I mentioned to my lovely friend, Lisa the other day that I was thinking of putting together a 21 day habit challenge. Based on the idea that it takes 21 days to form a habit, I thought I could combine that with an on-line participators' support group, and a bit of coaching along the way.
Well, my motivation skills are such that after just that one mention of the idea, she was off on her challenge and left me reeling. See how she's getting on here. But for the rest of us, left in her wake so to speak, here's the first blog for the Aspiring Change 21 day challenge!
For these intial few days, I am going to walk you through getting ready for the challenge. I believe in being prepared and essentially in setting ourselves up for success. It requires a plan, of sorts. Then we start the challenge (me included by the way!) and as we go, I will blog my own progress, and I would love to hear of yours.
I am happy to set up an exclusive on-line group for those wanting a little bit more support and encouragement. I'll provide a bit more 'coaching type' stuff to help you out as well. Just email me via the website enquiries form with '21days' in the Subject box and I'll give you the sign in details.
And at the end of the 21 days, we'll have challenged ourselves into a new way of living! Easy.
So here goes:
Step one: decide on what it is you want to add more of into your life
The idea is to create a habit over 21 days. The theory being that if we repeat something for 21 days, it then becomes imbedded into our life routine- just like that!
So your challenge could be an exercise one. It could be about work. It could be about play. Anything you want. It makes sense that it is something you currently find hard to do, but know it's good for you and wish you did it more.
My challenge has been from a choice of three: journalling, yoga, drinking water. Yoga has won out on the theory that it may naturally follow that I will drink more water from doing the yoga exercise. Journalling I will have to tackle next time!
Step two: make your challenge a SMART one
I'm going to get a bit cliched here but there's truth behind the blah blah blah. Trust me that this will help. Your challenge ideally should follow the SMART principles:
S- specific: who, what, where, when, why
M- measured: how
A- achievable: it's all about success; baby-steps if necessary
R- relevant/ realistic: are you willing and able to do it?
T- timed: when do your 21 days start and finish.
As an example, here's how I make my yoga challenge SMART:
I am challenging myself to do at least 20 minutes (achievable/realistic) of yoga stretches (relevant/specific*) every day (measured) for 21 days, beginning June 14th and ending July 5th (timed).
*part of my homework is to find out which yoga positions are best for what I want to achieve and check with a yoga practitioner that I am doing them correctly- hence the June 14th start date.
There are loads more detail under the 'specific' part that I won't bore you with but the better idea you have about how you are going to do this challenge, the less chance you have of givng up.
Step 3: make it known
Tell someone that matters you are undertakng a challenge. Join the on-line group through this website (see above for details). Never underestimate the power of accountability or the power of collective empathy.
Step 4: do it
If you're ready to start now- go for it! Let me know, as above, and I'll be with you all the way. I will be catching up with you on the 14th June.
Good luck x
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Lisa Cherry
said:
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... I have loved doing this! It's got me thinking about so many different things about how we restrict ourselves with 'I cant's' when actually we can - it's just a matter of making it a priority.....I'm on Day 6 so its so far so good for me x |
Megan Horrell
said:
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... Oooh, have I inspired this wee endeavour, how exciting?!!! Just got back from a few days away so haven't had time to think too much about what my challenge will be. Most likely the lose weight (I mean get healthy) one. Going to do groceries tomorrow so have been looking at recipes to get all the ingredients. I think I will have to do double cooking for a while til I get the hang of it - hubby and bubs can just have cottage pie all week while I have the healthy couscous etc! Still working out where to put swede on the menu!! |
