The best 30 day challenge ideas are simple daily actions you commit to for a set number of days. I call them growth games. Pick one action, do it once per day, mark an X for every day you complete, document the experience and finish strong. Kindness, miles and consistency are great places to start.
- A growth game is one simple action you commit to doing once per day.
- Borrow a challenge I have done, from daily kindness to 100 miles in a month.
- Number the days and put an X on each one. You become addicted to the X.
- Finish strong and impress yourself, even after the goal is already met.
What is a growth game?
A growth game is my name for a challenge with simple rules that you play every day for a set number of days.
My 30 Day Random Act of Kindness Challenge came out of a coaching conversation. A client wanted to work on being more consistent and on doing more to help other people. So we created a game for it. I had first experienced a daily act of kindness in Andy Frisella's Live Hard program.
Treat a growth game as a get to do, something you get to do to double down on your gratitude and your accountability.
Are you interested or are you committed?
What are some 30 day challenge ideas?
Start with real ones. I took on each of these myself. Some ran shorter than 30 days and one ran 31, so the length is listed.
| Challenge | Length | What you do and what it builds |
|---|---|---|
| Random Act of Kindness | 30 days | Do one random act of kindness per day and write it down. It builds gratitude, accountability and consistency. |
| 100 Miles in May | 31 days | Run or walk 100 miles in the month, about 3.3 miles a day. It builds a mind tuned to finding pockets of time. |
| Grounding to the Earth | 21 days | Go outside and touch the earth with your hands or feet once a day. It builds consistency, self creation and presence. |
| Live Streaming | 14 days | Go live once a day. It teaches you to create time, to know what to say and to get comfortable. |
| Fruit Till Noon | 10 days | Eat only fruit until 12 p.m., with water and zero coffee. It gives you a new perspective on how you start your morning. |
The miles taught me to work from a position of strength. I got 15 miles done in the first two days so I was always working from ahead. The full story is in my 100 Miles in May recap.
Fruit Till Noon was Jesse Itzler's challenge. On days three and four my energy was noticeably lower without coffee. Then day five hit and it was like a switch got turned. I realized I don't necessarily need coffee for my energy. That was my experience, and yours may differ.
When you are ready for a bigger game, 75 Hard was an absolute game changer for me. It was the first time I ever worked out twice a day.
How do you run a 30 day challenge?
- Pick one simple action. Ask what the simplest thing is that you could do once per day. Touching the grass takes five seconds.
- Commit all the way. Many people love the idea, do it for a day or two, and then stop. Be someone who goes all in.
- Create a menu. Take 10 minutes, remove distractions, and write down as many ideas as you can. For kindness that could be buying someone coffee, writing a review for a podcast, or sending a friend a video message with a compliment.
- Number the days. Write one through 30 on a whiteboard or in your planner and put an X on every day you complete. You become addicted to the X.
- Do it early. First thing in the morning is a great time to get it done. I touched the grass on my early morning walk with my dog.
- Document every day. Use a note taking app or a notebook. By the end you have a document you can experience again. It is your evidence.
The way you never forget is by writing things down and putting things in front of you so you've got that awareness.
Rob Cressy
What does it mean to impress yourself?
Impress yourself is my standard for any challenge. It means doing something you have never done before, so that you look back at the end and say, "Wow, I am actually impressed that I did that."
I hit the 100 mile mark on day 20 of that May challenge. With two days left, 150 miles popped into my head and I could not stop thinking about it. My wife said, "Rob, I'm already impressed by what you've done." Others were impressed, and I had yet to impress myself, because I knew I could do 150.
So on Memorial Day, in 90 degree heat, I put in 11 miles, 10 of them on the beach. Winners finish strong. It is the same spirit behind a 15 out of 10 standard.
Does a challenge have to be 30 days?
Thirty days is one option. Mine have run from 10 days to 31, and for years I created consistency through a series of 21 day games that I played with myself.
Simple wins at any length. After our 21 days of grounding, my client told me, "I was actually looking forward to doing it."
Watch the final stretch. Consistency can seem more difficult near the end. Around day 15 or 16 of a 21 day game you lose sight of the original excitement. Double down on your focus there.
Do this today
- Choose your game. Pick one simple action and a number of days, then write the rule in one sentence.
- Number the days. Put one through 30 where you will see it and mark your first X today.
Listen to the episode
30 Day Random Act of Kindness Challenge
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Read the full transcript
What's up? It's Rob Cressy. And what I want to do is jam about how we can all make April a 15 out of 10 month and make the world a better place at the same time. And the way that I'm doing that is through a 30 day random act of kindness challenge.
And this is something that was inspired by a coaching conversation I was having with one of my clients where he wanted to work on more consistency and doing more things to help other people because that's the thing that is how he shows up every day and it's his purpose. And I was like, well, great. Let's do this all the time by creating a 30 day random act of kindness challenge. And this is something that I first experienced when I was doing phase three of Andy Frisella's Live Hard mental toughness program.
And what I want to do is sort of outline how the game is played for the 30 day random act of kindness challenge is pretty simple, as well as give a few tips for things that you can consider if you're interested in joining the 30 day random act of kindness challenge. So number one, here's how to play this growth game once per day, do a random act of kindness. There are no rules to what that means.
Number two, document your random act of kindness every single day. I recommend doing this in some sort of note taking app or a notebook. I'm going to be using Evernote and I will be writing both text by day. So day one and then insert it and also taking pictures when applicable.
And then number three, I've got a private Facebook community where we're going to be documenting and sharing our experience with this. If this is something that you would be interested in, I'll drop a link to the private Facebook group in the show notes in the comments.
So what is most important on all of this in order to get a 15 out of 10 for your month is your commitment on this. So often people love the idea of some of these and they might do it for a day or two, but then they stop. Be someone who goes all in and commits to doing this 30 day random act of kindness challenge. The same way that I committed when I was doing the Live Hard program. Boom. There was no compromise on this. Every single day I was doing a random act of kindness.
And guess what? I am bringing that same level of commitment right now because it's one of the beautiful things that you can teach yourself and add to your tool belt is self accountability. That when you say you're going to do something and you commit to doing it, you make it happen.
Because I always say, certainly in the podcasting side of things, when people are interested in launching a podcast, I say, Hey, are you interested or are you committed? So many people have the idea of launching a podcast. Oh yeah, Rob, I've thought about it for like a year or two, but it is those who are committed that actually make it happen.
So what I want to do is give some tips around this to help you based on my experience. And when you set an intention to do a random act of kindness every single day for an entire month, just amazing how just amazing. Just imagine how amazing and incredible your month will be. So every single day I'm waking up and I'm like, all right, I'm going to create a random act of kindness today. Boom, right out of the gate. That's what I'm thinking about.
And one of the amazing parts about this is when you give to others, you actually receive because we're not doing this for ourselves, but there is certainly a personal benefit. When you do good in the world, it will come back to you.
Number two, I recommend that you create a menu of things that you can do or create for your random act of kindness. Because one of the areas where people oftentimes struggle or a challenge, they just say, I just don't know what to do. All right, let's be wise. Let's take 10 minutes, remove distractions and write down as many ideas as you can for things that you can do as a random act of kindness. So doing this allows it to be easier for you to be inspired. Doesn't mean you have to go by this menu, but this menu is something that is a tool that serves you.
So for example, maybe you buy someone flowers, you buy someone coffee or groceries, you write a review for a book or a podcast that you recently listened to, send video messages randomly to friends or coworkers or family members, giving them a compliment about themselves. And there's so many more things that you can do. But boom, start with a menu and then add to it because doing this allows it to be easier for you to take action.
The possibilities are really endless. I encourage you to be creative and have fun with this. And of course, with this being a growth game designed to help us turn our month into a 15 out of 10, you want to create an energy around this. This is not something on your to-do list. This is a get-to-do. It's something that we get to do to double down on our gratitude and our accountability and our consistency and our positive energy in making the world a better place.
Next thing, and this is a bonus, I encourage you to impress yourself. Can you do something that is a random act of kindness that you have never done before? And when you look back on this at the end, you're like, whoa, I can't believe I did this to where you actually impress yourself. Because I love this concept of impressing yourself. It's something that I strive to do every single day, month and year where you're constantly doing things that you've never done before where you're like, wow, I am actually impressed that I did that. Bring that to the table with this.
One thing that's a tip for you on the accountability side that I love to do, and it helps me. What I'll do is I've got a whiteboard in front of me or I'll use my planner that's right next to me. And I'll number out one through 30. And then I'll just put an X on every single day that I do this. And one of the areas where people oftentimes slip or fail with consistency is they don't create that accountability for themselves. They try and rely on remembering it.
But one thing that would be great to add to your tool belt is to remove I forgot from your language in your being. The way you never forget is by writing things down and putting things in front of you so you've got that awareness. So that at any time you can say, all right, I have not accomplished this yet. I'm going to go ahead and do this. And this is such a simple, I guess, habit or life hack that so few people use.
And for me, it has been an absolute game changer. I just create these simple one through 30 checklists. And I just start crossing them off. And you become addicted to the X. And it is such a simple way to create accountability.
And then lastly, why are we documenting this experience? Because when you start this on day one, there's just going to be one entry. But then you're going to get one week into this and you're going to look back and you're like, Whoa, look at all the good things that I've done over the last week. And then you get three weeks into it and you're like, Can you believe how much I've done in three weeks to help other people? And then you'll get to the end of this in the 30 days. And you have a document of all of the people that you helped and all of the things that you've randomly done to help people.
And you'll sit there and this becomes the gift that keeps on giving because it's not only just something that you do in the moment. It's something that lives in you. And this is a document that you can go and view and re-experience as many times as you want. And it is your evidence. It's an example of when you were being someone who was randomly kind to the world. And once you understand that you can cultivate and create that whenever you want, man, the sky is the limit. It is the gift that keeps on giving.
So I encourage you, document your experience with this. Share this with other people because this is an opportunity to inspire others and to inspire the world. And I think about a few days before I started this challenge, I bought a woman behind me in line groceries. And I actually did a podcast about this. And she had three things. She had cookie dough, a gallon of milk, and some lettuce. And she was making her husband cookies. And I was like, you know what? This is on me. All I ask is that you do something nice for somebody else and you pay it forward.
So this is another thing that as you're going around life doing nice things for other people, hey, if someone ever says, how can I repay you? Just ask them to pay it forward. So if you're someone who is interested in making your April a 15 out of 10, I encourage you to join me in the 30-day random act of kindness challenge. I'm already, what, four days into it. And I'm loving it. I'm really working on myself to create new ways of doing random acts of kindness for other people.
Transcript cleaned up for reading.