 days will be enough time to experience the habit/task that you wanted to change. I am sure if you enjoyed that habit it won’t be difficult for you to do it in upcoming days. It means what you can do for 30 days you can do it for life.
-You will feel confident about yourself and you will have different perspective on habit change compared to before.
My personal experience:
Feb, 2009: After hearing a lot about the benefits of Yoga, I thought about trying it I woke up early morning watched Ramdev’s yoga program on Aastha channel for a few days to learn the basics. Later, I did it on my own without watching on TV. I really enjoyed it. I felt like I had a different frame of mind after doing yoga early in the morning. I had a lot of energy during the day.. After one year I decided to quit. Again from the month of November (‘11), I have started doing it. Now, I don’t find it difficult.
April, 2009: Initially I had a habit of watching TV and reading newspaper early in the morning. Later I came across an article which opened my eyes. It said that if you devote 1 hour reading on any subject for 5 years you will have ability in that field. I decided to give it a try. So I quit the habit of watching TV and reading newspaper and started reading books instead. I still have that habit and now I can’t believe starting my day without a book.
Recently I had read in a book the benefits of going on a media fast. I found that interesting. I thought about what I shall miss if I don’t watch TV, read newspaper or listen to radio for a whole month. I gave it a try. I can’t believe nothing bad happened to me. In fact, this habit really benefited me a lot. I was more focused on things that matter to me most. I was more productive the entire day. I didn’t care about the situation of Nepalese politics or what sort of problems were they creating. I felt like I was concentrating more on my locus of control and doing great work.
There are lots of things that I learned from this 30 day challenge method which can’t be covered in this single post. I do have plans to try this method for different things that matters to me like;
Going Vegetarian
Wake up at 4.30 am
Blog a post every day
Watch TED talks every day
Disconnect from social media
But it depends upon what really interests me at that point in my life. It might change from where I am and what really matters to me at that time.
Conclusion: Personally what I feel is 30 day challenge is really the most powerful tool for any sort of change you want to bring in your life. It is simple, manageable, action oriented and effective too. It is a fantastic way to train your body and mind to adopt a new habit in a short period.
Over to you!
Decide what changes you want to see in your life then commit to doing it for 30 days. Believe me you will feel glad about taking up the challenge. In fact, I believe it is the right time to go for the challenge as the New Year is around the corner and you can try to adopt new habits in your life. Don’t get frustrated if you fail to do those resolutions.
If you are still not sure then check this video, you will know what Matt Cutts from Google has to say about this challenge.
