A few years ago, I felt like I was stuck in a rut. So I decided to follow in the footsteps of the great American philosopher, Morgan Spurlock and try something new for 30 days.
The idea is actually pretty simple. Think about something you’ve always wanted to add to your life, and try it, for the next 30 days. It turns out that 30 days is just about the right amount of time to add a new habit, or subtract a habit, like watching the news, from your life.
There’s a few things I learned while doing these 30 day challenges. The first was, instead of the months flying by, forgotten, the time was much more memorable. This was part of a challenge I did to take a picture every day for a month. And I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing that day.
I also noticed that as I started to do more and harder 30 day challenges, my self-confidence grew. I went from desk-dwelling computer nerd to the kind of guy who bikes to work...for fun. Even last year I ended up hiking up Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. I would never have been that adventurous before I started my 30 day challenges.
I also figured out that if you really want something badly enough, you can do anything for 30 days. Have you ever wanted to write a novel? Every November tens of thousands of people try to write their own 50,000 word novel, from scratch, in 30 days. It turns out all you have to do is to write 16,667 words a day for a month. So I did. By the way, the secret is not to go to sleep until you’ve written your words for the day. You might be sleep deprived, but you’ll finish your novel.
Now, is my book the next great American novel? No, I wrote it in a month, it’s awful! But, for the rest of my life, if I meet John Hodgman* at a TED party, I don’t have to say, ‘I’m a computer scientist.’. No, no, if I want to, I can say, ‘I’m a novelist.’
So here’s one last thing I’d