Some years ago I’ve read for the first time that, in order for something to become a habit, you need to do that specific thing for 30 days, constantly, every day.
I’ve tried several times to do this, but I’ve never got to the 30 days limit :) Until recently, when I decided I wanted to write for 30 days on my blog. And I keep doing it, 30 days after that. It kinda worked: last Saturday I remembered I didn’t write at about 10pm, so I actually stopped doing what I was doing and I wrote a blog post.
Since it seems like a good idea, I am actually trying to do 30 days challenges every month from now for the next 3 months (small steps, ok?). What I’ve noticed is it’s better for me to have simpler tasks (not “write a great article, 3000 words long, daily, on your blog, for a month”, but “write a 200 words article daily”). So I am not trying to move mountains yet, a thing that will hopefully change after several completed 30 days challenges.
My next challenge is to stop drinking Cola. Any kind of: Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Cola Zero, Pepsi Light or anything similar. The reason? I don’t drink coffee so any caffeinated drink is too strong for me and I can’t sleep.
I’ve started a week ago, I am still good. I’ve replaced Cola with light sparkling water (I need to compensate the feeling of the bubbles in the back of your throat more than the taste of the drink).
I’ll keep you updated if anything important happens (like… drinking Cola, for example).
If you like the idea and you think you might do something similar, read here the motivations behind the idea and write down in the comments your challenge (maybe you also give me some ideas this way). Also, I’ve found an interesting TED presentation from Matt Cutts (the head of Anti Spam division at Google) talking about exactly this.
