Assessing the impact The Monkey Challenge
Posted On January 9, 2022
How’s it going ?
We have spent a while researching how we can get a before and after assessment of the effectiveness of the ideas and techniques in the book
This is to support a 12 week challenge where participants need to see before and after results.
Completing this exercise has helped us focus on what the change actually does and how it appears to us / how we experience it when it has happened. This will help you understand what you will experience if you start to think and act this way.
Impact of the change
Obviously there’s some stuff about distraction:
- less distraction
- better timed distraction
- distraction that actually adds value or contributes
The other big changes are a direct consequence of this in terms of how that makes us feel and these feelings seem to relate to:
- our level of focus and motivation
- how much we feel we are in control of what we are doing
- how we feel about how life is going for us
and some more specific or direct feelings about the internal management of the relationship with our Monkey.
Practical Change
Practically this results in less procrastination more assertiveness and a general feeling that ‘all of you’ is focussed and working together.
Finally theres the feelings we have about our ability to sit more easily in silence for meditation or mindfulness purposes.
To assess the impact we have created a questionnaire that gives a total score for how our relationship with our monkey is working
Methodology
This is loosely based on the methodology and format the UK NHS use for diagnosing anxiety or depression which are all based on how you feel about – or your subjective assessment of the element in question.
There seems to be a consensus that how you feel about the situation is actually the only reality that matters.
Other mental health practitioners use variations of this to test for confidence or mood. They include questions like
‘how likely are you to enter a room full of people’
Our questionnaire
We have distilled 42 statements that relate to the expected changes we will experience (outlined above) as the relationship with our Monkey improves.
For example
‘I believe my Monkey supports what I am doing’
These statements are then scored o – 10
where 0 means ‘no’ or ‘not at all’ and 10 means ‘yes’ or ‘completely’.
Your scores provide trend information, they do not need to be exact and its ok to ‘go with your gut’
Do the survey quickly, don’t overthink. The time to really start to think is when you start to see a trend in your results
Example Scores
With all scores for these types of surveys based on the individuals subjective analysis there is no possibility of comparison between candidates. The value in the results comes from your own appreciation of the score you achieve and the way this changes over time.
We have tested this with number of people and have some overall comments that may help you :
No one has scored any where near the 420 maximum score.
Focusing on the ideas here change your score significantly
Those scoring up to about 150 can expect a doubling of their score in a few months (6)
Those taking the challenge can see increases of over 100 points in 12 weeks.
Record your scores on a form like this Survey Results
Subject to technology, data protection and your willingness to share we will provide updated results as part of our ongoing service.
You can see some typical scores here
For now, this questionnaire provides a quick and simple way to give us before and after assessment of the impact of the new practices and thinking.
It is based on a strong pedigree methodically and as the numbers of participants mount we can evaluate it further.
When to complete
There’s another discussion about when it should be completed
For those starting the challenge the suggestion is to complete it on day one and repeat this every week as you complete the challenge.
If you have been practising with these ideas for some time and have missed doing the survey we suggest you complete two assessments now One with how you feel today and the other how you remember you felt before you started. Its not ideal but it seems to work.
You can take the survey online here
Find out about the challenge here