52 Ways To Challenge Yourself In 2018

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52 Ways To Challenge Yourself In 2018

Lifestyle Design / Self-Mastery
52 Ways To Challenge Yourself In 2018

by Niall DohertyUpdated: December 29, 2017

Every month in 2018, I’m going to take on a different challenge.

One month I might give up coffee, another I might meditate for 20 minutes every day, another I might make myself get up before 5am every morning.

I posted about this idea on Facebook recently and received many great suggestions for different things I could try. The best are listed below (plus a few more I thought of).

Feel free to give a few of them a try yourself, and let me know how you get on.

Get up every morning before 5am/6am/7am
Watch the sunrise/sunset every day for a month
Go to bed every night before 9pm/10pm/11pm
Meditate for 5/10/15/20 minutes per day
5 minutes of breathing exercises every day
Intermittent fasting every day (e.g. only eat between 12pm and 6pm)
At least 10 minutes of exercise every day
Go for a run every day
At least 10 minutes of stretching/yoga every day
Eat vegetarian every day
Eat vegan every day (no animal products)
Say hello to a stranger every day
Compliment a stranger every day
No email until after 12pm each day
No internet after 6pm every day
Write 1000 words every day
Create a small drawing/painting every day
Send someone a thank you card/message every day
Publish a blog post every day
Publish a video every day
Plan out your day every morning
Keep a journal every day
Drink a big glass of water first thing every morning
Spend at least 10 minutes playing a musical instrument every day
Spend at least 10 minutes learning a foreign language every day
Write down three things you’re grateful for every day
Eat breakfast/lunch/dinner with no distractions every day
Write a poem/haiku every day
Complete a crossword puzzle every day
Spend at least 30 minutes reading for pleasure every day
Take a cold shower every day
Write down 10 business ideas every day
Make 5 sales calls every day
Put on some funky music and dance for a few minutes every day
No coffee/caffeine
No bread
No gluten
No sugar
No fast food
No soda
Cook all your own meals
No chocolate
No alcohol
No Netflix
No YouTube
No television
No Facebook/Twitter/social media
No complaining
No news
Free write for 5 minutes every day
Take and share a photo every day
No pornography

I will decide which challenge I’m taking on each month just a few days in advance, following this wise advice from a friend on Facebook:

For January, my challenge will be to plan out my day every morning, something I picked up from an excellent book called Deep Work.

What’s The Point Of All This?

Inevitably, whenever I announce something along these lines, I hear from a few critics and naysayers, like these two folks who posted on my Facebook page:

In case you’re also wondering what the point of challenging yourself is… well, it’s to learn and grow.

I’ve taken on many challenges over the years, tried many different experiments, tested lots of different habits. Some have worked out well. Others not so much.

I keep what makes my life better and ditch what doesn’t.

For example, I decided to quit drinking alcohol for an entire year back in 2011. That turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. Not that alcohol is inherently bad or anything; but on balance my life is certainly better without it. I now haven’t had a drink in seven years.

Maybe you’ll try doing or quitting something every day for a month and find it doesn’t improve your life. No big deal. Go back to how things were, but with better knowledge of yourself and what’s best for you.

As Socrates once said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.”

Challenges such as those listed above are a great way to examine your life, and discover new and better ways to keep it a life worth living.

Do any of the challenges on the above list resonate with you?
Anything else you’d like to try for a month?

Let me know in the comments below.

Want To Join Me?

Subscribe to my mailing list below I’ll keep you updated about each monthly challenge I take on in 2018.