Well we’ve hit the first couple of days in April. It’s time to post the results from my March experiment in the 30 Day Success Habits Series. (A monthly column where I discuss the habits that I’m trying to develop for the next 30 days)
Like I said in this post, I was trying to challenge myself and address a few major areas. But unfortunately as you’ll see, each habit wasn’t very successful.
When evaluating the “success” of a habit I like to use what I call the C.E.E.P. formula. This helps me determine how I should treat the habit after the 30 day trial:
Continue- Do you need another 30 or 60 days to continue evaluating this habit?
Eliminate-Was the habit a failure? If so, it’s time to eliminate it.
Evolve– Could you take the habit one step further? Maybe it should evolve into another habit that stretches your comfort zone.
Permanent-Was the habit a success? If so, keep it on a permanent basis.
Okay, let’s quickly review the results…
Success Habit #1- 5 Meals a Day
Technically, I was able to complete this habit. With a few exceptions, I managed to keep eating five smaller meals each day.
Here’s what I did… I stocked my cupboard with a bunch of food that was supposed to be more nutritious in nature.
Then I set five daily reminders on my iPhone which told me when to eat.
Finally, I made sure to have a box of different types of food in my car at all times, so I could never make the excuse that I had nothing to eat.
So what happened? Well after following this habit for a couple of weeks, I quickly put on five extra pounds, which put me at the heaviest weight that I’ve ever been.
It was my hope that this diet would help me get into better shape. Unfortunately it did the exact opposite.
The verdict? This habit will be eliminated (for now). Obviously, I was doing something wrong here. Maybe my caloric intake was incorrect? Or perhaps I was eating the wrong kind of foods? Who knows what went wrong.
The bottom line is I know my life will be absolutely chaotic in the next few months. So I know there’s no way I can spend time figuring out went wrong. In all likelihood, I’ll probably try this habit again when I get back from my trip.
Success Habit #2- Elocution
My goal was to create a series of podcasts and videos for this site, in the hopes that this habit would improve my public speaking skills.
So what happened?
Two words… Miserable. Failure.
It’s not like I even tried. I completely and utterly didn’t make an ounce of effort on this habit. I was really diligent about putting this habit on my to-do list. The problem is it never got to-done.
My excuse is that I got really busy with a bunch of other things that took a lot of time. But if I’m 100% honest with myself, I knew this was something that would really push my comfort zone. As a result, I found a bunch of reasons to procrastinate on getting started.
Hey, nobody’s perfect.
The verdict? Again, this habit will be eliminated. I do recognize the importance of improving my public speaking skills. But I think this is one of those things that will naturally improve if I keep doing it.
So I plan on using my new Flip Camera and videotaping a lot of the stuff that I do on my trip. Then when I come back to The States, I’ll try to get more formal practice with public speaking.
Conclusion
Yup, the habits for March didn’t go according to plan. Maybe for April, I’ll try something that I can easily achieve- Like trying to develop the habit of breathing.
Take Action. Get Results.