Before I post about my February’s challenge, I thought I would give you some context as to where, what and why I do 30 day challenges in the first place. So here we go.
The Where?
The first time I came across the concept of a 30 day challenge was actually when watching a TED talk given by Matt Cutts (way way back, probably in 2014, maybe even before that) which I got very fascinated by!
You can watch his talk below but here is my curated version: it takes about 30 (some say 21) days for a new habit to form, so if there is something new that you’ve always wanted to try or get rid off in your life - you should try and do it every day, for the next 30 days.
And at the end of those 30 days - you can then always decide whether or not you want to keep on doing it (say, stay vegetarian) OR whether it’s just not for you. The most important thing is to STICK through those 30 DAYS. And if you can't then... (I'm not sure if he had actually given any advice on what to do if you don’t) - well, then you can always just ditch it or try it again another time :-)
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="
frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>I was very inspired by the whole approach and went on to do some research where I found a whole LIST of challenges (links below) that you could try every month, ranging from easy ones (like walking 10,000 steps a day) to extremely hard ones (like giving up smoking or practising yoga every day). So I thought to give it a shot myself.
The What?
Since I’ve always been into exercising, I managed to find a lot of fitness related challenges so I kicked off with a 30 day ab challenge in June 2014 which I really enjoyed and did a few times. I then went on to try other ones (even when I was backpacking in Southeast Asia)!
So far I've tried a:
- 30 day ab and squat challenge
- 30 day beach body challenge
- 30 day butt challenge
I’ve competed them all so I thought it was time to challenge myself to things that I struggled with or wanted to do more of. I can’t remember all the challenges I’ve tried in the last 3 to 4 years but here are some of the most recent ones that I’ve completed AND (F)ailed:
- No alcohol for 30 days ✅ (though think that was a VERY long time ago)
- Read a book chapter a day (F)
- Learn French for 30 days ✅
- Sleep for 8 hours a day (F)
- Help someone every day (F)
- Become a vegan for a month ✅ (I will write a post on that too!)
- Meditate for 10 min every day (F)
- No phone or laptop screens 30 min before bed (F)
- No social media apps on the phone for a month ✅ (and till today I still haven’t reinstalled Facebook app on my phone!)
- No meat or chocolate for a month (this was my February’s challenge so I will let you know how that went in my next post)
Some of these might sound extremely easy but it’s the routine and the discipline of doing something Every. Single. Day. what makes it very hard. And also when I miss a few days in a row I consider it a fail.
The Why?
A lot of these things (or habits) I genuinely would like to do more of in my everyday life, like read more, sleep more and better, meditate and so on.
With other things like being vegan for a month - I simply like the challenge element of it, see how far I can actually go. And most recently, Liam and I have incorporated these challenges into our relationship as well which is a lot of fun and also ends up being quite competitive… as there’s always a prize for the winner or a penalty for the loser.
E.g. In April last year we agreed on a “new language” challenge so I learned French and Liam learned Russian for the next 30 days. At the end of the month we tested each other and saw who remembered the most words and phrases. The loser had to cook a meal from the country of origin. Since Liam lost (only by 1 point though), he made a very traditional Russian dish called: golubci (i.e. stuffed cabbage rolls). Here’s the recipe from @allasyummyfood if you're interested to give it a try yourself ;-)
And here is Liam (@liambagnall) - the Russian chef...
Not a bad turnout for golubci...
Major learning?
My main takeaway from doing all these 30 day challenges is that it’s actually
a lot easier to give something up than to start something new
So saying ’No’ to things that you've been doing in the past or all your life even (at least to me) ended up being a lot easier vs. trying to form an entirely new habit like meditate every day.
To wrap this up - here are a few sources for you with bunch of ideas for 30 day challenges:
- Hackerella: 100 30 Day Challenge Ideas
- Thoughtbrick: 100 30 Day Challenge Ideas
- Inc: 12 30-Day Challenges That Will Change Your Life
My favourite ones that I haven’t tried yet:
- Don’t lie for 30 days
- Don’t complain for 30 days
- Talk to a stranger every day
- Do something that scares you every day
- Experiment wearing a new outfit every day
- Watch a new film or a documentary every day
- Eat something you’ve never tried before for 30 days
And these 30 day challenges are still on my to-do list:
- Listen to an audiobook or a podcast every day
- Reconnect with an old friend every day
- Compliment someone every day
- Listen to a new song every day
Oh, and of course I wanted to see if there was anyone else here on Steemit who wrote about #30daychallenge and to my surprise I only came across 4 Steemians who I thought were great so feel free to check them out too.
1) @cryptogee wrote about “30 Days That Changed My Life” 2 years ago! - which I thought was absolutely brilliant. He calls it “30 Days of Discipline” and just like me has tried a few challenges himself, ranging from fitness to learning a language and even doing yoga every day (which I can imagine must have been pretty hard so kudos to him)!
2) @reaggyg wrote a whole series on “#30DayChallenge - Do Something New Every Day” 7 months ago - which I absolutely loved the concept of. Sadly he only made it to Day 10 and then never wrote on Steemit again… Maybe we can bring him back?
3) @goel.tarun wrote about a 30 day fitness challenge 4 months ago (see here) where he picked skipping as his exercise (I might add that to my list :-)
4) And finally @adriansilas who used this method to create music every day. You can read his post here from 2 months ago.
SO, guess that makes me #5 (or maybe I missed someone?). Either way, since I challenge myself every month or so - you will see me post about how these 30 day challenges went and what I’ve learned from them, with the first edition being February.
To be continued…
Have you ever tried a #30daychallenge and if so, what was it and how did you do? Like, share and comment below!
Love,
Inga x
This is my favourite post of yours so far! I love challenges like this! I used to do a lot of them too and actually it was because of the same Ted Talk!!! I cannot believe we've never had that conversation before. So random! :-D
Don’t lie for 30 days and Don’t complain for 30 days would be seriously tough. Especially as I think both fo those things come almost naturally to most of us in some ways.
I do mine a little differently now and try and do one thing for a year, changing it every 30 days. For example my new one is: 'Read a book every 30 days' - for 1 year. I'm starting this one in April and i'm excited. Knowledge is power! Keep up the awesome content, my girl! I'm re-steeming this one!
Ahh, thank you so much hun. A fair bit of research went into this one so glad it all paid off at the end!
Re: reading a book a month - I planned to do the same but I've been a bit rubbish with that one. I might re-start it this month and maybe catch up for Jan and Feb? :-) But I like that approach too.
And when did you watch the same TED talk? I swear I saw it in summer 2013 which AGES ago!
Wow suprb
This one alone is life changing! 👍
Haha, for real. Have you done it too, Ade?
I did it years ago, and never went back :) Facebook only though. I'm addicted to Instagram :/
Haha same here! I kept Instagram and Twitter (love a good complaint on Twitter) lol
omg this would be a huge challenge for you to do it within 30 days, I've seen the positive sides though coz i love what was written there, hopefully you can do it. (crossed fingers) @ingaaa
i can' t imagine myself doing that all yet, maybe ill try to cut it for 10 days and if i will be successful I'll extend the days haha
Haha why not! You don’t have to do all of them at the same time, usually you just pick one and roll with it for 30 days, then see how it works :-)
Thanks for stopping by and reading!
Aleks here, I like the concept, I've done several challenges (without realising it myself), my 30 day gym membership turned into 7+ years of gymming. My Brazilian Jiu Jitsu trial turned into me doing it in since April 2017. My latest challenge was no meat for however long it can last - I haven't eaten any meat in 5 months. I think we do these challenges without realising, and 30 days is just a framework to help keep it structured / organised.
No meat for 5 months is very impressive! I like the idea of “however long you can last” - I might try it myself! And 100%, I think the whole point of 30 days is that it’s manageable as a starting point.
Thanks for reading!
The 30 day challenge really works. I actually did one of these without really realising it when I got involved with the website 750words.com. It's kind of aimed at writers and those who'd like to get into a writing habit. I found it when I was working up to writing my master thesis and wanted to get better at writing daily.
They have the simplest system - write for a certain number of days without breaking your streak and you get a badge! That's it, a badge. And no, not a real badge, an electronic illustration of a badge. But it's AMAZING how motivated I was to gain that tiny award for my achievement of forming this new habit.
A long story short, that was 5 years ago and I'm still a member of the website and still write almost every day. That small daily habit was instrumental in me following my dream of becoming a fiction writer! So I totally recommend the 30 days challenge - with the proviso that you have to put effort into maintaining it for longer if you find the new habit helpful.
Very cool post. I especially like how you introduce other people who have posted on the same topic.
That's amazing, Victoria - thank you for sharing your story! I don't know if you heard but there is also a National Novel Writing Month which is in November with people all over the world trying to write a novel in 30 days. You should definitely try it this year if you haven't yet: https://nanowrimo.org/
And I agree, maintaining something longer term is definitely the way to go.
Thanks for stopping by - glad you enjoyed the post!
Yes I've heard of NaNoWriMo and even have some friends on Facebook who have posted about their experiences trying to complete a novel in that time. They always seem to get to 30th Nov with 10,000 words to go (and I'm sure I'd be the same!) :D
I've never tried it because I always seem to have a lot going on in November, but perhaps this year... Do you ever think about trying that?
Haha, I think I’ll end up like your friends if I do! I like writing but there is no way I would be able to do 2,000 words a day! :-)
But I was thinking about maybe doing a Steemit writing challenge and doing a post every day for a month. I know for some people this is normal but with a full time job and busy social life - it will be a stretch for me :-)
Hey that's a good idea for a challenge! Let us know if you're going to do it. Maybe it could become a community thing where lots of people could join and we can all support each other?
I agree that posting every day is a challenge as I also have a lot of other stuff going on in my life. I don't know how your sister manages to post such great stuff so often!
I like to spend time making my posts good, but I also think that maybe I just procrastinate and obsess over the details a little too much sometimes. I guess there's also the argument that if you practice posting often, then you get better at it and you can manage both high quality and frequent posting. This d-tube post from @axios about still posting every day even when he was travelling and had family commitments to take care of gave me some food for thought. He talks about flexing our creative muscles and I think it's true that the more you practise it, the better you get at creating.
That's actually a great idea of getting others involved in a #30daychallenge on Steemit! I will definitely give it a bit more thought and planning before launching an initiative like that :-)
My sister went full-time on Steemit and also been producing content on YouTube for the last 4 years so she's got a good size pocket of great content she can share here!
And omg, that's sounds SO like me. I definitely take WAY too long to write, then edit, edit some more and then to finally post, haha. I will have a look at the video - thanks for sharing :-)
I must say i'm fascinated with your transparency, and that adds a great authenticity factor to your challenges. So many you've succeeded in and so many you've failed.
We've all been there, succeeded and failed, yet it all motivates us further - I hope lol
Thanks for sharing, quite insightful!
Thank you so much @mcfarhat. We're all humans after all so it's important to be honest with yourself and others :-) I actually wrote another piece earlier this year about goal setting which touches on failing too in case you want to give it a read: https://steemit.com/life/@ingaaa/6-tips-on-setting-up-your-new-year-s-goals-not-resolutions
I tried a write30days challenge the last 3 Octobers, meant to boost your writing and grow your blog. I succeeded the first two years, but failed last yr. I downloaded a Lose weight in 30 days app in Jan and succeeded with that, losing 10lbs, but travelling for a few weeks in Feb, I need to pick that up again.
That's still great. What happened in your last year with the writing challenge?
And sounds like you absolutely smashed January this year but I know exactly what you mean - it's harder to keep up when you're travelling :-)
A lot of changes from yr to year - husband and I separated and I became a single mom and he moved out of town. Add in over scheduling the kids activities and I just lost steam half way through.
Thanks! Luckily with all the walking I did on vacation, I never gained any back, so just time to start again =)
I hear you, life changing events like that are pretty good reasons. You can always start over when you’re ready though! :-)
haha... no. 8 is probably the most difficult
Haha, yeah man - I think I lasted for 2 weeks (excluding the weekends) lol
That will bee 2 weeks longer than me:-)
We've only done a 30 day challenge in terms of exercise (Yoga and overall fitness) or diet (no sugar) and only the exercise ones were completed. The sugar one we had meals in restaurants during that month and we knew they must have put sugar in the food as it was sweet.
As you might know, we currently have two challenges: 1,000 followers by the end of June and being able to run 10ks in 9 weeks (into week 3 now).
Looking forward to seeing your 30 day challenges in the future. Will you update us daily, weekly or monthly about it?
No sugar one must be SUPER hard so kudos to you for even trying. I think my sister @allasyummyfood is on her day 10 now so I'm very impressed! And yes, I remember about your goal - how is it going so far?
I will write monthly updates with the first one being about how my February's challenge went :-)
It’s so hard! It’s actually going to be two weeks :) I can’t believe it and I’m ok! I don’t crave it as much anymore!
@allasyummyfood said after the cravings are gone, it's not as hard, BUT don't let your guard down like we did. You get hooked straight back into it. We might try it again as we've been to the gym for a year and only lost a bit or maintained our weight. Becca has lost 2-3 kilos and Sam has stayed the same: lost some fat and gained some muscle. It must be diet that needs to change for the best results.
Our goals:
1,000 followers is going slow, but it's a learning experience.
Running 10ks in 9 weeks - now at week 3 and today we will run our last 4.5k before progressing to the halfway mark of 5k runs!
Cool, we'll look out for your monthly challenge report. 😆
It's out, guys! https://steemit.com/30daychallenge/@ingaaa/30daychallenge-february-edition-no-chocolate-no-meat
Cool we'll check it out later - thanks for the link!
What does the (F) represent? fail?
You almost got them all done
Haha yes - (F) means a Fail and thanks, still more to go! :-)
I did the 30 day push-up challenge and instantly became Rambo 🤯.
Haha, nice one!
On serious note, this challenge works. If nothing else it increases your aptitude of become consistent. Which is KEY to doing anything in life.
100% and it’s amazing to see how much you can control and discipline yourself during them.
Exactly
Sooo Alla told me you like to write, I see it now ahaha :) I really enjoy these challenges it's a great way to force yourself to try new things, but yea from what you said the other night it's kind of who you are no? a new-experience junkie :)
Haha, thank you. And yeah, I love trying new things - all the time. Whether it be new habits, places, food, sport etc. Have you ever done one yourself? :-)
No actually I haven't :) I tend to do the year resolution list and give myself abit more time than just a month xD
Ah, nice. I actually wrote a piece on New Year's Goals too (not resolutions) haha: https://steemit.com/life/@ingaaa/6-tips-on-setting-up-your-new-year-s-goals-not-resolutions
Nicee, ill check it out now :)
This is really a challange I will never beat it , the last challenge I took was 7days black n white photos and was about to quit it on my half way. 😂
I congratulate you @ingaaa to dare the challenge.
Haha I actually completed the 7 Days Black & White Photography challenge already, here's the proof: https://steemit.com/sevendaybnwchallenge/@ingaaa/seven-day-black-and-white-challenge-day-7
Well done! 👏👏
That is wonderful. I didn't realize that I can stretch these challenges to daily life as well. So I am also taking up this challenge and will stick to a 'few things' for 30 days.
Will write a blog post about it.
Thanks for giving me this idea and best of luck to you for completing this challenge
Thanks for reading, Goel and definitely try a few other challenges in the next few months. Keep me posted on how you doo as well :-)
This is amazing. I've done 3 30 day challenges with my music. The amount of growth I experienced in that time was amazing. I'm currently doing a 14 day challenge. I run it the same way that i do the 30 day challenge, but I intensify the challenge. This is less of a develop-a-new-habit challenge and more of a productivity challenge. I'm all for 30 day challenges and I'm keen on trying out more. Thanks for the feature in your article.
That's awesome. What have you done within 14 days so far? And no problem at all :-)
hahah sorry took a while to read this!! loved it!! You write so well, natural at this! :) Yeah i think its a good conclusion that its easier to say no to something rather than start a new habit! I wanna do yoga every day, but its hard! Giving up sugar was hard, but im surviving! love you loads!xx
Yeah, I'm seriously impressed with your resistance to sugar but you should try and stick to the yoga challenge one month! Love you too, haha x
Some interesting challenges there. It's funny how what is considered a challenge for some people are just everyday things for others. Then again there are some challenges there that I'd just put in the "Fail" pile before even attempting!
Very true. And haha, which ones would be those? ;-)
Don’t complain for 30 days - FAIL
Talk to a stranger every day - FAIL
Experiment wearing a new outfit every day - FAIL
Become a vegan for a month - FAIL
:D
Hahahaha that made me laugh!
What about don't lie for 30 days?
I just don't lie. That's an easy one. It's the best way to build respect and trust. You also learn to be delicately honest with people too :)
LOVE this!! It's a great approach! I have been starting some kind of exercising for a month, haven't found the time to do it, but this approach could be motivating. I also like listen to a new song each day.
Haha, glad you like it! Give it a go and let me know how it went - I'm all ears :-)