Several years ago, I stumbled across Mary Robinette Kowal’s site as she was preparing to send a piece of mail (through the post office) every single day throughout the month of February. Then … she challenged people to do the same. Because who doesn’t love wonderful things coming into their mailbox? I jumped on board and had a wonderful time. I mailed packages and letters, silly things and gifts. It was awesome.
This year, I’m going to do it again. I won’t get to the mailbox every day, so it will take longer for my mail to get out, but I will put something in an envelope and stick a stamp on it every day. If you want to know more about this – she created a website – lettermo.com. Check it out.
As I thought about this, it occurred to me that one month of fun wasn’t nearly enough. I wanted to do something to stretch myself every day of this next year. You see, I don’t do resolutions very well. I know better than to set myself up for failure. Short-term challenges are a lot more doable for me. With a little thought, I came up with a year’s worth of monthly challenges. Some will be difficult and others will be a blast. Some I will have to spend months preparing for and others are intended to be spur of the moment. You will be able to share in a few of them, while there will be months that my challenge will be consigned to a series of notes in my calendar and Evernote.
This is going to be a great deal of fun and hopefully it will continue to stir creativity and productivity throughout the year.
You’ll notice that I’m starting out with a tough challenge for the month of January. Every single day I commit to writing 1000 words. Now, the truth is, when I write, I generally put 3000 – 4000 words down before stopping, so that number seems paltry. However, the other side of that coin is that I don’t do it every single day. This is a big commitment for me and so … while I’m still excited about doing these challenges, I’m going to make sure to kick the year off with a bang.
I am a little rebellious. You’ll notice that I have August marked as the month where I will write a ‘thankful’ post each day. Yeah. Everyone does it in November – I insist on being different (unique is the word Mom used to describe me). I can’t help myself … the crowd is not where I belong.
If resolutions aren’t for you and you want to join me, now’s the time to think about it! You don’t have to use my schedule – many of the items won’t make sense. But I suspect you can come up with twelve challenges – gardening, reading, grandkids, Bible study, exercise, neighbors, painting, crafts, decorating (redecorating) – the list is endless.
I’ve ordered a beautiful journal / calendar for 2015 and will be using it to keep track of all the fun I have.
Anyway … here’s my list:
January – Write 1000 words / day
February – Mail something every day (lettermo.com)
March – New story idea / thought every day
April – Blog every day
May – Sketch or doodle every day
June – Take a photograph every day
July – Say or write “I love you” every day
August – Write a thankful post every day
September – Write a memory post (throwbacks) every day
October – Build meme posts with Bellingwood quotes / book covers every day
November – Post a family / favorite recipe every day
December – Mail a Christmas card / gift every day
