Join the Zen Habits October Challenge!

It’s a day late, but I’ve started the October Challenge on the Zen Habits forums. The purpose of these monthly challenges is to form a new habit in 30 days by doing them daily and reporting to the group of fellow challengers.

If you report daily, it actually works. I can attest to it, as can past challengers.

Go there to sign up!

The only rules:

1. Choose only 1 habit. You might want to do more than 1, but it’s pretty difficult.
2. Make it easy — you want to be able to accomplish it. Don’t make it too challenging.
3. Report daily, or as often as you can. Accountability is what makes this work.

That said, I’m going to try to participate this month. I didn’t do it the last couple of months, but I have a new challenge for myself:

Stick to my meal plan each day (I’ve created a 2000-calorie meal plan) except a couple cheat meals a week … and continue my daily habit of exercise.

What’s your challenge! Sign up everyone!

Posted on 1 October 2007 in Habits, Motivation |
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Comments (14)

feldy Says:

October 1st, 2007, 15:56 pm

i just moved to hawaii for school, and my aunt got me this sweet new surfboard. im so burned out and busy from school and stuff that when i get back from class all i wanna do is veg out. no more! my challenge is to to surf at least every other day this month. do it to it!

feldy Says:

October 1st, 2007, 16:11 pm

oh yea i guess that means i have to revamp my other habits too (sleep, nutrition, excercise, making time) so its something that will change a bunch of stuff for the better too

tyler Says:

October 1st, 2007, 16:35 pm

awesome idea!

Ben Clapton Says:

October 1st, 2007, 18:20 pm

I beat you to it, Leo. Yesterday I declared October “Get Fit for Exams” month - in which I’m focussing on making a habit with my exercising, and also focussing on my violin practice, so I’m kinda breaking the rules by changing a couple of things. But the progress will be posted on my blog. Good luck for everyone participating in the challenge.

Gabe Says:

October 1st, 2007, 18:43 pm

I’d love to hear more about your 2000-cal meal plan in a future post. Are you simply planning to eat 2000 cal a day of generally healthy food? Or do you have to balance things carefully to make sure you get your nutrients in?

Aimee Says:

October 1st, 2007, 19:06 pm

Great idea! I think that my habit will be walking everyday. :)

Deireadh Fómhair Says:

October 1st, 2007, 20:30 pm

Thanks for this opportunity. I asked myself, what will radicalize my life in October and not be impossible?

And the answer is: At least three servings a day of fruits or vegetables. Friends and neighbors, this is about half what most of us “should” get, but we’re talking habit change, not miracles. I want to succeed at this.

Dan Says:

October 1st, 2007, 20:33 pm

Okay then, I’ll study Japanese everyday, AND blog about it. I have a serious exam to study for in December so this is high stakes too.

Flora Says:

October 2nd, 2007, 12:17 pm

I’ve already been tracking my eating habits and exercise daily, and those are going pretty well. So I’m going to add a new habit this month: spending at least 30 minutes every day on home maintenance other than laundry (tidying, cleaning, dealing with papers and bills). Way too often I let things slide and then have nightmare marathon chore sessions in which I feel I’ll never get anything done. I want to try setting a timer and doing at least a little bit each night to see if I can clear some of the backlog of things that need doing around my house. I just came here from a link on Consumerist, so I’m not sure how the forum works, but I’ll check back in somehow.

I missed doing this last night because when I got home I realized I was getting sick and couldn’t handle much more than lying down. But I’m feeling better today. From tonight on, I’m doing this.

christie Says:

October 2nd, 2007, 12:17 pm

I love the frutis and veggi habit. I’ve been “sort of” trying to do this lately, so I hope you don’t mind me stealing your idea. 3+ servings of fruits or veggies each day. Maybe the goal will go up next month.

Leo Says:

October 2nd, 2007, 18:13 pm

Glad to hear you’re all participating! There are a lot of people who’ve joined already, and it’s a lot of fun.

@Gabe: I plan to do a post on it once I see how it turns out. Basically, I’ve calculated that I need to take in about 2,000 calories a day to lose weight at about 1-1.5 lbs a week. So I split my day into 5 meals of 400 calories each (@6am, 9am, 12p, 3p, and 6p). No eating after dinner. I drink only water.

I made a list of 400 calorie meals that I can eat at any of those times. So each day, I just choose 5 things on the list and pack them for work (or wherever I’ll be). It’s a little work to make the list, but once you do that, there’s no more counting calories or anything. Easy peasy!

Also, logging my food and exercise has been tremendous.

Rae Says:

October 3rd, 2007, 8:51 am

I’m going to do 15 minutes a day on the stationary bike. This might not seem like much but it’s major for me. I hate exercise and I’m busy. Once I have made a place in my schedule for this, I plan to expand in 5 minute increments until I’m doing 30 minutes three times a week. But for now, it’s 15 minutes. I plan to use the Seinfeld chain method.

Sara S Says:

October 3rd, 2007, 23:53 pm

Dear Leo,

I am joining in the October challenge by not buying any Self Help books. I joke with myself and call it self unhelp, as it has an awful effect on me. When I dont read it, I lighten up and actually enjoy who I am and my wonderful life.
So, here I am on board. Day 4, and no SH books have come into my home.
I absolutely love your blog. It has such a wonderous effect on me. Slowly but surely I am changing a few bits and pieces of my life. But I do mean slowly, otherwise I get demotivated and overwhelmed and its a downward spiral. The upside of that is, that I have actually worked out how my monkey works!! Yaye!!
I am happy and excited to be part of your October challenge.
Sara