They say that if you do something (or stop something) everyday for 30 days you can start to form (or break) a habit. Matt Cutts, seen in this short TED talk, did a series of 30 day challenges - always something new, sometimes little and sometimes significant. He offers 3 important lessons from the experience.
1. Time was memorable. With a focus on the challenge, those 30 days don't just blend into all the other months of the year - they become purposeful and defined by the experiences that were created during the challenge.
2. Challenges increase self-confidence and spirit of adventure. Cutts found that after a few 30 day challenges under his belt, he became bolder and keen to try challenges that pushed him out of his comfort zone.
3. The small challenges are sustainable - the big, hard, crazy ones aren't. What a good community development lesson here! We've seen community builders try to pull off BIG massive changes when the little things are the actions that might actually stick around long enough to truly make a difference!
Consider doing a 30 day challenge of your own, or buddy up with a friend or colleague, or go a bit bigger and engage an entire community collaborative in a challenge. Need some ideas? Take a photograph everyday for 30 days, bike to work everyday, write a book (1,666 words per day for 30 days and you've got yourself a 50,000 word novel) or cruise through past Raising the Village blogs to find some community building ideas: could you pick up litter, connect with a friend, say hi to a stranger, talk to a business about being family friendly, eat local, carpool, share stories, dance, eat with your family.... for 30 days?
We are in for the challenge. We at Raising the Village plan to take a photo about "collaboration" everyday for 30 days starting today (July 18 - August 16th)! Follow our pics on Facebook (click here to go to FB and like our page).
What 30 day challenge will you do?
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