On Day 4, I want to revisit the thirty day challenges you are doing. Part of the psychology behind the thirty day challenge is to create a mindset that you can do something that you set out to do. That's why I suggest that you start out with something easy that you know you can succeed at for thirty days. Small successes create momentum that generate larger ones. That's why I want you to get in the habit of keeping track of these successes so you can look back and see how far you have come.
Plus, I want other members to see how much stronger you are from when you started to.
I've already notched several of these thirty day challenges. Here are several I have done already.
- I gave up diet coke
- I gave up fried food
- I walked every day
- I gave up snacks wrapped in plastic
- I wrote on this site everyday
Over time, I am going to create quite a list of things that I was successful at changing in my life for the better and over time I will start to challenge myself with harder things to accomplish. And so will you. The longer your list gets, the better you will feel about yourself and the more likely you will know that you can succeed at things you set out to do.
A white belt master starts a new challenge every thirty days. And a white belt master continues the challenges you have already done. That's why, I haven't had a diet coke in nearly nine months now. I haven't had a french fry or those awesome chicken fingers in nearly eight months. I haven't had a nutty bar in probably three months. I have walked for many months now.
Were there challenges that I didn't succeed at? Yes there were a couple. But remember that the most important rule here at the Black Belt Project is that we don't talk about what we haven't done. Don't worry if you do a couple and then you fail one. Start another at the beginning of the next month. Your failures will start to be fewer as you get stronger.
So here is what I want you to do. I'd like for every member to have their own forum thread devoted to their thirty day challenges. Give the thread in the forum a name like this ( I've also linked it to mine as well):
Thirty Day Challenges - The Virtual Sensei
Then on the first day of the month, decide what your challenge will be, DO IT and then post what your challenge for the month will be and that you have completed day one. You need to complete the first day before you post what your challenge is. Not what you think your challenge will be. Something you have decided on and that you have completed on day 1.
Then as you succeed each day, go to your forum thread, post that you completed your challenge for the day. For me today, my post looked like this.
"Completed day 4 of my thirty day challenge. Walked for three miles!"
Do this every day until the end of thirty days. You'll then repeat the process with another challenge.
If you can't make it to the forum on a certain day yet still complete your challenge, it's ok to say, I completed day 3 and 4 of my challenge or something like that.
What do you do if you fail. You don't post and you start again the next month. This forum thread is not to be used for reasons why you didn't complete a challenge or to single you out if you fail. Remember we are a community of action takers. We only talk about what we have done.
If you are following another member and they didn't finish a challenge you say nothing to the member. Wait until they start another challenge. Then let them know to keep going for it.
Does that make sense?
Once you have created your thread, get the link to your thread and put it in your forum signature. See my thread for how this looks.
OK. That's it for day four. Go to the forum and get your thread started and put it in your signature.
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