Challenge Yourself and Break Through Your “Limits”

Photo by hodgers

Lately I’ve been reading up on goal setting and personal challenges, and I’ve realized that the most successful people consistently set challenges for themselves and the challenges are usually very short term.  In fact many people find ways to do the seemingly impossible in very short periods of time simply by giving themselves a goal and finding a way to make it happen.

For instance, Steve Pavlina finished college in just 3 semesters, graduating with 2 bachelors degrees.  He even found a way to work during the final semester of school.  Richard Branson has spent his life breaking world records and doing the “impossible” no matter what other people said.  Timothy Ferriss became a Chinese National Kickboxing Champion with only 4 weeks of training.  The list can go on and on, but the point is that the happiest and most successful people set impossible goals and go for them.

I’ve been trying to think of some challenges and goals that would make me feel more accomplished, more polished, or just allow me to complete some things on my bucket list.  I’ve come up with more than I care to implement right now, but I have written a few goals, and I’ve been working toward them.

First off, let’s lay the groundwork for why the goals are structured the way they are.  I am using a 15-30 day trial method.  This allows me up to a full month to change a behavior, or a full month to succeed at my goal.  I think it’s an easy amount of time to set a goal for because it’s short, but not so short that the goals consume other areas of my life.

The goals I’ve currently given myself are mediocre at best, but they are a start, and I will get to some harder goals in January.  I have some exciting plans for January and I hope that I can find a way to make it all happen in the 30 days of January.  January is still a long way away though.

Right now I have approx 5 m main goals for the next 15-30.  Not all of them span 30 days, and I am in the middle of the challenge on some of these goals, but here is a quick list of my personal goals for the next 15-30 days.

1. Lose 20 lbs by Christmas Day
To do this, I am following The 20/20/20 Diet which will be for sale soon.  I have lost over 85 lbs of fat with the diet already, and I’m ready to hit my overall goal of 10% body fat.

Note: I am having a problem with this goal.  Not that following the plan is a problem, but I just don’t think I can safely lose another 20 lbs.  Further, I am gaining muscle very quickly, which is good for my metabolism, not to mention my ego, but it’s bad for the reading on a scale since muscle weighs much more than fat.  In the end, the results will be in the pictures.  It will have to be measured by the way I look and feel.  I will take a moment on Christmas day and do my after pictures, but I intend to continue the diet through at least part of January.  Continuing will depend on what goals I decide to go for in January.

2.  Meditate 15 minutes per day for 30 days.
This is a personal habit that I’ve gotten away from, and I’d like to get back to.  I used to meditate every night, lately it’s been hit and miss and I’ve definitely noticed it in my stress level and mood.  I’m back to it now, and will continue at least until January 15, but my overall goal is to use the this short trial as a chance to reestablish the habit and continue from there on.

3. Perform a 4 minute ultra efficient bicycle workout every day for 30 days.
I have found a way to increase my metabolism for up to 24 hours after a workout, and the workout itself takes less than 4 minutes from start to finish.  I intend to continue this until January 15th when I intend to set another, much tougher physical goal.  I plan to release an ebook and video course on this subject by March.

4. Write 1 Page of Appreciation Per Day Until Christmas.
This is something I’d like to get into the habit of before I meditate and head off to bed.  It will start to train my mind to look for things to appreciate and ideally attract more things to appreciate.  See my Gratitude Challenge for more on this subject.

5. Finally, the craziest goal of all, and a seemingly simple goal, Give Up Coffee for 30 Days.
This may seem simple to some people, but I drink a lot of coffee.  I know people say they are coffee drinkers, when I say it, I mean it.  I drink approximately 25 cups per day.  It turns out to be about 2 liters of coffee per day.  I drink it with a little nonfat milk and Splenda.  I’m on a first name basis with everybody who works at Starbucks.  It’s sad.  I just started this and I’ve been off “the stuff” for about a day now, and boy am I feeling it.  I’ve snapped at my family, I’ve been tired and moody,  and I have a killer headache, but in a day or two I should level out and get a bit more natural energy because I won’t be hitting caffeine walls all day.

So why am I telling you this?  Why do you care?

Well, while the above challenges are fairly simple to complete, and many of them I’ve already done before, I want to get into the habit of pushing the boundaries of my “limits” and living life to the absolute fullest.

The reason I’m putting this out there?  I want to know if you are living your life to the fullest?  Do you have a goal?  Goals?  Have you created your bucket list?  Mine is titled 101 things to do before I die, it’s almost full and will soon be 202 Things to Do.  I’m working on one of my bucket goals right now.  I’m learning to solve a rubik’s cube.  I’m getting frustrated with it, but I want to understand the cube, I’ve always wanted to understand it and be able to unscramble it.

So, the question remains, do you have a goal?  are you working toward a goal?  If not, why not?  is there something on your list of goals that you could give a 30 day trial?  Is there something you’ve always wanted to do that you could start right now and achieve in 30 days?  Could you start now and be significantly closer to your goal in 30 days?  Why not do it.  Start it, start it now.  Starting is often the scariest part of a goal, and once you’ve started, and you get momentum building and you create a snowball effect.  You can do it.  Set just one goal and start, learn something new, stop a bad habit or start a new good habit.

What’s left to do?  Write down your goal.  What is your goal?  Comment on this article and tell us all.  Make yourself accountable.  Put it out to the world and do it.  Even if you don’t succeed the first time, you will have started.  If you finish the 30 days and don’t have the result you wanted, you started it and you’re so much closer to having what you want than if you had kept living life within your “limits.” will have done what

What are you waiting for, start it now.

To Your Success,
Ryan M Hall[digg-reddit-me]

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