So now that you have finished your challenge – let's assume it is your first - what are you going to do next?

Celebrating

First thing: celebrate! Take a moment to enjoy the feeling of achievement, feel the satisfaction. Maybe you want to reflect for a
moment on the last 30 days, on your discoveries, important insights, things you found out about your challenge, how you handled it and how the process evolved, maybe even changed significantly.

Were there any frustrations on the way? Don't leave them out because they are the gateways tailored especially for you to find out something new about yourself. Imagine you found yourself much more resilient than you thought before. Or you feel a bit ashamed of a tendency for self- betrayal, for modifying your original challenge in form or time dedication. Whatever observations you discover, just learn from them instead of judging yourself.

If you feel inclined to do so, share your discoveries on the community board, others might want to know and exchange experiences!

Moving On

And then move on. Maybe your challenge was a one off, something you needed to do urgently and feel like you finished it and that's it. Yet our experience here at 30 Day Groove is that people are keen on beginning a new venture! Some want to find a new challenge, often this already came up while cultivating the current one. Some want to expand on the previous adventure, some even want to do this AND add a new challenge! So they feel very much motivated to continue.

Some people though may have exceeded their time and energy 'budget' and simply did too much because they didn't want to give up.

Taking Care

When cultivating a self-chosen task – meaning a continously deepening practice – some dangers are lurking in the trenches, so to speak. First for many people it is hard to find the right time expenditure.They are all heated up and want to start and say: I can do this for an hour each day easily! Well, the emphasis is on 'daily'! This is not to say that it is impossible to take an hour of your schedule, still keep in mind other obligations and relationships. A partner, kids or friends who want more from you than you are willing to give them for the time being want to be convinced.

So in order to make your practice stick, think carefully about the amount of time you are able to invest. Daily 15 minutes are better than frequent interruptions. Consistency matters, build your new neural networks with caution.

A maybe even bigger trap lies in feeling so inspired that you add challenge to challenge because you found the first one so motivating that you easily find new ventures but don't want to let go of the old ones. I guess it is obvious that this approach is doomed for failure: you cannot extend the hours per day. If you take on something new something has to be given up. Please think carefully and try to avoid anything that is counterproductive at the end. You want to grow and not win a medal.

All these considerations are of course generic. Only you decide what to do and how much you think you may be able to invest. The most important elements lie in your inspiration, motivation and persistence.