30 Days to Become a better man challenge.

Since getting sober I love a good challenge, I’ve done a fasted exercise study through Bath University, the 75-day soft challenge and more recently, the 30-day challenge to become a better man. I came across this challenge by accident when searching for websites about men’s mental health. In my search, I discovered The Art of Manliness. When you subscribe to their mailing list, you get access to the free eBook – 30 days to become a better man. There is a different challenge every day for 30 days. Here are some of my favourites so far.

Define your core values.

I feel like I’ve known some of my core values for a while, but I’ve never sat and written them down. This was also the first time that I’ve ranked them, and this was interesting. I had an epiphany while doing this that often a decision in life may be in line with one core belief but not another, this is often when I end up feeling conflicted and don’t know how to proceed, by knowing how I rank each core belief against each other, it has helped my decision-making processes, when there is a tough choice to make.

Update your resume.

This one I was not looking forward to, mostly because I’m happy in the job that I’m in, however, it is a long time since I’ve updated my CV, and things have come on a lot from the plain Word document. After more than a few hours drafting and re-drafting, I now have a CV I’m proud of, more importantly, it made me realise all that I’ve achieved professionally and I genuinely think that since doing this exercise, I’m holding my head a little higher in work.

Create a bucket list.

This one had loads of benefits for me, first, it got a really good conversation going between my wife and me. Life goes by so fast that it is easy for the days to turn into weeks and the weeks into years, and before you know it opportunities have passed.

By sitting down to write my bucket list, I started to think about what I would like to achieve, by writing it down it feels more real and since doing this task, we have already put things in place to achieve the first goal on the list, going forward, Chantelle and I’ve agreed as we tick one thing off the list, we will put together a plan to achieve the next.

Shine your shoes.

This was one of my favourites, such a simple task but I cannot remember the last time I cleaned any of my shoes. I took it one step further and wiped my trainers over and my shoes all got a good polish. This task had 2 benefits, one it was a good exercise in mindfulness when polishing, and two, it made me feel positive a few days later, when I got to wear the shoes. This is a practice I’ll be doing more often in my weekly routine.

Take someone on a date.

I spend a lot of time with my wife, but very little quality time, often days get taken up with day-to-day jobs and it is easy to exist in the same space.

Making time, planning, and then enjoying the date was great fun, we went to the Frankenstein Museum in Bath, and we got to learn a lot and had a great time. How my wife got to 41 years old, and this was her first time playing a pinball machine is beyond me!

Talk to 3 strangers.

I never realised how much of my confidence came from alcohol. I spent a lot of my early life thinking I was an extrovert, but it turns out that without alcohol, I’m firmly an introvert.

I’ve pushed myself out of my comfort zone today and had 3 different conversations with strangers, one who was moving house, one about a book they were reading and one just a general discussion. In each instance, I was pleasantly surprised, by how friendly and chatty people were. Just like the shining of my shoes, this is another one I’m going to try to do more often.

But is the challenge just for men?

I’ve loved this challenge and I’m just over halfway through. I think what I’ve liked the most is the variety of tasks, doing something different every day. My mood has lifted in the last 2 weeks since doing this challenge.

And finally, no I don’t think this challenge is just for men, some adaptation would be needed, for example, to change the testicular exam to a breast exam, but 99% of the daily challenges would benefit all. I believe this so much that I’ve even got Chantelle doing it.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this article and are planning on trying a few of these activities yourself, if you do why don’t you join our community and share how you have got on. It is now free for life, and you can do so by clicking the link below.

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Ben – It's That Sober Guy

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Disclaimer – I’m not a trained addiction or mental health professional, information is based on my own life experiences and shared in good faith to help others.

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