Start a 30-day challenge to take on a good habit. Or to change your life.
Did you ever wish there was a way you could change your life for the better? A really simple thing that could make you feel good about yourself and happier?
There is. Doing one small thing everyday can change a lot of things on the long term. That is what a 30-day challenge did for me.
If you knew me a few years back, you knew I was a couch junkie that never worked out and had no business with sports. But all that changed with a 30-day challenge.
Back then I started to gain some weight and I was constantly feeling tired and things were starting to hurt. I am only 27 now and I strongly believe things shouldn’t hurt in your 20s. I was supposed to be full of energy and a young spirit. But I wasn’t.
While I am no sport enthusiast or I wasn’t at the time and I have never ever been in a gym (that still stands to this day), the thought of working out in a room full of people for 30–40 minutes three times a week was horrifying. But I needed to do something and I knew exercise, movement, sport was the key, even if I didn’t like it. One of those days I heard a friend or maybe I read online about building a good habit — it said that you should repeat the good action for at least 14 to 30 days until it becomes a natural part of your routine.
I started with a phone app with 30-day fitness challenges. There are multiple options, but now, in the light of my experience, I would recommend a fitness app from a trusted source, such as Nike (which I tried, I still use and which has these nice personalized plans for each level of fitness) or Adidas for example.
The program I was following consisted of a 7 minutes fitness routine to be repeated everyday. On a basic, beginner level. I won’t lie to you, at first it was very very hard to stick with it, I constantly had sore muscles and I felt so tired after each workout. But it got better with time. Now it’s been 3 years since I started and I still workout at home 3 times a week at least. Plus, 7 minutes workouts are no longer tiring and painful, I even reached the point when a 40 minute workout didn’t seem so difficult anymore (very proud of myself, yes).
The point is, no matter what type of issue you are struggling with or what good habit you want to take on but you feel it’s too hard, start slow. Set up a plan, do it for 30 days and if you still don’t like it at the end of the period, dump it and try something else. The 30-day challenge really changed my life and it could change yours. Don’t image I look like a fitness instructor or something, but it gave me confidence I can change something in my life, it helped me learn something new about me (I actually like working out now, I have fitness accessories and all) and it helped me feel so much better — things still hurt, but less often and I have more energy. Plus, I managed to keep my weight constant for the last 3 years.
Now, I write this first article on Medium because I am starting a new 30-day challenge, to fall back in love with writing. Fingers crossed!
What is the 30-day challenge you feel it would help you?
