I really don’t know how I decided to do this.
I vaguely remember the idea occurring to me when I was sitting and having a cup of coffee. Or maybe I was walking the path at our local park. Or, it might have been when I was taking a shower.
Like most things over the last couple years, it’s fairly hazy.
I do know it started with National Novel Writing Month, a writing challenge in November in which I’ve participated for several years. My son, who is an artist, had also participated in Inktober, and one day while I was sipping a coffee or walking the trail or rinsing some suds, I thought – would it be crazy to do Inktober in October then follow that up with Nanowrimo in November?
What 30 day challenges are in December? What about January?
Then, it just snowballed.
And now I find myself on December 31, 2021, preparing to attempt to spend the next twelve months participating in several monthly challenges each month.
To be honest, I think something may have snapped in me because of the pandemic, but I figure it’s better to do something like this as a result of the snapping rather than being videotaped yelling at a stranger in public, as so many snapped people have done.
I can imagine what some people might think of this idea… that it is just another attempt to make resolutions, and everyone knows that resolutions typically fail, and this one is destined to fail spectacularly.
But don’t most resolutions fail because they’re so open-ended?
“In 2022, I want to lose weight.”
“I want to learn to play the violin.”
“I want to do 20 pushups a day.”
Doing something for only 30 days is imminently possible. And maybe along the way I will find something I want to do for more than 30 days. Or maybe some aspect of my life will improve because I took the time to try.
I think it’s worth the shot.
So, here’s the challenge I’m proposing for myself.
Each month, I’m going to pick four(ish) challenges. I will do my best to pick months that are chosen specifically for the month (like Inktober or Nanowrimo), but they may not always be. I’m also going to try to focus on four areas each month… health, finances, creativity, and spirituality. Then I’m going to write about how the 30 days are going on this newly formed blog as some kind of public accountability.
For example, during the month of January, I’ve chosen to observe Dry January for my health (as I said, the last two years have been rough), a thirty day challenge for finances, expressing my creativity by drawing a new creature each day during Creatuanary, and observing 31 Days of Mindfulness for my spirit.
Y’all, I do realize how insane this sounds. It’s hard enough to do one extra thing a day for a month, let alone four. But we’ll see how it goes. Honestly? Maybe I’ll burn out by April and be done with the whole project. Maybe by March I’ll realize that I bit off too much and take it down to one challenge a month. Or, maybe I’ll find my life improving in some ways as a result of this insane sounding idea, and I’ll actually do it for the full 365.
Time will tell. But, I invite you to join me in this ride by subscribing to this blog and following my year. And if you know of any good free monthly challenges for the upcoming months, let me know, because I’ve started assembling a database of monthly challenges, and I’ll be looking for interesting things to do for 30 days. This includes fund-raising challenges. It would be cool if this project could help raise some money for some good causes, too.
Finally, if you’d like to join me on any of my challenges, let me know. I’d love some company! I’ll do my best to post them about a week before the following month begins so folks can prepare.
So, I’ve got one more day until the challenges begin. Wish me luck, and here’s hoping The Rescues are right about next year.
365 Days of 30 Day Challenges 