It’s January! A new year, a new decade even, which typically means resolution-making and goal-setting. I, personally, love this time of year because 1) I much prefer beginnings to endings and 2) I like a good challenge. This year I’m doing things a little differently though. Rather than setting my usual collection of resolutions (and promptly forgetting about them a few weeks in), I’m focusing on 30 Day Challenges instead. Each month I’ve set two challenges for myself (one mental and one physical) that I’m going to attempt to do every day for 30 days.

They say you have to do something for at least three weeks for it to become a habit, so perhaps I’m looking at this as a way to develop 24 good habits. Of course, I doubt they’ll all stick, and honestly, as I’m typing this, I’ve already had a slight lapse in one of my challenges. Haha! But I’m not really too concerned about that. I don’t see resolutions or goals as something that I can fail at. For me, it’s just a way to bring new things to my attention every day, which might turn into something lasting or might not. The worst that happens is I bettered myself for a few days rather than not at all.

You may have already heard about 30 Day Challenges. I first heard about them from Matt Cutts’ TED Talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzRvMsrnoF8 ). I really like the idea because it allows me to set several shorter goals that can easily build into something bigger. For example, I’d really just like to get into the habit of exercising in some way every day, but in the past, when I have left a goal vague like that, it always feels much more difficult to accomplish. This way I’m able to set mini-goals that will actually lead into the larger ones naturally. I’m basically tricking myself. Lol.

Anyway, for inspiration (or maybe just for entertainment) here is the list of 30 Day Challenges I created for myself, and if you are interested in creating your own set of challenges, here are some other lists I have perused for ideas: https://www.mindfulproductivityblog.com/blog/101-30-day-self-care-challenge-ideas and https://www.developgoodhabits.com/30-day-challenge-ideas/.

-January: read at least one news article every day AND stretch for 15 minutes every day

-February: research a specific country/culture every day AND floss my teeth every day

-March- watch a documentary every day AND walk 10,000 steps every day

-April- learn a new word every day AND do yoga for 30 minutes every day

-May- listen to a new song every day AND eat vegetarian for a month

-June- complete a French lesson every day AND improve my posture every day

-July- meditate for 10 minutes every day AND do 50 sit-ups every day

-August- do a brain-training exercise every day AND do 25 push-ups every day

-September- check email/social media only once per day AND do 50 squats every day

-October- draw a picture every day AND dance for 30 minutes every day

-November- write a book in a month AND eat no processed foods for a month

-December- learn to waltz in a month AND drink 8 glasses of water every day

Of course, the act of accomplishing these tasks every day is a reward in and of itself, but in order to really track my progress and reward myself for even remembering (let alone completing) the challenges each day, I reverted back to elementary school and created a little sticker chart for myself. You might feel like printing a tiny calendar and remembering to put the stickers on every day is another task to add to your list, but for me, it’s fun and a good use of all these random stickers I have saved up! Regardless of your choice of reward, I think it’s a good idea to recognize the little accomplishments you’re making every day or every month towards whatever challenges or goals you have set. I mean, who couldn’t use a few more gold stars in their life, right?

Whether you have made resolutions, plan to give a 30 Day Challenge a shot, or just want to make it through another year in one piece, I wish you the best of luck in 2020! Happy New Year!