Welcome to a new year!! So much happened last year that wasn’t planned or expected that it is hard to imagine what the next year will bring! But like last year I’ve decided to break down the year into 12 (ok 18) manageable 30 day challenges.
Last year was a successful year and I really liked some of the challenges. This year I’ve got 18 Monthly Challenges I want to complete and 9 other year long goals. First the larger goals:
- Run more than 2014 – So I need to run 341 miles (.9 miles a day)
- Bike more than 2014 – So I need to bike 1,372 miles (3.8 miles a day)
- Go on a short backpacking trip – we’ve talked about trying to go as a family, but I definitely want to try and get up to Superior again.
- Get stronger by going to Solcana regularly and completing other challenges below!
- Finish 12 Books I’ve already started. I have a lot of unread books in my Kindle library.
- Be Tab/Inbox Zero at the end of each quarter. I’m already starting really far behind!
- Read the Billy Graham Devotional Plan at YouVersion.com
- Become more flexible by doing mobility daily. From the Ready to Run Book complete at least one mobility exercise.
- Go on 2 kid-less dates each month!
Some of those will take more work than others to accomplish. But things like running, biking, Solcana, and the Bible plan are already pretty routine for me, so listing them is more of a just needing to express them than something new to change or do!
Now for the exciting part! The Monthly Challenges for 2015!
January – Unfriend, Unfollow, Unsubscribe – After doing this last year I got rid of a lot more than 30 items, friends, or newsletters. And it gave me the motivation to keep doing it sporadically throughout the year. Time to do it again!! The less stuff that I have to click archive or scroll past the more free space I’ll have for important things. And it makes me more careful about what I subscribe to or follow.
I’m also going to do a 5 minute plank challenge. At the end of the month I should be able to hold a 5 minute plank!
February – Read a Poem a Day – I downloaded a great app last year and I also ended up buying a collection of Maya Angelou book for the Kindle so I’ll have lots to choose from.
Write a couple of poems!
March – Declutter! Time to get rid of some crap! I mean used wonderful stuff! This felt really good last year. We got rid of a few boxes of stuff! Similar to the online decluttering, it is hard to stop once you start!
I also want to get out on the bike and start riding it!
April – 30 Days of Biking – Need I say more? Get out and ride. It will be a challenge to ride to work most of those days! But we don’t have any spring break plans yet and since I won’t be traveling internationally for work I won’t have that excuse!
May – Daily Yoga – Already have an app for that! I might be so flexible from doing mobility that I won’t need it, haha! This will be good for me to slow down during a stressful time of year!
I’m also going to try to drink only water for the month. I might need to add some electrolyte’s but we’ll see how straight water goes!
June – TED Talk a Day – I might regret this one in summer, but it will be a good chance to expand my learning and hopefully find some really good ones along the way!
Last year’s push ups every day went really well, so more pushups! . I’ll need to decide on a set number to do or something like the 100 push-up plan. A college buddy just did an insane pushup challenge and he looks pretty cut from it! He did the total of month x day + 14 so 1/1 was 14 pushups and 12/12 was 158. He said he did over 42,000 pushups for the year! I’m not that crazy!
July – Take a Photo a Day – July should be a good month to take some nice pictures! I’ll only be limited to where we go!! I want to try to be creative or at least get some nice pictures!
August – Be Outside Every Day for 15 minutes or more. As school starts back up it will harder to get outside and enjoy the gorgeous August weather!
September – Read a Proverb a Day – you can’t ever get enough of the Wisdom Book and it is setup perfectly to read a chapter a day!
October – Run or Bike Daily – before the weather turns it will be good to try and force myself to get out every day. The only challenge might be over fall break if we travel again!
November – NaNoWriMo – I’m writing this with trepidation… I didn’t finish last year’s write a thank you note a day, so how do I expect to write 1,600 words a day? I don’t know… Hopefully I’ll come up with some ideas to write about!
I’ll also revist the Plank Challenge for January and see how it goes…
December – Write/Read About Advent – As we ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus I can passively read or I can do some reflection and writing on the topic.
So there we go… I don’t have any races scheduled for the year, but I’m sure we’ll do Powderhorn 24 again. I’m thinking about signing up for some type of race series so that I’ll have some motivation to get out and run on a regular basis. Team World Vision is doing the same half-marathon at the beginning of August so I’ll probably do that.
What are your plans for 2015?
Wow, what a great list of goals for 2015! Very motivating.
And thanks for including the plank challenge!
Thanks! January has gotten off to a rough start and the plank challenge is kicking my butt!
The goals for 2015 are great! Good luck with all your plans.
Thanks!