Take the 30 day challenge

Take the 30 Day Challenge

Tim Connor

Let me ask you – if you were told today you had only 30 days to live - would you do anything different or would you just spend your last 30 days in the same routines, attitudes and life approaches that you have followed for the past several years?

My guess is that your answer would be no 

- you would change something;

-       -  you would worry less

-      - you would spend more time with loved ones

-      - you would stop putting off some activity

-      - you would re-connect with people from your past

I could go on for pages with these examples, but I am sure this simple question has made you think.  So why not take the 30 day challenge.  What exactly is this and how should you proceed starting today?

I’m not trying to be morbid here just asking you to think about how you live each day with its thoughts, expectations, concerns, fears, hopes, dreams and every other conceivable mindset or behavior.  The 30 day challenge is a simple process – just pretend for the next 30 days that on the 30^th day it will all end.

We are all going to die – we just are not privy to when, where or how – that remains a mystery for each of us but, we can all live while we are alive.  One of my favorite quotes is by my mentor Og Mandino.  He said, “Live like you are going to die today and work like you would live forever.”

Death is seen by many as an ending and others as a beginning.  I have my personal thoughts on this topic but I won’t belabor it in this article.  However, death is an ending of our physical life i.e. our body.  So the question remains – since you are going to die and you don’t know when, are you really living each moment and each day with – passion, enthusiasm, faith, hope, love and gratitude? If you could reflect on your last day – whenever that is – on how you lived your life, what you accomplished, who you served and how, who you loved and how and why, what would you want your answers to be?   

This is the 30 day challenge.

Create a list of; things you want to do, things you want to see, things you want to accomplish, what really matters most to you, who really matters to you and the legacy you want to leave behind and begin. Add as many items to this list as you want that are all important to you. Now, live each day with these as your benchmarks, goals, beliefs and actions etc. At the end of each day reflect on your success, actions and results and take notes in a 30 day challenge journal of each day’s progress on how you did keeping in mind that as each day passes you have one less day in front of you to achieve your desired outcomes.

If you will seriously take this 30 day challenge I will guarantee you that at the end of the 30 days you will be a better person in some way.  Now the trick is to continue to live all of your remaining days keeping these objectives in mind as each day passes.

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." 

Ralph Waldo Emerson