21-Day Challenge for Blog Writing
My business is built to help companies sell more and save money and people through their digital footprint. Which basically means, I teach them how to build a website, social media strategy and inbound marketing program so they can attract more leads. One of the components of that process is teaching them how to blog strategically. So you would expect to look at my own website and see blogs written about these topics written multiple times a week.
Well, writing blogs is hard. And, when you run your own business, it makes it even harder. I’m busy writing curriculum for my digital sales and marketing classes, handling the books and building my website. And although I am regularly inspired to write about something new I just learned or some incredible experience with my clients, I’m also sidetracked by the business of running my business. So, when you look at my website today, there are not a lot of blog entries. This is a problem.
My brother sold fitness club memberships way back in the day and he always said, “21 days makes a habit.” I guess it was a mantra fitness clubs used frequently to get members excited for weight loss by exercising 21 days in a row thereby forming a lifelong habit. Anyway, that mantra has always stuck with me. In fact, I participate in 21 day meditation challenges several times a year in order to keep up with my practice. After each challenge, I feel renewed and committed. So I was all set to commit to a 21-day challenge for blog writing to solve my blog problem. And like any writer, I went to Google and researched 21-day challenges to verify that this is a real thing and that science is behind it. Which would make it work right? I just do the 21-day challenge and poof! I will have a perfect blog with perfect content after only 21 days of writing a blog a day!
Nope. That’s not what I found. In fact, I found article after article about why 21-day challenges to change behavior and form good habits are a myth. Sure, the idea of 21 days to form a habit started with merit as observations by Dr. Maxwell Maltz. Dr. Maltz was a surgeon back in the 1950s and he found a consistent recovery time by his patients after surgeries that altered their physical looks and abilities of approximately 21 days to a modification of their previous behaviors. He noted them in his book Psycho-Cybernetics and the idea went wild. Unfortunately, over time, his observation of at least 21 days to form a habit was evangelized and became a suggestion that it only takes 21 days to change your life.
And, recently, Dr. Phillippa Lally and her team of psychology researchers performed a study to see how long it actually takes to form a habit. 1 What they discovered was the time to make a change to habits is actually closer to 66 days on average and the actual success of that habit change was not determined if the participants acted on the habit every day throughout the study. Well, crap. There goes my 21-day magic blog writing fix!
After I sat in my office and pouted for a while, I re-evaluated what I’m trying to do. My goal with my business and blog is to empower people have a more profitable business. I love to show people what I’ve learned about running a business and selling and marketing that business. And so, in order to live my brand, I need to show people how to succeed through my experiences and learning.
Which means, no matter how long it takes, I am committing to a better blog with authentic lessons and experiences (good and bad.) I guarantee it’s going to take longer than 21 days and I will certainly miss some posts but it will be real and it will get done. The good news for all of us is this is something any of us can do. I challenge all of you to do better this week than you did last week and post. Forget the “perfect blog post” and write something. Make it good by delivering value and showing another business that they too can be successful and that they are not alone. That’s what I’m going to do and that’s my anti-21-day challenge for blog writing.
Cheers,
~Sara
1. Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W. and Wardle, J. (2010), How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol., 40: 998–1009. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.674
