Almost 01 January I have started a new bible in a year reading plan. And by almost every 30th of January I have stopped or fallen behind. I’m not alone. About 64% of New Year resolutions are abandoned within the first month and only 9% manage to last the whole year [International Journal of Environmental and Public Health]. So, this year I thought I’d try something different. Instead of reading the Bible in a year, I’m doing several 30 day bible reading challenges.
Why do a 30 day bible reading challenge
My reasons start with the issues of year long challenges.
A year challenge is very tough to stick too. If you miss one day, you fail and can feel like giving up. And even if you have a mindset that can get past missing one, you can quickly fall behind, which ends in demotivation too.
By contrast, a 30 day challenge is more of a sprint. It allows you to make short term dramatic changes and you can adjust your challenges as life changes:
- if one month is more tough, you can choose an easier challenge;
- if you have more time, try something more demanding.
- one month you can be more cerebral, another more artistic.
And if you do “fail”, you can always start again next month with a new challenge.
Plus, it’s a great way to do a few experiments and tests rather than commit to a long term change.
A quick example of the problems of a year goal
One year I wanted to make a sketchnote of a chapter of the Bible every day for a year.
I started well and really enjoyed the experience, but at the end of the second week I forgot my iPad on a trip and had no pens. So I missed a day.
I still continued but that same week I missed another day. A couple of weeks later and I had missed several more days as I lacked the motivation to put in the time some days. This was just after a month and the idea of continuing for the whole year suddenly felt daunting. So I stopped completely and went back to a more modest reading plan.
If this had been a 30 day challenge, maybe I would have completed more as it wouldn’t have felt such a long term commitment. And even if I hadn’t, I would have felt better about how much I did, rather than like I had abandoned after only a month and a half.
That’s why 30 day challenges are so powerful. They help us focus on our success, not our failures.
What challenges are you doing
I haven’t fully decided on my exact list of challenges for each month. In fact, I want to see what each month looks like before I commit to the next challenge. But there are some challenge I know I want to do at some point. Here’s my big list of ideas.
- read one book over and over again for a whole month
- read without a plan at all and decide on the day
- read the Bible in Greek
- listen while reading
- read with a study Bible
- read following a devotional
- read chronologically
- read the Bible in 30 days
- reading to a timer
- reading passages from both testaments in the same day
- reading every passage on a certain theme in a month
- Read about one person for a month
But the first challenge I want to do is the hardest.
I want to read the whole Bible in 7 days.
More on that soon.
Want to join in with the Bible reading challenges?
If you’re interested, you can join me with any of the challenges (including the first challenge.)
Plus I’d love to know any bible reading challenge ideas you have. Who knows, maybe I’ll adopt it!
Blessing Mpofu says
I like the idea of focusing on different types of challenges, each with its own purpose. Can’t wait to see how it goes. Looking forward to the updates Chris.
Ron Star says
Chris, you solved my problem, I have been wondering what can I do to memorize more than three or four chapters after I read the entire book. And the answer is to read one book over and over again for a whole month. Thanks