Positivity Challenge: My 10-Day Mental Diet Plan and Results

I've been re-reading one of my favourite books lately, Awaken The Giant Within by Tony Robbins, and I've reached the section called The 10 Day Mental Diet Challenge.  In it, Tony Robbins proposes a 10 day challenge based on something that he had learned in pamphlet by Emmet Fox, based on the 7 Day Mental Diet.

The challenge is that for the next 10 days, beginning immediately, commit to taking full control of all your mental and emotional faculties by deciding right now that you will not indulge in or dwell on any unresourceful thoughts or emotions for 10 consecutive days.

It sounds easy, but you might be surprised how often your brain is engaged in unproductive, fearful, worrisome, or destructive thinking.  The goal is to learn how to discipline yourself to be able to change your state and thinking rapidly, without indulging in them.  It's about developing mastery of your mental and emotional well-being.

Never spend more than 10% of your time on the problem, and spend at least 90% of your time on the solution.

This is something that I've done many times before in the past, and it's made a significant difference in my life.  I realized I had some destructive habits and patterns that were holding me back, such as binge eating, and that certain emotional states or negative thoughts were triggering those destructive habits.  It wasn't until I committed to taking up the 10 Day Mental Diet Challenge that I was able to learn how to take control of my mind and stay consistent with the habits that I wanted.

There are four simple yet important rules to this 10 Day Mental Diet Challenge:

Rule 1. In the next 10 consecutive days, refuse to dwell on any unresourceful thoughts or feelings. Refuse to indulge in any disempowering questions or devitalizing vocabulary or metaphors.

Rule 2. When you catch yourself beginning to focus on the negative – and you certainly will – you are to immediately snap yourself out of it and change your thinking or state. You can do this by asking an empowering question, such as “What's great about this?” or “What else could this mean?”. Or you can reframe any negative thoughts that come up, for example, if you catch yourself saying “I suck”, you would replace it with, “I'm awesome!”  There are some powerful techniques that you can use in a blog post I wrote on how to master your emotions. In addition, you can set yourself up for success each morning for the next 10 days by developing a morning ritual to get yourself in a peak emotional state each day.

Rule 3. For the next 10 consecutive days, make certain that your whole focus in life is on solutions and not problems. The minute you see a possible challenge, immediately focus on what the solution could be.

Rule 4. If you backslide – that is, if you catch yourself indulging in or dwelling on an unresourceful thought or feeling – don't beat yourself up. There's no problem with this as long as you change immediately. However, if you continue to dwell on unrsourceful thoughts or feelings for more than a minute, you must wait until the following morning to start the ten days over. The goal of this program is 10 consecutive days without holding or dwelling on a negative thought or state. This starting-over process must happen no matter how many days in a row you've already accomplished the task.

When I first attempted the 10 Day Mental Diet Challenge it took me several weeks before I was able to go the 10 consecutive days. It was much more difficult than I thought. But once I was able to successfully finish it, it helped me condition myself for a tremendous, lifelong pattern of staying in a positive emotional state, even when there were challenges around me, and focusing the majority of my energy on solutions.

This is since a process that I've encouraged my coaching clients to partake in, and it's made a huge difference for them, especially in helping overcoming destructive habits or addictions.  It's something that I'm going to be going through again for myself, as I want to make sure I'm applying everything I learn in the book Awaken The Giant Within.

If you take on this 10 Day Mental Diet Challenge, it will do four things for you:

1. It will make you acutely aware of all the habitual mental and emotional patterns that are holding you back.
2. It will make your brain search for empowering alternatives to them.
3. It will give you an incredible sense of confidence as you can see that you can turn your life around in an instant.
4. Most importantly, it will create new habits, new standards, and new expectations that will help you expand more than you could ever believe.

Here's a word of caution: Don't begin this 10 day commitment unless and until you are certain that you are going to live by it for the full length of time. If you aren't committed to this, then you won't last the 10 days. This is not for the weak of heart. This is only for those who are fully committed to conditioning their nervous systems for new, empowering emotional patterns that can take their lives to the next level.

Are you going to do it?  Think about it carefully, because once you commit, there's no going back.

The truth is, you already know and have amazing tools on how to change yourself, your thoughts, and your emotional state. This is my challenge to you to start using them.  It's time to put in practice what you've learned.

The best way to stay accountable to this is to commit to a friend or family member that you're going to do this 10 Day Mental Diet Challenge. Post a comment below to make your commitment public. This will help make you stay accountable and show your level of commitment to complete it.

For anyone that is reading this, I commit to completing the 10 Day Mental Diet Challenge!