Why the 30-day Challenge Worked (with a June Challenge) [zen habits]
During the month of May, dozens of people signed up for the Zen Habit May Challenge, and I’m pleased to say that it was a ringing success!
The Challenge worked for many of the participants, due to their hard work, and the power of group motivation.
Let’s take a look at what we did and why the 30-day Challenge works.
First, the Challenge is simply a way to form a habit by trying to do something every day for a month — and at the end of the day, if it’s successful, you’ll have a new habit. I challenged myself to 30 straight days of exercise, and while many other people who joined the Challenge decided to do some form of exercise as well, it really doesn’t matter what your habit is. Some people decided to try to wake early, or to drink more water, or to meditate, or to get to work early.
Everyone signed up for the daily check-in email, which I send out once a day with a progress report on everyone’s habit (well, for those who reported in for that day). There were times when people struggled, and some didn’t report in, but there was a strong group of people who did an amazing job during the month of May (and you all know who you are!).
There were some who exercised every single day, or almost every day. Others woke earlier, or got to work earlier. Others meditated, did yoga, drank water, walked … all kinds of positive life changes occurred, and it was truly inspiring.
Here’s what worked:
- Commitment. Just the act of committing to the Challenge, and setting a measurable goal, and declaring it to a bunch of others, is a huge step towards making the habit change a success.
- Accountability. The daily check-in email makes you want to do your daily habit, so you can report your success to others. If you don’t want to report, you don’t have to, so there’s no real fear of embarrassment, but there is a positive feeling (reward) you get when you report that you did your habit today.
- Encouragement. There is also value in reporting your struggles. For example, when I got sick for a few days, I asked the group to motivate me. They were extremely encouraging, and I got back into my habit. But it wasn’t just for me — people encouraged each other, and it was very heart-warming. And not just encouragement for the habit changes — there were people who went through other things in their lives, and the group lent their encouragement, prayers, thoughts and feelings. It was touching, I have to admit.
- Inspiration. When you see everyone else doing so great, it’s inspiring. If they can do it, so can I! And there were some really inspiring people in the group — a lot of them!
Now, you don’t need to join the Zen Habits Monthly Challenge to achieve a positive habit change, but I would recommend you find a group — online or off — to help you stick to your habit change. There are plenty of online forums and community groups to help with these kinds of things — the power of a group can help leverage your power to change a habit.
This post is not only to analyze why the Challenge works, but to announce the June Challenge!
For myself, my June Challenge is to continue my daily exercise habit change while cutting sweets out of my diet.
I invite you join the June Challenge by signing up in the comments below. If you sign up in the comments, I will sign you up for the daily email. If you were in the May Challenge, you will still need to sign up below if you want to continue into the June Challenge.
A couple of guidelines:
- Choose an easy goal. Don’t decide to do something really hard, at least for now. Later, when you’re good at habit changes, you can choose something harder. But for now, do something you know you can do every day.
- Choose something measurable. You should be able to say, definitely, whether you were successful or not today. If you choose exercise, set a number of minutes or something similar (20 minutes of exercise daily, for example). Whatever your goal, have a measurement.
- Be consistent. You want to do your habit change at the same time every day, if possible. If you’re going to exercise, do it at 7 a.m. (or 6 p.m.) every day, for example. This makes it more likely to become a habit.
- Report regularly. I would recommend you check-in every day, or at least every 2 days. Those who checked in every day were much, much more successful than those who didn’t.
So challenge yourself this month!
Original post here: Leo
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