30 Days to Success

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Once you’ve overcome inertia, it’s much easier to keep going.
Yet we often psyche ourselves out of getting started by mentally thinking about the change as something permanent — before we’ve even begun.
But what if you thought about making the change only temporarily — say for 30 days — and then you’re free to go back to your old habits? That doesn’t seem so hard anymore.
Any perceived deprivation is only temporary. You can count down the days to freedom. And for at least 30 days, you’ll gain some benefit. It’s not so bad. You can handle it. It’s only one month out of your life.
Now if you actually complete a 30-day trial, what’s going to happen? First, you’ll go far enough to establish it as a habit, and it will be easier to maintain than it was to begin it. Secondly, you’ll break the addiction of your old habit during this time. Thirdly, you’ll have 30 days of success behind you, which will give you greater confidence that you can continue. And fourthly, you’ll gain 30 days worth of results, which will give you practical feedback on what you can expect if you continue, putting you in a better place to make informed long-term decisions.
But even if you aren’t ready to make it permanent, you can opt to extend your trial period to 60 or 90 days.
Another benefit of this approach is that you can use it to test new habits where you really aren’t sure if you’d even want to continue for life.
There’s no shame in stopping if you know the new habit doesn’t suit you.
- Give up cigarettes, soda, junk food, coffee, or other unhealthy addictions.
- Become an early riser.
- Write in your journal every day.
- Call a different family member, friend, or business contact every day.
- Make 25 sales calls every day to solicit new business. Professional speaker Mike Ferry did this five days a week for two years, even on days when he was giving seminars. He credits this habit with helping build his business to over $10 million in annual sales. If you make 1300 sales calls a year, you’re going to get some decent business no matter how bad your sales skills are. You can generalize this habit to any kind of marketing work, like building new links to your web site.
- Write a new blog entry every day.
- Read for an hour a day on a subject that interests you.
- Meditate every day.
- Learn a new vocabulary word every day.
- Go for a long walk every day.
Again, don’t think that you need to continue any of these habits beyond 30 days. Think of the benefits you’ll gain from those 30 days alone. You can re-assess after the trial period. You’re certain to grow just from the experience, even if it’s temporary.

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Article discussing the benefits of applying a 30-day trial thinking to personal development

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A powerful personal growth tool is the 30-day trial. This is a concept I borrowed from the shareware industry, where you can download a trial version of a piece of software and try it out risk-free for 30 days before you’re required to buy the full version. It’s also a great way to develop new habits, and best of all, it’s brain-dead simple.

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Yet we often psyche ourselves out of getting started by mentally thinking about the change as something permanent — before we’ve even begun. It seems too overwhelming to think about making a big change and sticking with it every day for the rest of your life when you’re still habituated to doing the opposite. The more you think about the change as something permanent, the more you stay put.

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30 Days to Success
It’s also a great way to develop new habits
We all know that getting started and sticking with the new habit for a few weeks is the hard part. Once you’ve overcome inertia, it’s much easier to keep going.
Yet we often psyche ourselves out of getting started by mentally thinking about the change as something permanent — before we’ve even begun
But what if you thought about making the change only temporarily — say for 30 days — and then you’re free to go back to your old habits?
It still requires a bit of discipline and commitment, but not nearly so much as making a permanent change. Any perceived deprivation is only temporary. You can count down the days to freedom. And for at least 30 days, you’ll gain some benefit.
you’ll break the addiction of your old habit during this time.
you’ll gain 30 days worth of results, which will give you practical feedback
Here are some other ideas for applying 30-day trials:
Give up TV. Tape all your favorite shows and save them until the end of the trial.
Give up online forums, especially if you feel you’re becoming forum addicted. This will help break the addiction and give you a clearer sense of how participation actually benefits you
Meet someone new every day. Start up a conversation with a stranger.
Go out every evening. Go somewhere different each time
Spend 30 minutes cleaning up and organizing your home or office every day.
List something new to sell on ebay every day.
Ask someone new out on a date every day.
Give up cigarettes, soda, junk food, coffee, or other unhealthy addictions.
Become an early riser.
Write in your journal every day.
Write a new blog entry every day.
Read for an hour a day on a subject that interests you.
Meditate every day.
Go for a long walk every day.
When you commit to doing something every single day without exception, you can’t rationalize or justify missing a day, nor can you promise to make it up later by reshuffling your schedule.

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A powerful personal growth tool is the 30-day trial. This is a concept I borrowed from the shareware industry, where you can download a trial version of a piece of software and try it out risk-free for 30 days before you’re required to buy the full version. It’s also a great way to develop new habits, and best of all, it’s brain-dead simple. Let’s say you want to start a new habit like an exercise program or quit a bad habit like sucking on cancer sticks. We all know that getting started and sticking with the new habit for a few weeks is the hard part. Once you’ve overcome inertia, it’s much easier to keep going.

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A powerful personal growth tool is the 30-day trial. This is a concept I borrowed from the shareware industry, where you can download a trial version of a piece of software and try it out risk-free for 30 days before you’re required to buy the full vers

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A powerful personal growth tool is the 30-day trial.

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But what if you thought about making the change only temporarily — say for 30 days

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