Have you ever thought of introducing a good habit into your life, but never got

around to doing it? Perhaps you tried it for 1-2 days, but then lacked the disci
pline to continue afterward. Perhaps you are overwhelmed by the effort required
to institute it into your life and never got around to doing it. Perhaps your at
tempts keep getting thwarted by other activities.
In comes the 21-Day Trial Program . It is a self-initiated program where you st
ick to a certain activity for 21-days every day continuously. While it can be us
ed to cultivate good habits, you can also use it to try out new things which you
may not necessarily pick on, just to see how they are like. These activities ca
n be anything, from exercising, waking up early, quitting soda drinks, sticking
to a certain diet, making new friends, reading a book, meditating, going to work
on time, quitting smoking, etc. The list is endless.
The 21-Day Trial is not just limited to developing good habits it can also be us
ed to break off bad habits. Do you have any bad habits, such as biting your nail
s, playing video games incessantly, putting off work to the last minute, checkin
g your emails over 50 times a day, sleeping in late, spending too many hours at
work, etc? You can take on the task of breaking these bad habits with the 21-day
trial as well.
This is one of my favorite self improvement tools because it is simply so effect
ive. When you think about it, the success of many of your goals and the quality
of your life are actually built on certain fundamental habits. When you get tho
se habits in place, your output also increases dramatically as a natural corolla
ry to that.
Why 21 days?
The 21-Day Trial is inspired by Steve Pavlina s 30-Day Trial and it s a modified ver
sion of it. I tried the 30-day trial before and decided it worked better as a 21
-day trial for me. There are two reasons for that:
21 days is what it takes to fully break/form a new habit. There has been researc
h which shows that it takes 21 days to fully cultivate a new habit because 21 da
ys is the time required for new neuropathways to be fully formed in your brain.
I recently did a raw vegan diet trial and found that 21-days was well sufficient
to cultivate this new habit.
A 21-day trial is more efficient than a 30-day one. It appeals a lot to me as on
e of my key values is efficiency. I rather finish something in the shortest poss
ible time (provided there is no compromise on quality of output, where there isn t
any in this case), get the relevant findings, draw the necessary conclusions an
d move on from there to try other habits.
Benefits of this trial
There are several very attractive benefits of this 21-day trial.
1. Highly manageable.
Many people procrastinate on getting certain things done, even though these may
be good habits which will bring significant benefits into their lives. The procr
astination is typically because they get overwhelmed by the thought of having to
do this for the rest of their lives. With the 21-day trial, the task becomes mu
ch more manageable and feasible. 21 days is but a short period of time it s merely
3 weeks. No more excuses like it s impossible for me to do this or it s too difficult
to maintain this . It s easy to channel your efforts into getting something done for
just 21 days as opposed to infinity. Before you know it, the 3 weeks will alrea
dy be over, and it s all behind you.
2. No commitment required.
Since it s a trial program, there is no commitment required beyond the 21 days. Af
ter the trial, you evaluate whether your life has been better off with or withou
t that habit. Based on that, you then make the decision on whether to continue t
he habit or not. If it s the former, you can easily do so, since you have already
stuck with it for 21-days without fail. If it s the latter, you are free to revert
to what you were doing before. There are absolutely no strings attached.
The highly manageable and non-committal nature of the trial gives rise to 2 othe
r benefits.
3. Highly effective in getting good habits in place.
Many people often have a laundry of good habits they want to cultivate on their
to-do list, such as exercising, going to work on time, cutting down on unhealthy
food. While they make a mental note to get them in place, they never get around
to doing that because of different reasons.
Rather than waste incessant time and energy in the wanting to do phase which happe
ns to many, the 21-day trial is a great way to solidify these good habits. For e
xample, I have been meaning to try out raw veganism since mid-2008 (only fresh f
ruits, fresh vegetables and nuts) . This thought lingered in my mind for another
1-year before I finally decided to get this done last month via a 21 day trial,
and the results were extremely welcoming. I will probably write about raw vegan
ism in a separate article in the future, since the topic itself requires a separ
ate post altogether. For now, I ll continue with a diet that is dominantly raw veg
an and have cooked food in the times I can t get raw food readily.
4. Great way to try new things.
Lastly, it s a great experimental ground to try out new things. Things that you th
ought of doing but never did them because you don t know what to expect or if you
would like the changes. Things that you never thought of doing but thought they
might be worth a try. You can easily embark yourself on new, even radical, activ
ities with this day trial. Since you are not committed to sticking to the activi
ty beyond 21 days, you can easily chuck them aside afterward if you don t like the
m. It s as simple as that
The most important thing is that you try the activity for yourself before you co
nclude it s not for you. Many people often declare This is totally not for me befor
e they even try something. I hear this a lot when people learn some of things I
do, such as eating vegan, eating raw vegan (since last month), waking at 5am, an
d so on, even though they have never tried them before. The 21-Day trial has all
owed me to try out interesting things and pick up extremely good habits along th
e way. The whole point is to experience it for yourself, because you never know
how it is like until you try it. There are really upsides and no downsides to it
you get to train your self-discipline, you try out something new, and you have
real evidence to support your decision not to do something. If you don t like it,
there s no need to continue it beyond the 21 days. It can quickly get really fun a
nd addictive because there is a whole buffet of things which you can try just fo
r the experience .
Terms of the 21-Day Trial
There is only one simple term of this trial. You must perform that activity ever
y day, without fail, for 21-days. If you do happen to slip in one of the days be
fore the trial is up, you need to redo it all over, starting from day one. No ex
ceptions allowed. Breaking it for 1-day will affect your experience of the activ
ity and that subsequently clouds your findings and conclusions. As mentioned in
the beginning of the article, it takes 21-days for our brains to fully develop a
new habit. If you want to do this, do it well and do it right!
Success of the trial is measured by your ability to stick with the activity for
21 consecutive days, which means you would have developed it into a habit by the
n. Your conclusions on whether you want to continue the habit depends on whether
you think whether you are better off with or without this habit.
Success Strategies
I have found the following are great ways to ensure the success of the 21-day tr
ial:
1. Do proper research.
Spend some time learning about the activity you are taking on before hand. Learn
about some of the common barriers people face when trying to do it, whether the
y are successful and key watchouts on your end. Craft your strategy and do up an
action plan to counter those issues so you will not be caught like a deer in th
e headlines when you face them later on. Having a proper plan ups your success r
ate significantly.
2. Try out the activity for a couple of days before the trial.
This lets you get a hang of what it is like and lets you prepare for what s up ahe
ad for the 21 days.
3. Spend a day or two to mentally prepare yourself before the trial.
Mentally prepare yourself for the upcoming 21 days ahead This sets you in the ri
ght mood for success. During this time, you can either (1) start picking up the
activity in a smaller magnitude, as a way of creating a momentum or (2) do the c
omplete opposite of what you need to do, ad nauseam, as a way of creating a prop
elling force. For example when I recently went raw vegan, I spent the evening be
fore that eating all the cooked / processed food which I had some craving for. T
his was to kill off whatever last remnants of attachments I had with unraw food
so I could embark on the trial with a full burst of energy and no distractions.
It worked out really great I got really sick of cooked food after that evening a
nd went into the raw vegan diet easily. It was only towards the end of the 1st w
eek when the cravings for cooked food started coming back in, but by then I was
already raw for a week and the momentum to continue the habit was already in pla
ce, so I eventually pulled through with the trial with success.
4. Track your progress for the 21 days.
Write out all the 21 days on a chart pasted on the wall, a white board, your des
ktop wallpaper, etc. This needs to be in a place which is constantly in your lin
e of vision so that you are always reminded of your obligation to stick with the
trial. When you successfully finish a day, cross out the day. This creates a fo
rm of instant gratification for your hard work for the day and pushes you on to
do the same for the next.
I have a white board in my room which I use for this purpose, among others. When
I embark on a 21-day trial, I write out the 21 days out on the board and cross
each day out whenever I am done with it. I also have a header specifying the tri
al I m doing and which day I m at (Day #__). Whenever I see the number of days I hav
e done, it reminds me of how far I ve come and motivates me to move forward with i
t.
5. One at a time.
When doing the 21-day trial, make sure you are not so heavily tied up that it pr
events you from committing to the trial. I often tell my clients it s best to focu
s on a goal at a time in order to reap the most benefits. When you have the foun
dations for the first goal in place, you can then move on to the next one. When
you have integrated the 2nd goal, then you work on the 3rd goal. And the 4th goa
l. Etc. Work only on multiple new goals simultaneously if you have the capacity
to handle them. It is pointless to try all your goals at once if you have not de
veloped the capacity to handle them everything will crumble. Slow progress is be
tter than no progress.
6. Write out affirmations.
Write out positive affirmations in the form of your activity and stick them in a
prominent place. The affirmations should be written in a manner as if you are a
lready doing them now. For example, if you are planning to wake up at 6am, write
the affirmation as I wake up at 6am every day and not I am going to wake up at 6am
every day . The former sends the signal to your subconsciousness that you ARE alr
eady doing it right now and it reinforces a successful 21-day ahead of you.
What to Expect in the 21 Days
Week 1 Induction.
Week 1 is when you are moving fast speed ahead. The best way to have a fast and
easy start in week one is via generating momentum in the first few days before t
he trial (see above, Tip #3 for success).
Week 2 Resistance.
In week 2, you generally face the biggest challenge of the trial (this is also d
ependent on the magnitude of your activity). You will start experiencing resista
nces of different sorts that attempt to pull you back to your previous lifestyle
. If you have prepared your action plan well, you would be able to overcome thes
e resistances with minimal effort.
Week 3 Integration.
This is the stage of the flow, when the activity starts becoming commonplace in
your life. Even though it s just been 2 weeks since embarking on this habit, the t
ime from before the trial probably seems pretty distant to you by now. If you ha
d previously procrastinated on this for a while, you will probably be wondering
why it even took you so long to get this going, because everything seems so easy
and natural. By now, you should be clearly noticing benefits from sticking to t
his habit, if there are benefits and if you haven t already noticed them. If you
have gotten this far, congratulations! You are already on your way to full integ
ration with this habit.
My 21-Day Trials
I have done a series of trials before, including the ones below. Most of them st
arted out as a genuine curiosity to experience how life would be like doing them
and ended up as permanent habits because of the tremendous benefits I got out o
f them. This goes back to the 4th benefit of the trial program it s a great opport
unity to just experiment and try different things. You never know what comes ou
t of it!
Quitting soda drinks
Waking up early (5am)
Eating a vegan diet
Eating a raw vegan diet
Cutting mass media out of my life
Checking emails only once a day
List of Habits
Here are some examples of activities and habits you can try out for the 21-day t
rial:
Sleeping at X timing every day
Waking at X timing every day
Waking up early (5am)
Reaching work early
Sleeping X hours a day
Spending a cap of X hours at work (for the workaholics)
Exercising: Going to the gym, Swimming, Jogging, Tennis, etc
Going to work on time
Not being exposed to mass media (TV, newspapers, radio)
Cutting out junk food (fast food, fried food, etc)
Cutting out chocolate and candy
Drinking 8 glasses of water
Being a vegetarian
Being a vegan
Being a raw vegan (only fresh fruits, fresh vegetables and raw nuts)
Quitting soda drinks
Quitting caffeine (e.g., soda, coffee and tea)
Meditating
Polyphasic sleep
Having a good posture
Loving yourself
Showing love and kindness to at least 1 person
Sticking to your skincare regimen
Making a new friend every day
Connecting with your parents
Flossing your teeth
Reading a book
Listening to podcasts
Doing work on time
Not cracking your knuckles
Not grinding your teeth (including eating ice)
Not cursing
Not complaining
Not gossiping about others
Not criticizing or judging others
Checking email only once a day (for those who have a habit of checking emails in
cessantly)
Cutting out fried, fatty food in your diet (for those who have unhealthy diets)
Not biting your nails (for those who bite their nails)
Quitting smoking (for smokers)
Not playing games at all (for gaming addicts)
Try them on in your life and see how it works out. The key is to do them one by
one, integrate them into your life fully before going to the next on the list. I
f you have too many trials and you are not sure which one to start, pick the one
s that correspond to the Quadrant 2 activities.
Before you know it, 21-days will be over and you would have a new experience to
take away from it! By then, you can always be free to continue the activity the
n or discontinue it and move on to developing other habits.
This is part of the Cultivate Good Habits Series. Be sure to check out the full
series:
21 Days To Cultivate Life Transforming Habits
21-Day Lifestyle Revamp Program
14 Tips To Successfully Cultivate New Habits (exclusive article in The Personal
Excellence Book)
Waking Early: 21 Tips To Wake Up Early
Quitting Soda: 5 Reasons To Quit Drinking Soda (& How To Do It)
Improve Your Posture: Benefits Of A Good Posture (& 13 Tips To Do It)
Be TV-Free: 10 Reasons You Should Stop Watching TV
Being On Time: 17 Tips To Be On Time
Meditation: How To Meditate in 5 Simple Steps
Manage Emails Effectively: 11 Simple Tips To Effective Email Management
Run Barefoot: 10 Reasons You Should Start Running Barefoot