[The "30 Day Challenge" in a nutshell, is setting a goal for yourself, and focusing on that goal for 30 days.]
This is a simple 30 day challenge for all those interested in augmenting themselves.
We all have different situations, different beliefs, and different goals.
The 30 Day Challenge encourages us to actively work towards achieving these goals.
I've had success this year with these 30 Day Challenges, and I am hoping a bunch of you folks will join me in completing this next one.
I have found that having a group of people involved motivates me to achieve my individual goal, and helps keep me going during those periods when I'm struggling a bit.
Usually, we each choose our own individual goal - this month, I'd like to try something a little different.
Here's the deal-
[START SMALL] - We're gonna set aside three minutes each day to complete this challenge. (Honestly, EVERY one of us has three spare minutes a day.I know some folks weren't able to complete past challenges due to things that came up, but this is different. 3 minutes. A big part of this simple challege is to do *something* every day for 30 days. The box becomes a tangible aspect of this endeavor)
[ONE GOAL] - Build one small paper box, each day, for 30 consecutive days.
Boxes? Yeah - ya take two minutes to cut out a box and tape it together. Then take one minute and jot down a few words or a little doodle on a piece of paper.
Its VERY, VERY easy.
After 30 days, you will have built 30 boxes. You had set out to complete a daily task, and succeeded. As silly as it may sound, you will probably feel good in your brain-region when you look at your completed bunch of boxes. Each day, you'll feel good as you assemble your box, when you add it to the others.
Here's what one looks like: And THIS shows you how long it takes to make one. (Heh, that's NOT my desk)
Download the boxes here as one Word file, or if you don't have Word, here's the template as a .PNG file. If you don't have access to a printer, PM me your address, and I'll mail you a set.
All you need is a pair of scissors, some tape, and a pen (or pencil, or whatever.)
If you decide to take part in this, please hit "reply", and let me know that you are committed to completing this 30 day challenge.
[If possible]:
-Each day, post here after you have built your box. Even a simple "I built mine". just to keep the thread goin' and remind/encourage folks to build their boxes.
-Post a pic at the end, after you've built your 30 boxes.
If you start late, just build the box of the day you started (Build box 6 on November 6th, for example), and then build the ones leading up to it whenever you get the chance. (they really only take a minute to build)
If you have a favorite song, put it on while you are building your box. Or just build silence. If you want, you may decorate your box before you assemble it (might be tricky doing so after it's built)
Not sure what next month's challenge will be, but lets get through this first one first!
I'm not sure what I'll do with mine once I'm done - stack 'em in my cubicle? Light 'em on fire? Not sure. Doesn't matter, really - as long as they were built.
If you would also like to do the "regular" 30-day challenge along with this 'box' one, by all means, do it!
I may repeat this one again, since It's short notice, and some folks may not have access to a printer.
But If you can, please take part in this - its only three minutes a day.
---------------------------------------------------- Reading material: THIS
The Strangest Secret:
(30 minutes)
[This message has been edited by TheDigitalAlchemist (edited 10-31-2014).]
While I like the concept, the area of my brain where discipline is supposed to live has been vacant for quite some time. Although to be fair, the space in there would almost perfectly fit.... 30 paper boxes.
So if anyone could make me some, that would be great.
But seriously I support any kind of push to take more control of our schedules. I always try to take part in NaNoWriMo (National Nover Writing Month) because it is just like this: 30 days to write a novel, every day of the month grinding it out.
I've gotten more significant words written in November than any other month every year.
While I like the concept, the area of my brain where discipline is supposed to live has been vacant for quite some time. Although to be fair, the space in there would almost perfectly fit.... 30 paper boxes.
So if anyone could make me some, that would be great.
But seriously I support any kind of push to take more control of our schedules. I always try to take part in NaNoWriMo (National Nover Writing Month) because it is just like this: 30 days to write a novel, every day of the month grinding it out.
I've gotten more significant words written in November than any other month every year.
Cool idea!
You could have built two boxes in the time it took you to type that. So, I take it you're "in"?
Right now, I dont have time for goals, just getting day-to-day is tough enough.
I got a dad dying of the big C, a mom not far behind with her own health (took her to get a walker on Monday). A brother who would rather go coach soccer than help out (maybe his way of escaping), a sister who DOES help by cooking and taking meals there (and she is a damn good cook) but is also a crazy cat lady in her 40's (OK, 4 cats and one dog and her in a one-bedroom appartment. I'm still trying to figgure out which of the 6 is craziest. Money is on the orange cat that thinks my fingers are chew toys and my nuts are a good place for cat claws.) so that leaves me to drive to all these damn appointments, be there when a health nurse shows up (which they love to phone and say "be there in 30"), take out the shitty depends, do the trash, cut the lawn, run the snowblower (not yet but its comming), laundry, repairs and everything else involved in running a 4-bedroom, 2 storey house.
Oh, yeh---and I am still trying to earn a living, build a company and territory from scratch and make a minimum of 5 contacts a day for the LED lighting industry.
Goals, boxes, compartmentalization ???.....meh, call me next year man. By then I'll have either run away to the Yukon or be in a funny farm.
Right now, I dont have time for goals, just getting day-to-day is tough enough.
I got [a tone of stressful stuff].
So, you don't have time to take two minutes and 'center yourself"? I appreciate you taking the time to reply, but in that time, you could have built ONE box (probably 5 or 6, even.) two minutes a day.
The point of this is to take two minutes of "SHHHHH!". make a "t" with your hands and take a time out.
Next year, next year, next year... you know, "when things are less crazy".
1440 minutes in a day. Half of them you're asleep. a quarter of them, you're dealing with food (eating it or eliminating it) then there's the mountain of things you are wrestling with.
It's easy to knee-jerk against this challenge, but as you are standing there in the crane-kick pose, think about what you are struggling with - "some guy on the internet is challenging me to take 2 minutes a day to cut out a box and put three pieces of tape on 'em. I just don't have enough time to devote to that..." If you put aside the VERY LEGITIMATE things you are dealing with, you will find that you probably are spending at least a half hour a day doing things to make you feel better about that stuff. and very often, that stuff isn't healthy or it isn't actually stress-reducing. Two minutes a day. The boxes are just a reminder to ya. After a month, you have a nice pile (or wall, or pyramid, or a cube) of boxes. Moving forward, that time can be spent working on a legitimate goal.
In the time you spent reading this...you could have built your daily box.
now print your boxes, silly heads!
Or don't. But please don't NOT do it because you're "too busy". There's stuff you probably would like to do, (and may NEVER do) because you will ALWAYS be "too busy" -until you decide that you will set aside some time each day towards achieving your goal. Ideally, you would be spending as much time as possible on doing this,incorporating it into your actions, so you were breathing your goal. The small stuff will melt away once you get to that point. There will ALWAYS be big, terrible monsterous things which will prevent you from "living your life..."until you smack yourself in the head and remember that interacting with those things IS living your life.
2014's been a pretty sucky one, the worst in over a decade for me, but there's also been some incredibly awesome high notes as well.
These challenges aren't for everyone. but sometimes, those who protest the loudest against the, are the ones who may benefit the most from doing them. This one is sorta like the training wheels challenge. It's pretty darn likely MJ doesn't need to do this one. Even though he has stressors, and a busy schedule, he has found a way to incorporate moments of Zen in his daily existence, and he didn't have to take any classes or anything... just maybe survive a war or two, and decades of experience. and cows. They help set life's pace.
THink about who many times over you could have built your box already... heh Just do it, like that shoe company says. It's true, even though they made it so popular most folks don't even think about what those three words mean.
"just do it. "
If there is a sick person in your life, think about them as you cut and fold. As you place the tape and finish the box. Then, return to the whirlwind of your life...
We're gonna make our boxes now, see ya later.
Be well.
-TDA
[This message has been edited by TheDigitalAlchemist (edited 11-01-2014).]
Glad to see some folks are taking part in this (and/or doing their own 30 day Challenge)
--- TDA, I'm doing it, but I don't want to post about it on PFF. Thanks for setting this up!
[name withheld]
------------------ Re: 30 Days/30 Boxes
Okay, TDA, I'll bite. I'm down for some self-improvement. I will be adapting this challenge a little, because my needs right now are a little different. The thought of amassing a pile of thirty paper boxes in my small, cluttered apartment fills me with a sort of despair. I wouldn't have anywhere to keep them, and they would take up an increasing amount of space over a not-insignificant period of time. But I understand the metaphor.
On and off, for the last couple of months, I've been checking in with a site called "Unf*** Your Habitat," and its associated tumblr, but I'm not a part of the community, so my motivation/accountability have been stalling out. I'm a "creative" [more honestly: messy and disorganized] person with hoardish tendencies, and I really need to reduce the amount of stuff that I have been holding onto just because it "might come in handy someday" or I've "always had it" or "don't know what else to do with it" or [insert vague and stupid semisentimental attachment reason here]. I have a dead laptop collection that makes me sad every time I look at it (which is seldom, because it's buried under papers and things).
So, my personal "Boxes" challenge is this: I will keep one large box in my living room this month. Every day, I will put something in that box that will be donated, sold, or responsibly disposed of, as appropriate to the object, at the end of the month. The thought of getting rid of thirty things is a little daunting, but that's just the hoarder in me talking. I should be able to do this.
Today's object is a winter coat. I had been hanging onto it for two years. It was heinously ugly and outmoded, featured oversized fake-fur cuffs, and a snap closure with big, dumb decorative buttons stitched over each snap. Despite its lack of real aesthetic appeal, it is a super warm and cozy coat. I wore it for three chilly nights camping in the desert in 2012, and it had been balled up in a bag on my top closet shelf ever since. I donated it this morning, because with the temperatures dropping as they have been, it seemed like the sooner I donated it, the sooner someone who needs or wants it could wear it.
For cases like today, where it is better to offload the object sooner rather than later, or for anything I can't fit or keep inside the box all month, I will make a paper box per your template, label it with the object I've already donated/sold/disposed of, and put it in my d/s/d box as a placeholder for the item.
So, here we are:
to keep me accountable, I will report whatever object I put in the d/s/d box that day. At the end of the thirty days, I will take a picture of the d/s/d box, which should be full of objects and a couple placeholder boxes, and then on December 1, the box and all of its contents will be gone from my cave, and I shall have thirty fewer things. -------------------
------------- Well, dang. Prolly no boxes, prolly no daily updates, cuz of hecticly epic schedule, but 30 days of self improvement shall happen. Mission: exercise/ lessening the beer belly xD, although it's said to be...um, nice looking on guys :P
So, my plan is to do some sort of exercise every day: jogging, push ups, pull ups, ab thingies, back thingies, polar bear wrestling, etc. [snip) ---------------
-------------- TDA,
This sounds like fun!
Truth be told, I've been fascinated by boxes and their construction for many a year. I used to deconstruct boxes to learn how they were put together, so I'll forgo the printer and template and just construct them from memory. Can't promise 30 different box styles, but I can surely build boxes on a "Style of the Week" or "Monday Model thru Sunday Model".
----------------------
TDA, I'm in. I'll send you a pic of the boxes at the end of the month [snip)
----------
A few coworker's agreed to do it. They built their boxes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't want to be a dick, but I don't understand the point.
Why would I want to build a bunch of paper boxes?
I think the "30 day thing" is a good idea, but wouldn't it be better to focus all the attention of that 30 days on your goal instead, unless your goal truly is to build paper boxes.
Let's say your goal is to eat healthier, then simply dedicate the next 30 days to ONLY eating healthy, with the understanding you can eat like a fat on the 31st day. Or let's say your goal is to save money for 30 days... then don't spend a dime beyond what you have to (and bills) for 30 days. That seems a bit more logical.
At least for me personally, I don't have to condition my brain by building boxes, I'd much rather just get right into whatever my goal is. I don't know if everyone else is like that. But if it helps you, then I encourage you.
I don't want to be a dick, but I don't understand the point.
Why would I want to build a bunch of paper boxes?
I have too many other "therapy" projects that I would feel more accomplished doing (unless there is more to this challenge than just 30 empty boxes that hasn't been revealed yet.)
You're not being a d*ck for asking - you don't need to do it, which is why it seems like such a pointless thing. For some, they are at a state where they are almost paralyzed where they are. By doing this small token thing, by completing this simple task daily for 30 days, it motivates them to work on the stuff they are afraid to deal with. Building these boxes requires no skill. Three pieces of tape. Two minutes.
This perhaps isn't the ideal place to even share this stuff (most, if not all of us actively engage in projects, "car stuff" outdoor stuff, etc. ) but I do it because there are a few people who might benefit from a two minute break every day.
I know it's hard to even believe how 'wound up' or how introverted some folks are, but to some, this 30/30 thing is actually stressful. Artificial pressures, frantic mindsets, etc.
Not everyone can unwind so easily.
I know a few people who have benefited from this exercise. Just taking one or two moments from their daily crazy was enough to jumpstart and re-engage. Get off their butts and just get the paint back onto their paintbrushes again...or get them back into writing their book...
I know it's hard to even believe how 'wound up' or how introverted some folks are, but to some, this 30/30 thing is actually stressful. Artificial pressures, frantic mindsets, etc.
Not everyone can unwind so easily.
I know a few people who have benefited from this exercise. Just taking one or two moments from their daily crazy was enough to jumpstart and re-engage. Get off their butts and just get the paint back onto their paintbrushes again...or get them back into writing their book...
I have too many other "therapy" projects that I would feel more accomplished doing (unless there is more to this challenge than just 30 empty boxes that hasn't been revealed yet.)
There ya go- you have something you'd rather do, (and I assume you actually do them) . You're not saying that you are just sitting there with these unfinished therapy projects...right?
I recall Bonnie started building stick plane models, these boxes are sorta like that. Actually, they're NOT- some people decide to build the boxes, others say that instead of building boxes, "I'll open up that model boat that has been sitting in my basement collecting dust for the past 12 years..." And then, actually take the time and build it. Or they decide to finally clean out and paint their garage, and do a little each day...
There ya go- you have something you'd rather do, (and I assume you actually do them) . You're not saying that you are just sitting there with these unfinished therapy projects...right?
I recall Bonnie started building stick plane models, these boxes are sorta like that. Actually, they're NOT- some people decide to build the boxes, others say that instead of building boxes, "I'll open up that model boat that has been sitting in my basement collecting dust for the past 12 years..." And then, actually take the time and build it. Or they decide to finally clean out and paint their garage, and do a little each day...
I always have projects to do. I'm always finding stuff and fixing something (mechanical or electronic.) Current examples:
Picked up a free John Deere 210 Tractor. Smokes / Burns excessive oil. I just pulled the rod / piston out of the block yesterday to install new rings.
Just got back from the thrift store & purchased a Netgear 5G router on the cheap. Just configured it to my network to test it out.
Babysit for my grandsons. I like doing all of the above so I consider them a challenge / therapy, plus it accomplishes something.
I don't know about you but as a Dad, Grandpa, homeowner & a fixer of stuff, new challenges are a daily occurrence for me.
It's a LOT harder to do if you drive a truck and your only options are fast food and truck stops. :/
There were a few days of oatmeal for Breakfast, lunch and dinner. I love oatmeal so that wasn't horrible, but still... My poo is all boring and monotone now.... but anyway..
The next 30 days, no bread. I'm not cutting wheat, but bread, pizza crust, dinner rolls, etc. Along with no meat. Should be interesting.
Then a short break while I'm on vacation driving through the Southwest with the wife, and then another 30 day challenge for me that I've already planned out.
By then I'll have either run away to the Yukon or be in a funny farm.
