Over the past few years, we’ve tried inculcating everything from resolutions to goals to habits. Trackers over trackers were filled to get us in action. However, what we have learnt from our own experience the bitter way is this. Do not base the year simply on resolutions. No matter how appealing the concept of resolutions is, the fact is they don’t work individually. So this year, we have broken down our resolutions into challenges over the next 12 months of the year. Here’s a summary of how our year is going to look over the first quarter:

Challenges for Q1

January Challenges – 2022

• Drink at least 2 liters of water every day. (I am not very huge on water. In fact, it’s a task for me to gulp 3 cups of water down my throat regularly. Knowing the fact that this won’t work in my body’s favour in the long run, I’ve decided to start small. If you’re using these challenges, you can modify the numbers the way it works for you)
• Plan my dream vacation / something that’s a long-term thing on my bucket-list. (Unplanned is a word that brings me loads of anxiety. It’s evident that I cannot bring myself to actually do something unless I’ve taken proper time to plan it. Hence, I might take up “doing something unplanned” as a challenge next year. Nevertheless, I’m not mentally ready for this right now. Also, if I plan my big thing this year, I might actually do it in 2023!)
• Go vegetarian for this month. (This one’s tough, really! I’ve always had a hard time dropping meat, especially fish. Having said that, it’s still the second-toughest challenge in January. Drinking two liters of water beats everything :))

February Challenges – 2022

• Get out of the house for 30 minutes every day. (I work, and that’s not an excuse, more like a plea for help. With the blurring lines between work and home, some days it’s a challenge to simply get up. It’s harder to just walk around the house and get the body moving. Physical health issues cropping up on a daily basis is just one of the cons of a disbalanced work-life. Hence, this challenge was picked as a way of getting me motivated to “no–matter–what” enjoy the little things like a fuzzy walk or a drive around the block.)
• Plan family-time and dates in advance every week. (What I did not mention on the planner is stick to them. We’ve been on a roller-coaster ride with work taking up a lot of the individual space we need in life. Needless to mention, we’ve all prioritized work over family repeatedly. Even more in the present scenario, considering how the covid situation has overpowered us. Blocking time for relations that are important to you may not feel natural. But regardless, we’re missing out on valuable time regularly with people who matter to us. The worst part is sometimes they are in the same room as us for entire days. And these are days when we fail to take some time to appreciate their presence. At least, this ensures that I stick to the time we’ve blocked for the ones who are closest to me. Hence, February is the month where I conquer this disbalance with a small step such as planning and blocking time in advance)

March Challenges – 2022

• Follow meal-planning for a month. (I have been an avid restaurant-goer previously. And ever since we’ve had this new-found access to meal-delivery at home, I’ve ordered. And I’ve ordered incessantly. It’s a cycle I’ve been wanting to break for quite a while and so, this month I’ll be planning my home-meals one week in advance. I’ve tried meal planning before, just couldn’t stick to it in the long-run because I failed to make space for a few cheat days. Believe me, cheat days are completely necessary, else the cravings capture the best of you. Apart from that, I’ve had a pretty amazing experience with planning my meals – I look forward to the grocery shopping and now, I own my meals! Overall, I’ve found it to be an activity I could implement on a regular basis and I look forward to doing this challenge consistently over the month of March)
• Save an extra 10,000 extra this month. (Saving is second-nature to me – this is one of the easier challenges this month since we’re doing a total of three in March. The difficult part is that I’ve always been huge on saving as well as spending. I personally don’t feel the need to keep saving over and above what I already do, but I confess to the habit of unnecessary splurge. That is something I would like to change this month. I’ll be cutting down on restaurant-hogging and non-essential products that I tend to mindlessly order whilst later tagging them as “retail therapy”. Also going to remind myself that if I feel the need to visit my therapist, I will head straight to her office rather than an e-commerce website)
• Complete two new learning courses this month. (Might cheat on this one and select one shorter course out of the two, if PY and work take up my weeks and weekends simultaneously. However, learning is something I always look forward to and I do not understand people who have no passions in life to live and learn for. Learning should be a constant. I get that people don’t always come from the same backgrounds and some, more than others, have had a difficult journey in terms of family support when it came to pursuing their dreams and passions. But that doesn’t stop you from at least learning about whatever gives you purpose in life. DO NOT stop learning, no matter how little you can every day or month or year – even if that’s not career-relevant at present. Let your brains stay hungry for more! That been said, two online courses this month is my resolution)

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An insider on How I picked my challenges // I initially noted down all my challenges on an A4 sheet of blank paper and then got these cropped and folded into chits. Next, I picked 2 – 3 chits for every month and created my challenge board on the planner I’m currently using. Even so, I prefer to interchange and pick at least one easy challenge for every month, something that I know is entirely doable for me. This helps increase my confidence in my resolutions being fulfilled and gives me that extra push to get it done. Maybe something to remember when working out your goals for the year!

Also, we have shared a free printable on 2022 Challenges – 30 Resolutions in 12 months for you on our Resources page wrapping up our resolutions / challenges for the year 2022.

Tune in next week for our upcoming post // Coffee Meet @ PY: You’re doing better than you think, wherein we’ll talk about our personal experiences and take on why you’re doing better than you think – can’t hold the excitement, stay hooked!