When It’s OK to Abandon 30-Day Challenges

A different perspective for those who may feel like failures, and a fresh, scientific stance to approaching self-improvement

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Picture this. You’re scrolling through your Facebook feed in the last week of March. A friend in your spoken word poetry group has just shared a post about an upcoming national poetry challenge they were planning to take part in.

You see this, and with eagerness in your heart, you decide to respond to the post and have now committed yourself to the 30-day NaPoWriMo challenge; writing (and in some cases also publishing) a poem per day throughout the month of April.

Your mind ponders all the potential lessons you’ll learn about yourself throughout the challenge…

• The idea forming and writing skills you would improve.
• The amount of self-exploration you would undertake when conveying your innermost thoughts and feelings through your flowing words.
• The powerfully positive impact this month is bound to have on your general self-esteem, and ability to develop new habits.

Then April arrives and lo and behold, you have broken your daily streak after a mere 2 days in.