It’s that time again…
The ball has dropped. It’s a new year. And many people have picked their annual “resolution.”
Unfortunately it’s been my experience that New Year’s Resolutions are a complete waste of time. Even worse – Some resolutions actually prevent people from achieving their goals.
Think of it this way… Imagine it’s the final minutes of year. You make a resolution simply because everyone else is doing it.
When I first started this blog, one of the things I did was try a concept called the 30-Day Habit Experiment.
Today I’d like to talk about this concept; why I initially failed with it; and how it’s now helping me get incredible results with my Internet lifestyle.
The 30-Day Habit Experiment (30DHE) is a popular concept in personal development. The idea is simple. You “test drive” a habit for a month and see if it sticks.
We all want to live better lives. Lose weight. Quit smoking. Make more friends. Get that promotion. Find that special someone. These are all goals people make for themselves. But they often fail because it’s hard to make a permanent change to their behavior.
The reason people fail is because ‘forever’ seems like, well…FOREVER. If you wanted to quit smoking, it’s really hard to say you’ll never have another cigarette.
With the 30DHE, you don’t talk about forever. Instead you make the promise to develop (or change) a habit for only a month. That’s it. After the month is over, you evaluate this habit and decide if you want to keep doing it.
You’ve probably realized by now that making a change in your lifestyle—which usually involves developing a new habit to take the place of a bad one—is hard. Really hard.
Back in January, I offered some insight about an “experiment” I found on Steve Pavlina’s website. He suggested giving yourself a 30-day “trial run” when attempting a new habit, similar to the risk-free 30-day trials that companies offer consumers before they have to make a final decision whether or not they’re going to purchase a product or service. After your 30 Day Habit Trial, you can decide if you want to stick with your new habit or go back to your old ways.
Here’s a really interesting guest post by Jonathan of the Grokkery site. In the following article he discusses a few simple changes you can make to your life in order to make a dramatic change. What I really liked is how he used 30 day trials to develop new habits. This is something I used to do before I left on trip to Europe. But I’ll definitely be implementing this habit again once I’m back in a normal reality. Anyway, I definitely recommend you implement the following techniques…
I passionately, fiercely believe that to change your life, you must begin with self awareness.
It’s time for the 5th installment of 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)
For the month of May, I’m going to do something that will really push my comfort zone. It’s something that I’ve done in a past, but got out of the habit in the last few years.
It’s time for the monthly update on the April results of 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)
As I said in my introduction of the April success habit, my goal was to use a doorknob as a quick reminder to take a pause and think about whatever I’m thankful for at that very moment.
It’s time for the 4th installment of 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 a post last week, I had trouble with developing the success habits for the month of March. To be honest, I think this has a lot to do with my upcoming trip and the preparations I have to do for my travels.
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.
Here’s your weekly edition of Steve’s Sunday Selections! Once again, I managed to mix up a lot of the different themes that I like to talk about on this site. The following are all excellent posts that can help improve your life:
It’s time for the 3rd installment of 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 yesterday’s post about my February habits, I’ve made the determination to focus on only two habits per month. Hopefully this will make it easier to stick with what I plan and not get too overwhelmed.
So what am I doing for March? Well here are the two habits I’m trying to form:
Well we’ve hit the first couple of days in March. It’s time to post the results from my February 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)
As I said in my initial post about my habit goals for February, it was going to be a long month. Instead of trying to change one habit I tried three. As you can see below, this was probably a mistake.
I’ve known a lot of people over the years.
At one point my childhood friends were my whole world. Then when I got to high school I hung out with people from the track team and the marching band (Don’t laugh.)
In college, I spent time with people that were in fraternity/sorority scene. And once I got into the “real world” I ended up forming friendships with whoever was around me.