30 Days…

I’m not going to take credit for someone else’s idea.  It’s been well documented in the blogosphere that using the 30 Day Trial as a means of self improvement was the idea of Steve Pavlina.  If you haven’t read his article, then I highly suggest that you do, because it’s really good advice.

Basically, the 30 Day Trial is a form of testing yourself.  You give yourself 30 days to try out something new in your life.  Maybe you’re trying to break an old habit, or maybe you’re trying to start a new one.  This isn’t always easy to do, but if you tell yourself that you’ll try it for 30 days, then it becomes a more manageable goal.  It gives you enough time to see how your life might benefit from the change, but it’s not so long that the goal becomes intimidating.  30 days is about how long it takes to pick up a habit anyway.  I had always noticed that it takes me about a month to get settled into a new job, so it makes sense in that fashion.

But Don’t Overdo It!

Here’s what I notice a lot on the blogosphere though.  People want to try the 30 Day Trial, but they get too gung-ho about the idea, and start implementing multiple trials at the same time.  They’ll make a list of everything that they want to improve on, and give themselves a time span of only a few months to accomplish it, as if they can erase months or years of undesirable behavior in such a short time!

This is why I like to combine Steve Pavlina’s 30 Day Trial advice, with the Power of Less advice from Leo Baubata, who believes in a simplified life, and tends to not recommend multi-tasking.  I believe that if you are willing to admit that there’s something about yourself that you wish to change, then that one thing is worthy of your full attention.  You may feel that it would be better to get all of these things out of the way as soon as possible, but when you’ve got yourself stretched too thing, what happens when you relapse on one of your goals?  Most likely, it will carry over into the other things you do, and derail you from success.  It is much better to focus on one thing at a time.  If you are unable to accomplish 30 days of your new habit, then you can make the decision to either start over, or take a break and move onto a different 30 day trial.

My Experiences:

Personally, I have used the 30 Day Trial several times over the last year, with varying amounts of success.  I have used it to make changes to my diet, by starting and finishing a few trials where I count my calories and keep to a plan.  I have used it to overcome my caffeine addiction, as it took me a few non-consecutive 30 day caffeine breaks to truly wean myself from it.  Right now, I am using it to battle my computer usage habits, and my tendency to mindlessly browse the internet.  This has been, and will be my toughest battle yet, but I feel that it’s worth doing, so I’m willing to set aside all of my other self improvement ambitions while I make it through this trial, which I’ve had to start over due to the difficulty.

In the future, some of the things that I want to accomplish with the 30 Day Trial are the following:  improvement on my music production, improvement on my video production, getting started on writing a book, testing the effects of a vegetarian diet, working out, social skills.  Yes, I plan on using this method to improve myself in as many ways as possible.

I can already attest to the fact that you can achieve things with the 30 Day Trial, but it’s not always easy.  Then again, very few things that were ever worth doing were easy.  If you’ve had success with this technique, then I would like to hear from you.  And if you’re considering trying it, what aspect of yourself would you like to improve on?