The Secret To Achieving New Year Resolutions

January marks the start of another year and a new list of new year resolutions : )

To be honest, I have never been a fan of new year resolutions. In my experiences, by March I have forgotten everything I resolved to do. But two years ago I found an alternative to new year resolutions that has completely changed the way I approach each month: 30 day challenges.

A little over a year ago I say a TED talk given by Google Engineer Matt Cutts on 30 day challenges. Since then I approach each month with a new challenge. For just 30 days I commit to doing something I have always wanted to do.

Sometimes the 30 day challenges fly by, like when I committed to launching mgregueiro.com and posting once a day. Other challenges were a little more challenging, like when I committed to cycling to work for a month or fasting social networks.

The beauty of 30 day challenges is that they provide enough time to accomplish something meaningful, but don’t give enough time to procrastinate. Plus if a 30 day challenge is tough, i.e., cycling to work got really rough after the first week, the end is on the horizon.

Because of this, I find myself taking bigger risks in my 30 challenges. Committing to a year of cycling to work would be crazy, but after 30 days cycling to work, I found myself continuing the practice well after the challenge had ended.

So this year, instead of a long list of new year resolutions, pick one resolution and commit this month to taking it on : )

If  you take the challenge I would love to read your progress in a comment below!