Do Thirty Day Challenges Actually Work?

I watch a lot of challenges on YouTube, not because I want to do them, but because they are good to see if a change really works. I know thirty days isn’t long and lasting change doesn’t come in that soon but doing something for thirty days gives you a good idea if something is for you or not.

Back in 2017, in January, myself and some friends did a Whole 30 challenge. The Whole 30 diet, if you haven’t heard of it, is basically a Paleo diet. I am always into healthy eating and finding ways to improve my mind and body, and I know food is on big factor in that. The Whole 30 plan seemed like a great idea. Not because of the food as such, but because of the mindset.

It started out good, and we were all positive, but it was hard. Weirdly hard. It’s only thirty days, yet finding yourself sticking to something for that amount of days can be more daunting than you think. We began to question things and pick holes in the idea behind the diet. It was as if some biological factor had kicked in to challenge what we were trying to do.

We did stick to it, mostly. There were slip-ups, and that was okay, and after the end of January, it was a little strange to go back to the way things had been before. I suppose that is the point. You might not take the whole habit with you going forward, but at least you have made a change to yourself.

I guess this is one reason why I like them. They let you establish if the habit you want to adopt is for you because If you can’t stick to something for the thirty days, then whatever it is probably isn’t. But it is only for thirty days. It is not a lot of time wasted if things don’t work out.

I think it was 2015 when I discovered what is known as the Morning Pages. This is a philosophy born of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. The morning pages are three handwritten pages of a stream of consciousness done first thing every single morning.

I can honestly say, I am glad I took that challenge. The practice of the morning pages has been with me ever since, and aside from the odd busy period, I am pretty consistent with writing my morning pages. They give me peace and clarity. They give me ideas and help me to grow. I owe a lot to…

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