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It’s a new month, and it’s time to prepare ourselves for a new challenge.

The Challenges & Experiments Series is a practical discipline through which we challenge ourselves into making incremental changes in our way of living life, with the purpose of attracting more and more success into our lives. If you are new to this site, check out the details of the Challenges & Experiments Series here.

Announcing a schedule for the Challenges & Experiments series

The last two challenges started without sufficient advance notice to the Mark of Success community. So to set things right, I have come up with a monthly schedule for this series, which I intend to follow starting this month. The schedule is as follows:

1st of the month: I will check the votes received, and announce the challenge for the month. Preparations needed for the challenge will be outlined here, and the next few days will be available to prepare for the challenge.

4th of the month: The Logical Goal for the challenge will be published.

5th of the month: The 21 days challenge begins. No separate post will be published but, as we start the challenge, a comment is expected on the Logical Goal post from each of the participants.

The Logical Goal post will be the center-point of the challenge, and all participants will contribute their experiences in the form of comments on this post over the 21 days of the challenge. Of course, bystanders too are most welcome to comment.

25th of the month: The challenge ends. No separate post will be published but, as we end the challenge, a comment is expected on the Logical Goal post from each of the participants.

28th of the month: A roundup of the challenge will be published, which would include a summary of opinions/comments from those who actively participated in the challenge. I am currently thinking about ways to reward those who participate in the challenge, and hope to come out with something shortly.

The above schedule will be published on the dedicated Challenges & Experiments page and any changes hereafter will be managed over there.

Well, today is the 1st of this month. So, through this post, I am going to announce the challenge for the month.

The challenge for this month

There were 7 candidates for the challenge this month, 2 of which received an equal number of votes from the Mark of Success community.

Taking the liberty to choose one from amongst those two, our next 21-day challenge, for September 2010, will be:

“Each day, phone a different friend whom you’ve been out of touch with”

I will post the Logical Goal for this challenge on the 4th, but there’s something that we need to do before that.

Preparations for the challenge

There are a few days for the challenge to begin, and there’s preparatory work to be done in the meantime. You must do the following:

1) Make a list of 21 or more friends/contacts that you have been out of touch with for a (very) long time.

2) Write down the contact numbers of each of the contacts. If you do not know their current numbers, contact other sources and get the numbers in advance.

3) Assign a budget and charge your phone/account with sufficient balance to make the extra phone calls over the 21 days of the challenge.

If you are extremely good at keeping in touch, you might find it difficult to list 21+ contacts that you have not been in touch with in the recent past. However, I assume that most of us would have people on mind that they want to get in touch with again but somehow either do not find the time or are just waiting for an “apt” time that just never seems to come by.

So, to prepare yourself for the challenge, take a paper and a pen right away and write down the names of anyone that you think you have been out-of-touch with.

Once you have 21 or more entries on your list, you are prepared for the challenge. It would be great then if you could announce your willingness to participate in this challenge by posting a comment on this post. I look forward to hearing from you all.