32 Monthly Experiments You Can Start Today

I was scrolling Twitter and saw Nic's thread on 30-Day Experiments...

And this ignited a bunch of ideas that I had been thinking about for the last year that I wanted to explore.

I wanted to keep a list somewhere that others can see and benefit from because there are so many experiments we can do:

Why even consider this?

• to challenge yourself, see what you are made of

• to discover new things about you, and life

• to develop your discipline

However, I'd advise treading carefully:

These experiments or challenges can lead to attachment.

Meaning that if you do not reach them, they can lead to disappointment and abandonment of the experiment altogether.

Which is why I'd recommend either :

1. Setting the barrier of entry extremely low
   ex: read 2 pages per day

2. Turning your "challenge" into a general compass
   ex: do 1 thing for my health & fitness per day

From what I understand about challenges and goals, a longer-term strategy would be to simply BE the person who just DOES this from now on by default. Without being too harsh with yourself when things don't go your way.

You can think of this 30-day experiment as a way to test-drive the ideas you have without having the fear of it being daunting of doing it for longer.

If you want a deeper dive on this topic of mindset for better "goals", see this thread:

(Also, see Brian and Carrie for more on the psychology of setting goals and a way to simplify and make it more effective: https://www.facebook.com/BrianAndCarrie.Live)

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Anyway, with the disclaimer out of the way...

Here is my ultimate list of 30-day experiments you can set for yourself:

1. Meditate in silence for 2-5 minutes

2. Go for a walk outside

3. Read for a specific amount of time (5 to 30 mins)

4. Improve your living space (making it cozier, adding frames, lights, etc)

5. Go to Jiu Jitsu class (or gym or physical activity 3 times a week)

6. Learn Japanese (or a language you are curious to learn about)

7. Make a framed quote that I've been wanting to see every day (I have a list of these ready to go)

8. Throw one thing away every day (minimalism challenge!)

9. Whole foods during the week (or go the full 30 days. This can be quite the challenge!)

10. Eating only in a 6 or 8-hour window (aka intermittent fasting. I've done this in the past and saw a huge increase in focus and self-control. Combined with physical activity this is fun to do)

11. Code projects and publish daily updates (can be any project that you decide to work on. As long as you contribute to the project and publish updates somewhere for public accountability and building in public. I've done this with my Dumpling Nation business and it brought nothing but good things to my life and business.)

12. Going to bed EARLY

13. Only drink water as my main drink (3L minimum)

14. Message one friend per day

15. No Sugar / or any change in diet you want to commit to

16. Stretching daily

17. Say NO to everything except your priorities (create a filter of things you say YES to. And no to other invites and events)

18. One home workout per day (Squats, jumping jack, burpees, kettlebell swings)

19. Gratitude list

20. No phone in bed

21. Document Rebecca (My girlfriend) when she makes food every day (because she has such skill in combining flavors: the key ingredient to our success with Dumpling Nation was her flavors for our dumplings + accompanying sauces. We grew a lot from word of mouth thanks to how good her food was.)

22. Journal daily

23. Plan the next day in the evening

24. Follow a 30-day program you already know of (ex: Morning Miracle's SAVERS, 75-Hard)

25. Initiate sex with your partner daily (or intimate time)

26. Offer to help 1 person per day

27. Write a daily affirmation of who you want to become

28. Create a "Today I learned" series via a blog or daily video. (can be 30 seconds)

29. How can you show self-love or self-care today?

30. Aim to be 1% better each day (in any particular category that needs work in your life)

31. Maximum of 3 main tasks you want to achieve each day. (instead of an endless to-do list each day)

32. Placing a HARD STOP into your work day/evening. This is the time when you stop and move on to preparing for your evening routine. No work is to be done after this time. It is the day's deadline for any outstanding tasks.

Well, that's a wrap for the list of challenges I came up with.

Here's a quick breakdown of how to proceed:

Nic recommends:

How I would tweak the instructions:

1. Pick one from the list above or elsewhere (choosing more than 1 would be difficult in my opinion)

2. Decide your minimum requirement to meet your daily threshold. (Is it 1 push-up or 20? You are far more likely to cover the full 30 days if you decide to make the threshold lower.)

3. Start today (or pick the day you begin, and GO.)

4. Each day that you make it, congratulate yourself for attempting your experiment.

5. Report back to us with your insights on how it's going and how it went. I'm curious to hear.

Have fun and good luck!

Join Nic on A Year Of Experiments here: