Three Personal Development Challenges That Alter Your Self-Concept

“Action is its own authority.”

When you begin a new habit, struggle abounds. The early days of learning a craft are filled with tedium. Fortunately, a clear time frame helps. It gives you a framework that reminds you of the purpose driving your actions.

Reaching the 30-day mark initiates you into a higher level of trust in your self and your skill sets. What at first seemed boring or difficult will involve much less friction. Over time, you’ll recognize that consistency is the key to growth, not talent.

I’ve compiled three of my favorite personal development challenges. These trick your brain into being consistent. They cement within you a certainty about the validity of your emotions. You’ll identify the thought patterns that trap you and reverse them before they take hold.

The 90-Day Writing Challenge

This challenge has many variations. I’ve read about it from several writers, and I’m not sure about where it originated. Regardless, the goal is to publish something every day for 90 days straight. Quality matters less than consistency. Every day you might write a blog post, record a podcast, or shoot a video.

By publishing for 90 days straight, you do several different things at once. First, you grow on platforms driven by algorithms that reward volume (that is, most if not all of them). Over time, it becomes easier to continue because you’ll see rewards for your efforts.

With consistency, it’s also impossible to avoid getting better at your craft. Everyday commitments naturally produce new insights and breakthroughs. You’ll have a-ha moments related to pacing, lighting, organization, editing, and so on.

At the same time, you’d also get over the preciousness that most beginner creators harbor. While you house thousands of ideas on a document, you often feel that many of them are too extensive. Some of your ideas demand too much research for your mood on a given day. Worry not. A 90-day publishing challenge invites you to move beyond that fear-based retentiveness.

When the goal is to publish every day, it’s easier to surpass the feeling that a given topic is too difficult. Losing the challenge feels worse than doing the extensive research or writing that 4,000-word post about logical levels of change.

The Reptile Challenge

Credit for this one goes to neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) expert Dr. David Snyder. In his lectures, David talks about hypnosis, influence, and reprogramming the subconscious mind. I highly recommend watching his videos. Dr. David also seems to be a fan of the Triune Brain, a model proposed by neuroscientist Paul MacLean.

The idea is that three brain structures drive different aspects of human behavior. The reptile brain, or the basal ganglia, is the phylogenetically oldest part of the brain. It governs instinctive or automatic behaviors like self-defense and unthinking, automatic responses.

One phrase acts as a lever for accessing an instinct-based internal register. It goes like this: “I am the reptile. I do not get angry. I get you angry so you do what I want.” This is my challenge to you: Say this in the mirror for 30 days and see what happens.

Odd, sure. But if you’re like me, repeating this phrase is going to change you. It’s going to strengthen your connection to a level of power that feels primal in its urgency. This phrase conjures an object-less anger that is raw yet forceful. It’s the kind of anger that anchors you to the inner animal that doesn’t need logic to defend itself.

Unlike other so-called negative emotions, anger is clarifying. While at times it’s destructive, many people don’t get angry enough. As a result, they’re chronically disempowered and cut off from their sense of inner authority.

As humans, we get caught in all the reasons why we’re right, the stories about why we’re justified in what we’re doing. Emotions are not valid or invalid, though the neocortex disagrees. Emotions are responses to stimuli. They’re purposeful and intended to help you.

Repeating this phrase lets you graduate from the need for external validation. It unhooks you from the urge to defend yourself with reason, narrative, and logic. Instead you relax inside unbridled conviction.

This is going to remind you of the inherent validity of what you feel and think. It generates inner reserves of power. These reserves will help you in high-stakes meetings. It will become a source of automatic motivation.

The Cause-and-Effect Reflection Challenge

Most people experience emotional peaks and valleys throughout the day. You wake up motivated and excited to greet the sun. But by 1 p.m., you’re doubting your life’s trajectory and checking your watch.

Every night or morning, journal about your emotions throughout the previous day. Write down how you felt when you woke up. Reflect on the actions that altered your perceptions. Think about the activities that most shifted your feelings and why. Was it a particular album? A certain food? A disempowering point of view? Write it down.

There are a variety of internal and external triggers that sign you up for these emotional shifts. Tracking the way they unfold lets you prevent gloom and strife before they hit. Or even better, you’ll come to understand the purpose behind these lows. From there, you can integrate the message and prevent or mitigate them in the future.

Cause-and-effect reflection is a tool for unheated self reflection. It permits you to decompress from a place of neutrality. It’ll be like analyzing a friend or talking with a client. You’ll walk away with clarity about the interpretations or actions that serve you. From there, you can part with those that don’t.

By gamifying new habits, you naturally develop persistence. You become desensitized from the feelings of struggle that once plagued you. And one thing becomes absolutely undeniable — consistency facilitates change more than natural talent, obsession with a process, or good luck.