How the hell are you today? I hope you’re doing something lovely and relaxing on this chilly (for me) Saturday morning. I know it’s a privilege to have a quiet Saturday morning with a cup of coffee, exciting topics to write about, and the time to do it. I wish that for you, too, if that’s what you’d like. Or whatever it is that you’re after, get it! 

Oh heyyyyyyyyy: stayed tuned to the end for the announcement!

So for today's session, we're going with a theme I love and love to share and hope will be valuable to you or someone you like at least medium: 

Behold..

The 30 Day Challenge!

Have you ever done one?

I did my first 30 Day Challenge a full decade ago! It was SUCH a delight!! 

I adored having one focus for the entire month! 

I loved not wondering what, of my many obsessions, I should devote my attention to on any given day — for an entire goddamn month! It was such a relief and actually such a fun experience!

Have ADHD? A 30 Day Challenge is Perfect for the ADHD Brain!

Don't have ADHD? That’s okay! The 30 Day Challenge could be magnificent for your brain too. 

Now that I’m describing the joy of a defined focus for 30 days and how magnificent it was to have a whole month of clarity and purpose… it seems obvious how fabulous a 30 Day Challenge could be for ADHD babes!

But at the time, and until very recently, I didn’t know anything about ADHD, except the basic wrong — or at least very incomplete — image of a rowdy school boy.

It would still be another decade after my first 30 Day Challenge before I was diagnosed with ADHD!! DANG! It makes so much sense why I loved this concept, and perhaps why you, too, lovely human, might also enjoy this Attention Laser for an entire month. 

It’s a glorious exercise even for the standard brained humans among us!

Let’s get to it, shall we? (Probably not yet!)

Time after Time

So one fine day, 11 whole years ago, I was listening to one of those Ted Talks and there was this feller who noticed his time was passing and passing and he was just living day to day, second to second.

He wasn’t really doing anything intentional with his days. Or creating any memories worth remembering… Just wake up, commute to work, work, commute home, maybe watch something, repeat, repeat, repeat until death….

So this fellow decided to start marking his time by picking one project for 30 days and have a pretty serious goal where he’d have to invest significant time to achieve — like the goal of National Novel Writing Month — writing a 150 page first draft of a novel during the month of November.

So he did all these different 30 day challenges and they helped him GROW! And also helped him remember his life, like oh yeah May 2012 is the month I wrote a novel for fun. And other beautiful things that he did in the preceding and following months!

30 Day Challenge to Measure Your Life

I was particularly intrigued by this since I also had been noticing that I wasn’t doing anything valuable with my life. 

I was having a lot of picnics, enjoying the spring, enjoying my room full of plants… but what was I doing the rest of the time? What was I doing with my life? What was I doing with my life?

My rent was $100 a month (!!!) and since my expenses were not expensive, I decided to enjoy the beautiful weather and spring and then get back to work in the summer. But, what had I done last month? Just one long month-long picnic? Come on! I had no idea. The month before, I didn't really know either.

Focus Focus Focus Focus Focus!

So I watched this fellow’s talk and was intrigued, mystified, elated by the idea of spending 30 days focused exclusively on one task.

• Would I actually stick with a single thing for 30 days!?

• Would I be able to stick with it?

• What if some other exciting idea invaded my brain and demanded all my attention? (More likely than not)

(Again, hilarious to recognize these now obvious signs a decade later, armed with my ADHD knowledge and diagnosis)!

My First 30 Day Challenge!

I decided I’d copy one of his challenges. How about writing a book in a month?? Though I had not written fiction before — aside from one story in high school — I was certain that I could make some (possibly impressive) progress on this new endeavor, if only I allowed myself a single focus!

Let’s Go Write a Book!

So for the month of May in 2012, I did my first 30 Day Challenge and tried out National Novel Writing Month, though I did it as a sort of independent study, since it’s held every year in November. I obviously couldn’t wait half a year to try it out! I have a separate post about that coming up soon, but don’t stay on the edge of your seat!

In CONCLUSION:

30 Day Challenges are incredible! I want to do them ALL THE TIME. Want to do some together sometime? One I really enjoy is a 30 Day postcard challenge. Maybe I’ll do one of those shortly. Sending and receiving postcards is so gratifying!!

My Questions for You

Have you done a 30 Day Challenge? What was it? How successful were you? Would you like to try another? What would you do? I’m so intrigued! Let’s discuss in the comments!

Announcement!!

(Edit: later) I did not do what I announced below.

So I am going to take the 30 day Challenge up 12 ridiculous notches and every day for the next year, I am going to share a story with you from Life Coach from Hell.

One a day with Life Coach from Hell.

If you have the free subscription, I thank you so kindly for spending some of your time with me. I’ll be sharing posts with you on Saturday mornings still.

If you have the paid subscription, you’ll get the One a Day newsletter and the audio. Wow. this is going to be a lot!

I’m excited to create this routine (with you?)???

(Edit, later: I completed the 30 Day Challenge but I did not keep it up every day after that, even though I already had enough material to post daily for three years).

Would you like to join?

For a 30 Day Challenge to start? Let’s see how this goes! I’ll explore it soon!

Have you done a daily challenge for a year? How did it go?

Do you think I can do this?

I’m nervous but so excited, so so excited!