by Jeremiah Carag, Gage Residence Advisor

It’s a new year and a new semester. At this point, everyone is still faithful to their new year’s resolutions; however, the inevitable happens and we all fall into the trap of losing our focus and eventually giving up on the commitments we made at the start of the year.

During the last Student Leadership Conference, I have had the privilege to do a presentation to emerging and current leaders on campus. Entitled the 30 Day Challenge, the presentation was inspired by a movement started by Matt Cutts. At a certain point in his life, Matt, a software engineer, felt that he was in a bit of a slump in his life and decided to start a 30 Day Challenge. At the beginning of each month, he would set goals for himself. Some of these goals were to build good habits or break bad ones such as taking a picture for each day or cutting out sweets in his regular diet. He also had bigger goals for himself such as biking to work or even climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest point in the African continent.

Inspired by this movement, I started doing 30 Day Challenges for myself last October and the results were phenomenal. For instance, one of my first goals was to cut my Facebook time to thirty minutes for each day and to make sure that I get at least 7-8 hours of sleep for each day. This challenge may sound too simplistic but as a result, I became less of a procrastinator. Even my grades improved a lot as certain courses where I got a running average of B at the middle of the term turned to As by the time the final grades were out. Also, I started becoming more adventurous. I have pushed myself beyond my comfort zone by joining events such as the City Chase by UBC REC or even presenting at the Student Leadership Conference – things I would not have normally done without the 30 Day Challenge as a framework.

Most of all, through the 30 Day Challenge, I felt that I was slowly working through my bigger goals. What seemed to be a daunting task felt more like a destination that is attainable through small steps. Find out more about it by checking out Matt Cutts video on TED Talks. Start the year right and push yourself beyond your boundaries!

Join us by posting your progress and checking out other people doing the challenge on http://30daychallenge.ubc.tumblr.com. You don’t need to have a Tumblr account to post!

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