You’ve heard that it takes 21 days to build a habit haven’t you? This theory has been put to the test by many brilliant people including Steven Covey, author of “7 Habits of Highly Successful People” and Darren Hardy, author of “The Compound Effect”.

These authors both preach that the right habits compounded day in and day out over long periods of time (as  Darren Hardy put it) is the key to a successful life. 

Ok, so you’re telling me that the recipe for a successful life is simply a few good habits? The answer – YES! However, it’s not as easy as it sounds.

The two most challenging parts about habits is 1) recognizing your bad habits and breaking them and 2) building good consistent habits, and that’s where The 30 Day Push comes in.

The 30 Day Push is a FREE program developed by Chalene Johnson, the program is designed to give you that daily push that you need to reach your goals.The 30 day challenge teaches you the strategies to building habits and reaching your goals with tools that you already have over a course of 30 days.

Not sure it’s for you? Let me tell you about my first week.

Day 1: I rated 10 aspects of my life on a scale of 1-10:

• Physical Health
• Emotional Health
• Environment
• Financial
• Leisure/Fun
• Friends/Family
• Significant other
• Purpose/Career
• Personal Growth
• Spiritual Growth

Day 2: I determined my current key priority and my intrinsic priority.

Your key priority is something that needs your attention the most right now, while your intrinsic priority is something that comes natural to you every day.

Here’s an example – your key priority might be getting into shape, while your intrinsic priority is being a good friend. Being a good friend is something that comes natural to you, you don’t think twice about it you just do it, while getting into shape is something that’s important to you but you really have to push yourself to do it, it’s not easy for you.

Day 3: I wrote down my top 10 goals for the year, many having to do with my key priority. The trick to achieving your goals is to 1) write them down and 2) write them down in present tense.

For example – instead of writing: “My goal is to land a full time job” I should write ” I am working a full time job”. Furthermore you have to be specific. Where is your full time job? With what company? What date would you like to achieve this?

That way, your goal will now transform into a S.M.A.R.T. goal – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound.

Therefore i’m going to go ahead and change “I am working a full time job” to “I am working a full time job with X company in Y city on May 31st.

Day 4: I determined my “push goal”

This is where the magic happens. Charlene’s term “push goal” refers to the goal that will make your other goals possible.

For example, if i have my list of 10 goals for the year in front of me, one of those goals is my push goal and will make the rest of those goals possible for me. It”s a domino effect!

Day 5: My push goal promise

I made a promise to at least 2 people in my life that I will achieve my push goal at X date. This way I become accountable, because I don’t want to let those people down. Chalene recommend you go public on Facebook or other social media with your push goal, or at least tell a handful of people. The more people know about your goal the more people will count on you, and the more people you do not want to disappoint. It’s called being accountable!

Day 6/7: The Carefully Crafted and Diligently Maintained To-Do List

Now it’s time to get the ball rolling with your to do list. This isn’t any old to do list, this to do list is equipped with the strategies that you need to achieve your goals. There’s a few rules with this to do list:

1. Make your to do list at the same time every day
2. Make your to do list in the same place every day
3. Keep your list with you at all times
4. Add two or three small steps that will move you forward on your list every day
5. Think about what you want to achieve in life
6. Review and revisit the list

Ok, so that was the sneak peak into week one. What do you think? Often people feel that there is some sort of a stereotype associated with people who utilize self help books and programs. The stereotype is that people who use self help are weak because they can’t figure out how to manage their lives on their own.

Let me tell you something – there is NOTHING wrong with a little help. It’s been my first week and i can already recognize the small positive impacts it’s having on my day to day life.

College students especially can find themselves completely overwhelmed with everything that’s going on in their lives, it’s easy to lose focus. Believe me I’m talking from experience. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain, all you need is a strategy, a plan, and organization and you can achieve ANYTHING on your goal list.

Go ahead and give it a try: http://www.chalenejohnson.com/30daypush