The subtle shift of a 30 day challenge

And tomorrow is the perfect day to start one!

Photo by Sophie Walker on Unsplash

Hey you,

If you are feeling the need for a bit of oomph in your life, this one’s for you.

Years ago, probably about 2003, I started to do thirty day challenges. I came across the idea in someone’s blog and it really appealed to the bit of my brain that isn’t overly keen on saying I am going to do something ‘forever’.

When I gave up drinking for example, I didn’t ever say it was forever, still don’t really but it turns out it probably more or less is. Saying I would never have another drink again would have probably put a spanner in the works because, like I say, I just don’t really like the idea of being tied to a behaviour ‘forever’. And yet, in the last 7 years I have probably had many 3-4 drinks. I digress.

The beauty of a thirty day challenge is that you can commit to something for just that amount of time and see how you feel. Thirty days is a great container too - not so long it feels a stretch too far, not so short that you don’t get into the swing of something.

My gratitude habit started as a thirty day challenge, and I never looked back. Gratitude is now deeply embedded into my life in a now 21 year practice, from which I have created a workshop, an e-course and more and I have thirty day challenges to thank for that.

The challenge immediately following that, to get up at 6.30am and go walking around the local park where I was living at the time did not last.

I enjoyed certain aspects of it, having the park almost to myself for one, and realising how many squirrels lived there when there weren’t really any people around, and how they and the magpie population of the park seemed to weirdly interact in some sort of freestyle contemporary dance off by the bandstand most mornings was also a bonus!

But I didn’t like the early starts, I wasn’t keen when it rained and I had to go anyway, it felt a bit ‘should’ so after 30 days I stopped.

Other challenges have involved fitness, reading, posting content on social media, going to bed at a certain time, developing a morning routine, journaling, you name it, I’ve done it.

My motto for lots of things is ‘take what you like, leave the rest’ and that’s true for these challenges for sure. Some stick, some don’t and that’s ok.

We have another new month beginning tomorrow and I felt a calling to set a new thirty day challenge as I haven’t done one for a while.

I also had an idea for a book recently which involves me throwing myself into lots of different self growth, mindset, productivity type stuff with gay abandon to see where it takes me. To that end I have decided I will both do some research for this book idea AND a thirty day challenge so here is my pledge:

Every day from the 1-30 May I will practice EFT (you may know this as tapping).

I’ll talk more about this as I go along, but suffice to say I have some experience with EFT, I have successfully used it at certain points in my life (once in a HUGELY impactful way) and I am curious as to what I might be able to achieve in terms of my mindset, contentment and productivity by committing to a short, usually 10 mins or so a day, practice.

I have set up my calendar with space to practice and reminders to do so. I have selected resources and popped them into my note section for each day so they are handy to use and I can get straight on with no loss of traction by having to find materials and decide what topic, how to do etc.

And I am excited! It feels frankly quite invigorating to be committing to exploring my wellbeing and happiness in this way and I am intrigued by what might happen and will be sharing with you along the way.

If you’d like to join in, you can use my cute and handy thirty day challenge planner which is going to be sent out to my paid for members here as an extra treat to start the new month.

It has a neat feature where when you click in the day that you’ve completed, a wee tick appears as if by magic! ✅ You can sit it on your desktop as a little reminder and enjoy the satisfaction of the tick, every day ;)

If you are not a member, please consider upgrading, because as well as this planner, you’ll get access to The Selfish Bookclub and all the resources in there, my monthly live journaling session and the catch up recording for those who can’t make it) and other freebies I have given away too in previous months such as the habit tracker - which is also great to have at the beginning of the month. There’s a lot more to come too so it’s well worth the sub fee which is from £5 a month depending on if you go annual (£60) or monthly (£7).

All the income I make on Substack, which is a nice to have rather than paying the bills amount at the mo, is being put aside to help my lovely son when he finishes school in a few years and goes to Uni, or traveling, or sets up a business or whatever. Go Jake!

I hope you decide to do a thirty day challenge whether you’re in my membership or not - it is a great way of trying new things and I’d love to hear how you get on.

With love,

Sarah x

PS if you want to commit to a thirty day challenge why not start by stating it in the comments! I’d love to hear it and you’ll also inspire others… 🌿