<ul><li>Define your SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time bound) goal.</li><li>Start small. Add on slightly more and more as you progress.</li><li>Journal your plans for the day and keep track of your progress.</li><li>Have a plan for the tasks and challenges you want to achieve.</li><li>Build positive momentum to have the desire in accomplishing more.</li><li>Constantly dare yourself with new and exciting challenges.</li><li>Create optimal environments to eliminate the temptations that will hold you back.</li></ul>

Yes with 30-day Challenges!

<ul><li>Helps you reshape your routines, habits, and behaviors.</li><li>You begin to rewire your mind and subconscious.</li><li>You build momentum to propel you further and further ahead.</li><li>You grow bolder and dream bigger than ever before.</li><li>The more you do, the more you can do.</li></ul>

The Power of 30-day Challenges

<blockquote>Most resolutions fail because they are more of a wish than a plan. In fact, roughly 90% of all resolutions fail each year.</blockquote>

<ul>
<li>An unrealistically difficult challenge for your current state.</li>
<li>Lack of planning. People usually just start doing something without a proper plan.</li>
<li>Lack of incremental build up. Due to lack of plan, people leap into hard stages.</li>
<li>Burnout after the excitement of the initial resolution wears off.</li>
</ul>

Why New Year's Resolutions Don't Work

<div>
The reason games, especially video games, are so fun and addicting is because they continually challenge you.
Each level is new and exciting. Each level is slightly more difficult than the last. Your confidence grows as you complete each level. Your desire for more difficult challenges grows. Your confidence soars.
When you create 30-day challenges you are continually leveling up to challenge yourself without every burning out on one single thing.
To help you gamify your life with 30-day challenges, rely on the following steps to help you succeed:
<ul>
	<li>Define your goal</li>
	<li>Start small</li>
	<li>Journal</li>
	<li>Have a plan</li>
	<li>Build momentum</li>
	<li>Constantly challenge yourself with new and exciting challenges</li>
	<li>Create optimal environments</li>
</ul> 
Define your goal This should be pretty obvious but just like setting a New Year's resolution start first with defining what you would like to accomplish in the year. What is the major goal you want to accomplish?
Be specific. The more specific the better. For example, let's say you wish to be healthier.
Don't just wish to be more fit and healthy, define what that means. As in, you want to lose 15 pounds and be able to run 10 miles consecutively without stopping.
Start small If you are going from zero to little physical activity currently then don't commit to running 10 miles 5x a week. You'll find it way too difficult and worse yet, you may even injure yourself.
Your first 30-day challenge shouldn't be running 10 miles 5x a week, it should be to walk for 30 minutes every day.
Focus on one thing and do it well for 30 days at first.
Once you push through the challenging first week you begin to fall into a new routine. The second week is slightly easier but still a bit of a challenge. By the time the last week rolls around your challenge is automatic.
You'll notice a natural inclination to want to do more.
Keep adding on slightly more and more as you progress.
Journal There are countless benefits to journaling but one incredibly powerful benefit to journaling is the fact that it forces you to plan your day, week, and life.
Your journaling session can be quick, 5-10 minutes. Do it in the morning and at night.
Follow this journaling practice and you'll be more likely to stick to your 30-day challenges: write your current 30-day challenge that you will accomplish in the affirmative i.e. I ran 3 miles per day for 30 days straight, write 2-3 big to-dos for the day, then schedule your day and when and how you will accomplish the things you wish to do.
By journaling, you mentally commit yourself to see through the most important tasks for the day before your day starts rather than wandering aimlessly through the day.
It keeps you accountable and on track. By constantly writing down your goal you make it harder on yourself to skip.
Have a plan Having a plan for your resolution is critical.
Have a plan that methodically builds you up and continuously challenges you as you progress throughout the year. That way you continually elevate your expectations and maintain the sense of excitement with new challenges.
If your resolution for the year is to be more active then set continual 30-day physical activity challenges. This could be walking/jogging for 30 days. Then doing yoga for 30 days, or lifting weights for 3x a week for 30 days.
Each challenge will be new, exciting, and increasingly more challenging.
The key is to slowly build up. The last challenge is a precursor and training implement to your new challenge.
Build momentum The key to the 30-day challenge is that it's progressive.
It creates a sense of forward movement. Of positive momentum.
Momentum is a powerful force for change in your life. If you are able to get it on your side, watch out.
By starting small, sticking to it, and accomplishing the first challenge, you create positive momentum. No matter how small the initial challenge is, the fact you stick to it and accomplish it builds confidence in your ability to accomplish goals in the future.
You begin to think bigger. You desire to accomplish more. Now you have momentum on your side.
Constantly challenge yourself One of the greatest pitfalls to a New Year's resolution is it is generally just one intangible goal, such as being more active.
That's pretty vague and uninspiring.
30-day challenges are powerful because they are for a finite period of time. Just long enough to build new routines and habits, but not long enough for you to get bored with.
By the time you begin to tire of a challenge, you are on to the next one. The challenge is over and you are ready for a new and exciting challenge.
Create optimal environments Finally, if you are going to commit to 30-day challenges you need to eliminate the temptations and cues of old habits that will hold you back.
If you wish to run consistently for 30-days then you need to plan ahead for it. Put your shoes out next to the door. Find a running partner to keep you accountable.
If you wish to eat better, throw away all the junk food in your house. If it isn't there you can't go back to the pantry and grab a bag of chips.
If you wish to drink less alcohol for 30-days, get rid of the booze in your house.
You are a product of your environment. If you set up the right kind of environment you eliminate decision making. You don't have to struggle with the idea of whether you should or shouldn't eat a bag of chips because the bag of chips isn't in your pantry. Problem solved.
You can only go as far as your environment allows.
<h3>My Experience With 30-day Challenges</h3>
Over the past year, I accomplished 7 major 30-day challenges.
In 2018, I wanted to challenge my everyday routines and habits and replace them with better ones that would set me up for greater success.
Here's another key to the challenges, they don't have to be every single month. Sometimes it is great to have a bit of a break in between to reflect and relax.
The challenges I accomplished included journaling, weight lifting, eliminating TV, cutting out alcohol, cold showers, intermittent fasting, and a morning warmup workout routine.
Each challenge was specifically targeted to test my former habitual patterns and responses in my typical day.
Without a doubt, the best challenge was my first challenge: journaling.
Journaling is now a daily part of my life and on the days I skip it, it just doesn't feel right.
Without journaling, I wouldn't have stuck to the other challenges. By journaling each day I reminded myself to focus on what was most important for that day.
Journaling reminded me of my goals, my current challenge at hand, and took the guesswork out my day.
By planning my days in my journaling sessions, I stuck to my goals and challenges.
By accomplishing these challenges I now have a new set of habits that have made me insurmountably more productive, effective, energetic, and healthier than ever before.
Of course, I was not perfect in adhering to these challenges but it's not perfection we are looking for.
Progress over perfection.
There are also benefits that cascade as a consequence of these new habits. The fact I watch less TV and workout more, I now go to bed earlier and wake up earlier than ever. I read more, I work more effectively and work on more projects than ever before.
I attribute all this to challenging myself 30-days at a time throughout the entire year.
<h3>What's your challenge?</h3>
What do you want to accomplish this upcoming year?
Whatever it is, ditch the vague and unplanned resolution and start challenging yourself 30-days at a time.
You'll be amazed by the momentum you build.
You'll think bigger, dream bigger, and accomplish more than ever before.
<h3>Ready for a kickstart?</h3>
Download the <a href="https://parkertnash.blog/am-checklist">Unstoppable Morning Checklist</a>, compiled from the routines and habits of the world's best athletes, business leaders, and entrepreneurs. If you follow this routine, your life will change. Fast.
<a href="https://parkertnash.blog/am-checklist">Get the checklist here</a>!
</div>

The reason games, especially video games, are so fun and addicting is because they continually challenge you. Each level is new and exciting. Each level is slightly more difficult than the last. Your confidence grows as you complete each level. Your desire for more difficult challenges grows. Your confidence soars.

How To Gamify Your Life To Win Big In 2019

Yes with 30-day Challenges!

The Power of 30-day Challenges

Why New Year's Resolutions Don't Work

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