30-Day Challenges

Why More of Us Should Embrace This Popular Self Improvement Trend!

- Pedro Van Gaalen

THIRTY DAYS SEEMS TO HAVE BECOME THE NEW ‘MAGIC’ NUMBER – 30 days to master a new workout; 30 days to lose 3kg; 30 days to create a new habit or kick an old, unhealthy one. But is it, really? According to science, it’s not. On average, it takes 66 days for a new habit to feel automatic, according to a 2010 UK study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology.

So, if you’re buying into the marketing gimmicks of commercial 30-day challenges, stop it! They’re just trying to sell you something. However, don’t dismiss the concept out of hand...

You see, while 30 days may not be the magic number needed to create life-altering habits that stick (it might also take more than 66 days), the idea of doing something consistently for 30 days in a row has its merits.

SELF-IMPROVEMENT

First and foremost, if you choose to follow this approach and cut through all the marketing hype, you could emerge a better person in some small way, be it physically, mentally, intellectually, spiritually, musically, heck, even professionally (depending on the type of challenge you take on).

The great thing is, anyone can do it and by stringing together 12 30-day challenges a year, and following that with 12 more, and doing that over and over again, who knows what your life will be like 10 years from now? I’m willing to bet it will be vastly different from the life you know now – richer and more fulfilling.

BREAK THE RUT