Use a 30 day challenge to conquer your goals

If you want to start tackling your goals, take on a 30 day challenge.

by: E.B. Johnson

If you’re looking to conquer your to-do list, or you’re looking to score a major win in your life — 30 day challenges are proven strategies that can help us make major changes in our life in a short amount of time. When we use our creative facilities to put together a plan that is entirely our own, we can make huge strides in creating a future of joy and contentment. It still takes commitment, however, and still takes hard work every single day.

You can create a 30 day challenge for any aspect of your life that you want to change or adjust. You can start taking better care of your health, build your brainpower, or find soul-affirming pastimes that bring you closer to who you are. There’s no right or wrong way to go about creating a plan that works for you, it’s all about staying focused and removing the pressure and fear that usual habit-changes inspire. If you want to change something and do it fast, try a 30 day challenge to give your goals a boost. You’ve got little to lose and everything to potentially gain.

What makes the mountain hard to climb.

Setting goals for ourselves is all fun and games until we have to apply action to our dreams. All goals are ultimately change, and that’s hard to manage when you’re dealing with all the pressures and responsibilities that your daily life demands. Whether you’re looking to improve the way you look or improve the way you feel, it’s not always easy to tackle our goals with out the right focus and intent needed to achieve.

There are a number of challenges that make it hard to score the wins we’re looking for. Many of us dealing with mental health and anxiety issues have a number of demons that must be battled just to keep our heads above water. Likewise, those dealing with the loss of a job, homelessness or some other sort of extreme trauma become consumed with worry of what’s happening and what will come next.

Sometimes the best way to get where we want to go is to break it down. By prioritizing our goals and simplifying them, we can create short, focused plans that allow us to cultivate more efficient action and motivaton in our lives and around the things that we want. When we use a custom 30 day challenge plan, we can often create greater change in our lives than if we aimed to spread that change (or those goals) over the course of the year. In this short, centered, time-spans we allow ourselves greater focus and remove a lot of the frustrations that lead to defeat.

Our brains are designed for challenges.

The human brain is complex machine, and one that is programmed to tackled complex challenges. When you learn how to tap into the power of your thoughts, you can unlock some truly transformative powers and strengths within yourself. A 30 day challenge can help you to eliminate your excuses and get down to things that matter, fast.

You don’t have time for excuses

Giving yourself a limited challenge gives you a very narrow window in which to accomplish your goals, and there’s no room in this space for excuses. 30 day challenges are excellent opportunities to get a hyper-focused approach on the things that matter, and they don’t leave us time to lag behind or follow the crowd. You’ve got a short amount of time to get things done and every second count. When you’re that zeroed in, you aren’t thinking of excuses.

Better momentum building

Because 30 day challenges exist entirely within a set period of time, they are necessarily accelerated. This acceleration makes it easier for us to build up momentum, and this momentum can be extended to other facets of our life in order to tap into our success.

Greater resilience

When we only a finite amount of time to get through something, it makes any hardship associated with the task more bearable. That’s because we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we know that our suffering will come to a certain end. It’s easier to tackle the tough stuff when you can see the finish line ahead and know there’s relief waiting either way.

How to create a custom 30 day challenge.

You can create a custom 30 day challenge that helps you meet the goals that matter to you. Rather than relying on the challenge of someone else with different needs, create one that is entirely your own by following these 5 steps.

Start with the results

Before you can plan your journey, you need to decide where you want to go. Start with the results you want to see, and be honest about what you can really achieve in order to meet those goals. Once you have a brutally honest idea about what you really want to accomplish, you can make a detailed and actionable plan to get there.

Brainstorm ideas

After you know what you want, the next part of creating your own 30 day challenge is brainstorming ideas that could work within your skillset or abilities. If you want to get in better shape, think about small changes you could make in order to make those dreams a reality. Maybe you take the stairs more, or maybe you start aa jogging routine. The choice is entirely yours.

Strip your environment

Before you can make a solid, step-by-step plan, you have to strip your environment of all the things that might get in the way of your success. Make it easier for yourself, and easier for your success, by throwing out the junk food or going to bed early enough to wake up for that morning run. We can add more to our lives (and our chances of success) by subtracting rather than adding to what we already have.

Make a plan

Results, ideas and newly-scrubbed environments to hand — the next step in creating a 30 day challenge comes by making an actionable plan of attack. Sit down and consider the full scope of your month and all the responsibilities that fall to you. Prioritize what you’re doing against what you want to get done, and shift things around in such a way that you can break it down into simple, easy-to-manage steps.

Execute

Now that the foundations of your plan are set, it’s time to put it into action. Nothing good will happen until you force it to happen; life is not a spectator sport. Get proactive and start applying your plan daily, conquering your goals by taking one small step each day to make your dreams happen.

The 30 day challenges that can change your life.

There’s no one hard-and-fast way to make a change in your life, but a month-long challenge is a great way to start. You can create a challenge that focuses on your physical health or your mental health, your emotional health or your soul connection. Brainstorm and pick out the ideas that really speak to you. Prioritize them and attack them from all angles when you’re ready.

Physical challenges

There are a number of physical challenges that you can undertake in order to improve your diet, your fitness or even just the way you get through the day. Getting healthier can come down to eating better, or it can be as simple as taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

Sleep schedule

Spend 30 days adjusting your sleep schedule so that it better allows you to get efficient rest that re-energizes and re-charges you. Get up earlier, or try going to bed earlier. Likewise, you can try making adjustments to your bedtime routine or even the way you wake up in the morning. Try dedicating 10–15 minutes each night quieting your brain through meditation or mindful journalling. You can also start drinking water as soon as you wake up, or spend 10–15 minutes in quiet meditation before starting your day or getting out of bed.

Better running

Running is great for our cardiovascular fitness, and it can also do wonder for our mental health. While going for a jog might not be for everyone, it is for a lot of us. If you’re not a runner now, you can be, and you can do it by setting yourself a simple, achievable running goal each day for 30 consecutive days.

Take the stairs

Many of us dread setting fitness goals, because we see them as miserable and hard-to-do. The truth is, however, that any goal is as hard as we make it, and that comes down to how honest we are with ourselves. If you want to get in shape, break it down and make it easy. Start by just taking the stairs (instead of an elevator) whenever you’re at work or somewhere out in town.

Drink more water

All life on this planet requires water to live, and we are no exception to that rule. Water has a number of incredible benefits, when we drink it regularly, but for many of us that’s something that gets lost in the chaos of modern life. If you want to start feeling better, you can often start simply by drinking more water — a simple challenge that can be mastered in a measly 30 days with commitment.

Emotional challenges

Emotional challenges allow us to reconnect with ourselves and quiet feelings or thoughts that might be causing us hardship or pressure. Use emotional challenges to connect with yourself on a real and deep level, and use them to propel yourself into a better emotional space.

Get physical

Our emotions are closely tied to our physical needs, but that can be easy to lose sight of — especially when you’re a victim of childhood trauma. It’s important that we proctect and secure our emotional needs however, and align them with the physical needs as well. We can do this through an easy 30 day hug challenge, in which we commit to hug one person we love and trust each day.

Start journalling

Mindful journalling practices are a great way to get in touch with who we are and how we’re feeling. A journal is an entirely private way to share your most intimate feelings and memories, and it’s a safe space in which to reveal who you truly are and what you truly want — free of the judgement of others. When we journal, we free our minds in a surprising ways. And best of all? There’s no right or wrong way to go about establishing a regular practice.

Check your anger

Anger can be a powerful catalyst for change but, unchecked, it can burn our lives from the ground up. If you’re looking to get a handle of a life that feels out of control, start by getting to grips with your anger. Dedicate 30 days to learning more about why you’re so angry, and explore techniques that allow you to quell the rage that’s brewing inside.

Get more positive

Our thoughts are incredibly powerful, and they can dictate not only our moods but whether or not we succeed in life. If you’re struggling with negative thoughts, or just think that you mood could be generally approved — try a positivity challenge and use the month to shift your thoughts from negative to positive.

Mental challenges

Mental stimulation is imperative for any of us to live a happy and productive lives. Our brains are complex and dynamic things, and they need to be nourished and fed just like any other part of our body.

Start a meditation practice

If you’re someone who’s spent time doing a lot of work on self, then you’re probably aware of how transformative a good meditation practice can be. Meditation stills our minds and makes it easier for us to focus and differentiate between our emotions. It’s also a skill which can be built upon greatly in 30 days, and one which is easy to incorporate into even the busiest of schedules.

Master a language

Our brains are incredible machines, which are capable of truly unimaginable feats. Language learning is one such feat, and one which has a lot of benefits for the student. Learning a new language helps you fine-tune decision making skills, and also can help to improve your memory and your attention span. Not only that, but it’s been shown to make you a better multitasker and master-thinker.

Watch more documentaries

Documentaries are a powerful educational tool, and one that can help us to grow and expand our own database of knowledge. If you want to get smarter in 30 days, commit to watching more documentaries — and make sure you’re aiming for quality, certified documentaries that are not only rooted in truth, but in fact.

Learn an instrument

Studies have shown that learning a new instrument is one of the best things you can do for your brain. This is because the act of learning how to read music and play it increases your comprehension of math, and also helps to improve coordination and memory. When you play music, you involve both sides of your brain and that’s something we could all use a little more of.

Become an entrepreneur

Exercising your entrepreneurial brainstorming powers is a great way to not only distract yourself, but to inspire yourself as well. Every day for 30 days, come up with an idea for a new invention or business. You can go as in-depth or big-picture as you want to go. Don’t hold back. Imagine you had enough money to launch any business that you wanted. What would it be? Let you brain run wild and follow it to the end. Who knows what it could reveal?

Soul challenges

Soul challenges are important to commit to on a regular basis, as they allow us to reconnect with our authentic sense of self and purpose. Below are a few examples of 30 days soul challenges, which can help bring you back to what you truly want from this life and the future you’re building.

Start a gratitude journal

Gratitude is something that is missing in many of our lives, but it’s one of the greatest tools by which we can reconnect ourselves with our sense of purpose and wonder. If you’re looking for a simple way to improve the state of your soul, spend the next 30 days recording everything you’re grateful for in a gratitude journal. Try to record at least 10 items each day. They can be tangible or intangible. Big or small.

Reach out to old friends

If you’re feeling disconnected, or you’re feeling as though you’ve lost your roots, reaching out to old friends is a challenge that can really help bring you back to yourself. Look back at the friendships that have stalled, and come up with a plan to reach back out and open up the bridges of connection. Meet them for lunch or send them a text. Don’t be afraid to reach out, but give yourself a time limit and move on if things aren’t panning out.

Make new connections

Rather than wasting your time, effort and energy on people who tear you down (or distract you from your authentic self) — zero in on the people who allow you to be yourself and thrive as the universe intended. It can be helpful to allow your attention center on the healthy relationships that bring joy into your life, rather than the ones that attract nothing but negativity. These relationships don’t have to be bound in blood, either. They can include anyone with whom we share our confidences, and anyone who loves us for who we are.

Putting it all together…

Goals can seem hard-to-tackle or or difficult to manage, but we’re creatures of habit and many of those habits can be improved upon in just 30 days. Whether you’re looking to get in shape or just set yourself up for better sleep, there are a number of ways you can improve your life with knowledgeable goal-setting, and you can do it in about a month.

Understand the benefits of smart, effective goal setting and pursue it with action to manifest your happiness. 30 day challenges are great for tacking our goals because they accelarate our motivation, limit our excuses and make us more resilient to stress and hardship. Analyze what you want and why, and figure out what results you’re ultimately looking for. Once you have a picture of your goals in mind, set your intentions and come up with a plan of attack. Strip your environment of the things that will make it harder for you to succeed and constantly brainstorm new ideas for how you can improve and make things easier on yourself. Life is hard. Don’t make it harder by setting impossible goals you’ll never achieve. Keep it simple and improve your habits by creating your own 30 day challenge.

Stop self-sabotaging. You deserve good things.

Discover how to overcome your inner saboteur so you can create the life you deserve.

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