Winter walks. Photo by Quinn Corte, 2021.

I don’t usually do New Year’s resolutions or choose a word of the year. But the last several Januarys I’ve had fun coming up with a little challenge for the year. Emphasis on fun and little. This isn't some big burly goal, but something light-hearted that I can return to over the course of twelve months. It’s more like an experiment that’s totally fine to fail. The key is to choose something very low stakes—it can’t matter much to you.

Here are a few of my past challenges:

Learn to use chopsticks. I’m super impatient learning new physical things. But I practiced for a couple minutes every time I got takeout noodles and after a year that added up to a win.
Not buy any new clothes (2020). It would have been a bigger challenge if 2020 hadn’t turned out to be the year of the sweatpants.
Do 20 push-ups in a row (2021). Again, building up to this over a whole year made it funnier and less intimidating. I remember being delighted that I had gotten to 10 around July.
Read novels only by Women of Color (2022). I was horrified when I realized how white-centric my bookshelf was. My favorite read that year was this sci-fi trilogy by N.K. Jemisin.
Climb to the top of the pole (2023). I declared this as my challenge after a few pole dancing classes. It was HARD and so humbling, but damn, I was proud of myself when I finally did it.

This year, I considered challenging myself to get up immediately whenever I needed to pee. (I tend to put it off until I must go because I don’t want to get out of bed or stop working.) But I soon realized that was too big a reach for me. And not fun enough. (Don’t worry, I’m working on it anyway.)

Instead I decided my challenge this year (2024) is to take a daily-ish morning walk. I always feel chipper when I walk for 15 minutes first thing, so making it my fun challenge will encourage me to do it more. And “daily-ish” is key; that takes the pressure off days when it’s raining or I don’t feel well.

My friend works her way through a different cookbook every year, making notes in the margins. Such a fun idea!

What little challenge would you choose this year?

~

Update!

Here are a couple more challenges I’ve done in recent years:

Don’t speed up just because the car behind me is being a d*ck (2025). This was a weird one, but I’m forever trying to kick the habit of conforming just to make strangers like me more. Feeling pressure from other drivers is a big one for me, and after a year of practicing…I care about 10% less? It’s a work in progress.
Sing more (2026). I’m not a singer. But my challenge isn’t to get better at singing or learn how to sing. I just want to sing more, because it makes me really happy. Car, shower, karoeke living room parties, look out.