Thirty-Day Challenge Experience Analysis

During the month of October, my classmates and I undertook the thirty-day challenge, where we had to create a specific goal and we had to keep track of our accomplishments daily. The goal that I chose as my final one was to meditate at least five minutes daily to decrease the stress that I would face during the school year. I felt that this was very simple to achieve. With schoolwork and other extracurricular activities, I wanted to set apart some time for myself every day. Thus, I started from a smaller time interval, hoping to alter the time set based on my progress. At first I was apprehensive since I knew that I was likely to not do well with this challenge because I tend to get off track with goals very easily. However, I encouraged myself
I was relieved and much calmer through this section of the challenge. My parents and my friends told me that I was more energetic and I focused more, and I felt that change too. Nevertheless, as the days passed, I was getting overwhelmed with homework and other commitments, and the stress began to overtake. So, I decided to increase my time set to get more time for myself, but I noticed that it was harder for me to stay on track. I usually meditated in the evening, or in the morning, but in either case I was tired to even meditate. For instance, in the evening after I completed my homework and copied unfinished lessons it would have already been late at night, and I physically, as well as mentally, could not stay past a certain time because I would be completely exhausted. With sleeping later than my usual time, I did not feel energetic to get up in the morning. Also, half way through the I was not as keen, and eventually forgot to keep track of my daily improvement. One of the major factors that affected this challenge would have been my poor planning. At first I was organized and divided my time accordingly. Later, I did not plan as much and could not separate my school work from my meditation time. In addition, my family would have been at home almost all the time, making it more difficult for me to focus on my goal. If I had many assignments to work on, I would cut