We’ve all done it. I have, you have, all of us.
You’ve joined a 30-day challenge and expected to come out on the other side absolutely positively transformed by the experience! And you might… for a second. But the thrill likely fades and the daily habits were too much to keep up when you were jolted back to regular life. Maybe things you had piling up that you couldn’t pay attention to, or maybe you put off plans with friends until you were “allowed” to participate.
All possibilities. Let’s go into that, and some others.
Here are some reasons why your 30 day challenge likely flopped:
- It’s temporary. Anything that you know has an end date is doable. You’re resilient and focused for short periods of time and you go all in. After day one, you’re already in the 20s! But after the 30 days, you are burnt out. So you go back to normal.
- You go too hard too fast. Trying to make a big change in a time as short as 30 days means you have to go super hard. You will burn out here too. You’ll eventually think, man there is no way I can keep this up and I need a break! And you will fall off.
- You don’t learn anything. 30 day challenges are very prescriptive. You have to follow a plan but you never really know why you are doing what you’re doing. So it’s impossible to maintain later.
- You don’t have a strong enough reason or goal. 30 days is a popular timeframe for a challenge because it’s very low commitment. If you succeed, great. If you don’t, well you didn’t waste a lot of time. So you kinda think “eh, I could try this before that event I have coming up.” But that’s not a very strong reason. Without motivation, you discontinue.
- It was SO different than your lifestyle. You’re coming out of the 30 day challenge in the exact same life and environment you went into it with. So without anything else changing, you are going to fall right back into the same habits and lifestyle you had before. What you were doing was too different from what you’re used to to maintain.
- You let things pile up (to do list items, plans with friends) that you didn’t have time for during the challenge. In other words, you didn’t think about how what you were doing would realistically fit into your lifestyle as noted above! And now you have to catch up with what you’ve neglected.
If you’re ready to stop trying to improve your life in 30 day cycles and improve it for good, let’s get in touch!