Happy New Year!
I enjoy the beginning of the year because it gives me that opportunity to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m going.
There was a time when I would set a resolution for every facet of my life. Then I’d drive myself crazy with a lengthy to-do list that didn’t factor in real life and filled all my spare time. Often, I’d ditch the resolutions by mid-April when the weather started to get warm and I’d discover that I’d rather go outside on a nice day than stay inside checking off my rigorous to-dos.
What I like to do instead is create a challenge that feels impossible (or crazy) for me to complete. Then I set out to accomplish it. The challenge doesn’t necessarily need to last the entire year (although some of them have). For me, the challenge needs to be a few steps out of my reach but doable if everything hummed along in real life as nicely as it does in my planner.
Each time I take on a hard challenge, I find myself going through a few phases.
Phase one: I’ve got this
This first phase is where I find myself implementing my plan just as I imagined. Maybe it’s logging a consistent amount of time working out every day, progressing with weight lifting, writing a specific number of words, writing for a certain amount of time, or finishing a specified number of drawings. Whatever is required for the goal, I’m knocking it out of the park because it’s fun and new.
In my mind, it looks like not only will I finish my challenge, but I’m going to finish it early.
Then something happens.
Phase two: It’s okay.
Something happens to disrupt my new found routine. I’m falling behind because life happened, but I’m feeling optimistic that I’ll be able to catch up by working a little extra throughout the week. I’m still making progress and I tell myself that I’m going through a bumpy spot, but it’s okay. I’ll regain my momentum soon.
Phase three: What was I thinking?
The disruptions continue to happen. I struggle to maintain the “perfect pace” that I set for myself. I’m trying to stay optimistic that I can complete my challenge, but no matter how hard I work, it appears I’m not getting as much done as I would like. Life keeps tossing extra disruptions into my plans.
Phase four: This is crazy. Maybe I should quit.
This happens to me a few weeks after I’ve white knuckled it and tried to maintain any kind of progress on my goal no matter how small. A sense of dread at approaching the challenge lingers (until I complete that day’s task). The idea that I should quit niggles in my mind regularly enough that I grow tempted to walk away.
I start to question why I wanted to do the challenge in the first place. Usually, the first answer is because I’m a weirdo (not helpful, but not a lie either). While I try to figure out the answer, I continue to encourage (aka force) myself to keep going.
Somewhere through the questioning process I figure out why I’m doing the challenge, which leads me to the next phase.
Phase five: It’s important to me.
I started the challenge because it sound fun and a little bit crazy, plus it sounded practical. Yes, I know, something practical is crazy, hard, and fun? In my world, yes.
Without the challenge, my practical brain points out, I wouldn’t have made the progress that I have made. I can’t argue with that logic and find a level of acceptance combined with a new level of energy. The kind of energy that brings forth a new wave of energy.
Phase six: I’m going to finish no matter what.
My challenges always have an end date set in place before I start. The end date could be a month, three months, six months, or a year. It really depends on what I want to build.
It’s in this stage that I fall into a routine that works around and in spite of the surprises thrown at me in life. I grab snippets of time when I can appreciate what I’ve accomplished.
Maybe this act of gratitude is what propels me to the finish.
Phase seven: Focus to finish.
In the last week of the challenge, I’m excited to finish and willing to dedicate all my spare time to making sure it happens. For my writing challenges in the past, that meant rescheduling a few appointments and saying “no” to social activities. I didn’t care because it was important to me.
Phase eight: Gratitude
When I’m done with the challenge, I always feel relief and gratitude that I took on the challenge. I learned a lot and my mind is plotting out the next challenge that it could do.
Phase nine: Try a new challenge
I often wait a few weeks before I start another challenge. I do this to give me time to decide if the challenge resonates with me. If I try to do the same challenge, I lose interest because I already showed myself that I could do that challenge.
I guess some of the magic of the challenge is that it felt impossible when I started it.
A Challenge for 2025
This year’s challenge will take me the year to complete. The only person who knows is my husband. I’ve learned that if I tell anyone else, it messes with my head.
However, I won’t mind sharing what the challenge was at the end of the year.
Some of the hardest challenges I’ve completed over the years included:
- Writing a draft of a novel (50,000 words) in one month
- Working out for 90 days with the goal of doing at least one unassisted pull up. I managed two.
- Writing three novel drafts in three months. (This one was my favorite because each novel hovered around 65,000 words.)
- Do a yoga practice every day for a year.
- Write one short story every week for a year.
- Paint in my art journal every day for a year.
I don’t always need a challenge to keep me going, but I’ve found the focus helps me make progress on some big goals that I really want to do.
Do I always succeed? Nope.
I figure that even if I don’t finish the challenge, any progress I made is better than nothing. I can always restart if the opportunity is there.
I recommend trying a challenge for yourself. Keep it in the spirit of fun and see what happens.
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