10 Thirty-Day Challenges That Nobody Wants to Take

A week ago I asked my friends on Facebook about the craziest thirty-day challenges, and I got quite a few interesting ideas. I’m posting them here today, along with my own contributions.

These are all challenges that you won’t usually think about, yet some of them can be very powerful. I personally want to try some in the near future.

If you want to give them a shot as well, I’d love to hear about your experience, and I’d offer you a spot here to share it if you don’t have a blog.

Enough talk for now, below are 10 thirty-day challenges that nobody wants to take:

1. No smoking, coffee or alcohol. This is only valid if you currently smoke or drink. I know that you’d never do this if you are a smoker, but come one, it’s only for 30 days, after that you can smoke again, and this would be the perfect opportunity to show everyone that you can quit anytime you want (right?). Not drinking alcohol is easier, but still challenging, especially if you hang out in clubs with friends who like to drink. I personally neither drink nor smoke, even tough I did both for many years, and guess what? I can still hang around with my friends and have fun.
2. No television. If you watch 2 hours of television per day in the evening, that adds up to 60 hours per month in front of a box. A nice challenge would be to avoid television for one month, and perhaps to use that time for reading books.
3. No computer and internet. A bit more drastic than the previous one. If I’d stop using the computer now, I’d lose all my clients in three days. Indeed I rely on the internet for working everyday (like many of you do). Still, it would be nice to try this challenge, or at least to minimize the amount you spend online per day. If you want to go the extra mile, you could also get rid of your cellphone and other electronics.
4. No sex, porn or masturbation. Seriously, I have no idea of what would happen with this. Perhaps we would get a lot of energy and feel better, but I can’t say because I never tried.
5. Raw diet. If you’re already eating a raw diet, you may laugh at this, but for the rest of us adopting a raw diet for thirty days would be really challenging. Make sure to do some research first if you want to try this, as changing your diet is always a challenge for your body.
6. Socialize with 5 new people a day. A good way to fight shyness would be to meet and talk with 5 different people every day, preferably of the opposite sex. It will be hard at the beginning, but you’ll become more confident.
7. Yoga. I’ve never tried yoga, but a friend told me that she’s taking a 30 days challenge of 60-100 minutes of yoga classes every day, and that it’s really challenging.
8. Polyphasic sleep. I don’t know if 30 days would be enough, but polyphasic sleep is another interesting thing to try. There are many kinds of polyphasic schedules too choose from, the most extreme being of taking only 6 20-minutes naps per day (without any other sleep). Steve Pavlina has tried this in the past with success.
9. Becoming an optimist. This can be really fun. Every morning and every night before going to sleep, list 10 reasons why your day has been awesome.
10. Find a way to make extra money every day. You’ll probably not become rich by doing this but.. it’s wort a try. Do something every day that will make you some money, like listing something on Ebay, running errands for someone else or making a website. How much you earn is not important as long as you make something. Here are 43 make money ideas to get you started

What do you think of these challenges? I’d love to hear your experiences, as well as other ideas you may have.

Posted on May 19 2010

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