The Challenge

Life is change. We see it in the myriad ways that the world shifts and morphs around us without concern for our preferences or security, and we see it in the ways we ourselves shift and morph both inadvertently and by design. Every day, we navigate our lives by responding to the changes that life presents and by consciously effecting the changes we suspect will help us realize our goals and dreams.

Yet even while we acknowledge the inevitablity of change, we often forget or fail to realize that conscious change is a process and that there are likely several stops and starts along the way to making a permanent change or creating a habit. This 108 day challenge offers an opportunity to look (yes, to simply look) at where we are in our desire to create the daily meditation habit. If we are ready to take action, it provides an opportunity (and a deadline) to do so.

One of these statements describes where you are right now:

Every stage is valid and it is important to acknowledge exactly where you stand. Then and only then will you know how to take the next step (or what that next step might be). The challenge is to take the time you need to get to the final stage... to move from thinking about maybe someday starting a daily meditation practice to getting to the point where you are doing it consistently and effortlessly.

Your journey may take 108 days... it may take five days... it may take years. In fact, those who have achieved this goal and written about it on 43things say it can take up to six years to accomplish.

How?

1. Find your Critical Why - Why is a daily practice important to you?
    
2. Know where you are - Understand the Stages of Change and where you currently stand. (see below) 
    
3. Decide what you can do in the short-term and do it. Take a class. Read a book. Just sit down.
    
4. Befriend your resistances. Understand what stops you and gently work through your resistances.
    
5. Just do it. When you are ready to act on your desire to create a daily practice, utilize a resource like this if it will help but ultimately when you are ready you will just sit.

Where I Stand?

Use the following listing as your stages of change barometer towards daily meditation:

1. Precontemplation – I’m not even thinking about thinking about a daily meditation practice. Having a daily practice is not at the forefront for me.

2. Contemplation – I am thinking about taking the steps necessary to create a daily meditation practice but I’m not sure what to do next or what’s in the way.

3. Preparation – I am preparing myself for a daily meditation practice. I may sit once or several times a week. I know I want to make a daily meditation practice a part of my life in the near future.

4. Action – I am making a conscious effort to meditate daily.

5. Maintenance – I have established a daily practice that I am working to maintain.

6. Termination – I have maintained a daily practice and I know I will continue my daily practice. I have exited the cycle of change and have permanently created the daily meditation habit

The Challenge? Don't give up on your meditation practice. Don't let this become a goal that you state and later abandon.