Image: jupiterimages.comHere’s introducing a new and interesting series that will challenge us into attracting more and more success into our lives.
What’s it about?
The “Experiments & Challenges” series is going to be a monthly column (for the time being). Each month, I will take on one challenge, which may likely be an experiment as well.
The challenge would be to practice something over a fixed period of time, with a strong commitment. The nature of the experience that will be brought about by the challenge may or may not be predictable. In the former case, the challenge would be aimed at cultivating the activity as a habit. The latter case, in contrast, would be a challenge that is an experiment, the conclusion of which would indicate whether the object of the challenge is worthwhile to take on as a habit or not.
What’s the purpose?
The purpose of these challenges is to derive greater success, by proactively cultivating (good) habits/skills and getting rid of bad ones.
This series will also serve to be a constant reminder to take on new challenges and keep growing and succeeding.
Further, through action/example, it will also demonstrate that with a short-term but strong commitment anyone can achieve his/her goals and enjoy success on a day-to-day basis.
Are there any particular rules?
Although I said that this is a monthly series, I intend to run challenges for 21 days. That would be the case for actions that can be performed on a daily basis. As for weekly or month activities, I am thinking of 21 weeks and 6 months respectively. In either case there is going to be one new challenge started each month.
Why 21 days? Because I know it works! I’ve successfully cultivated habits in the past, and the magic number of 21 days has worked wonders. Trust me, it’s amazing, and it works like a charm!
In fact, I’d like to name this series as “21-Day Challenges & Experiments”, but then I had to accommodate stuff that is not performed daily. For something that needs to be done weekly or monthly, 21 days would not be meaningful, and 21 “times” may mean too long a duration.
Some general rules that would apply for this series, are as follows:
1) The Logical Goals™ method will be applied to the challenge
This will help evolve my Logical Goals method of setting and achieving goals into a proven concept with high credibility earned through publicly proven implementations.
2) There will be one post corresponding to each challenge
Multiple posts will be avoided, so as to reduce clutter and avoid bothering community members who are not interested in the specific challenge.
3) Progress monitoring will be performed through comments posted on the same post
Until we can introduce a better way of doing this, updates on the progress of the challenge as well as contributions from the community will be posted as comments on the same post.
Besides, each challenge may have specific addition or relaxation of rules, depending on its nature.
Well, there’s nothing very formal about these rules, and more such rules may be proposed/applied as and when deemed fit. The point is that we need to start somewhere and continue to build discipline into this series.
What’s in it for you and the community?
Though I will begin this series with focus on myself (yes, the guinea pig), the short term aim is to roll it out such that anyone who likes this concept of challenges can be fully involved in the series going forward.
As of now, if any challenge and/or experiment that I announce applies to you or interests you too, you are encouraged to take up the challenge along with me. Just comment on the challenge post to let the community know that you too are in. You can also be more involved in the process by contributing your progress, opinions, difficulties, learning etc. through comments on the corresponding post. Together, we can motivate each other, learn from each other, and enjoy the challenge.
Going forward, I am planning to introduce a feature so that you can come up with your own challenge and announce the challenge in your name right here at Mark of Success.
What’s your opinion?
I’d like to take a couple of quick polls below to hear your opinions.
A.
B.
Got questions and/or suggestions?
I suppose you’d have questions and a lot of suggestions too! By all means, post your comments below and let me know what you think about the thoughts behind this upcoming series.
Let’s make a difference in our lives, and let’s enjoy success together!
Interesting concept Mark. I’d be curious to see how all this turns out… good luck with this monthly series!
Thanks for the wishes, Steve! And thanks for responding to the polls too!
Actually, even I’m kind of curious to see how I can take this forward. At the same time, I’m feeling a greater responsibility and the pressure to deliver on this. That’s a good thing for the growth of this site too.
In a sense, I’ve just implemented what I wrote in my previous post “If you can’t, you must. If you must, you can!“. I’ve now made this a “must” situation for me to take up challenges regularly, and each such challenge will bring about a specific “must” situation that I will have to deliver on. Now that it’s a must, I trust that it will happen
Wishing success to all,
Mark
I liked your thought it seeems to be interesting .
your article has inspired me to take part in the sereis ,I think that i would get much more inspiration through the journey .
i am waiting to the sereis to be started.
you last article ”if you can’t you must. If you must you can” has inspired me very much . and truly after reading some these articles i have become your fan .
i would defenately take part in the sereis and folow it too.
thanking you
Hi Kartik,
Welcome to Mark of Success! I really appreciate that you took the time to leave me a comment. Thanks so much! It is these comments that bring life to the website and keep me motivated to deliver more.
Thanks for taking the polls too, and I’m glad to hear that you are looking forward to the Challenges & Experiments series. I promise I won’t keep you waiting too long… we should be able to get started by the coming weekend.
I’ll take the liberty to choose the challenge this first time, and hope that it would apply to you also. Even if it doesn’t, we can use it as an experiment to see how this whole thing works out.
I’ll also come out with a means by which we can keep track of what our community members prefer. I think a voting system would be good to choose which challenges and/or experiments to take up next.
Thanks a ton for being my fan!
Wishing you success,
Mark
[...] In case you missed my earlier post, this is the first in a series of challenges that we will be taking on right here at Mark of Success. For complete details, read the post announcing this series. [...]