12 Monthly Challenges | Goal Planning For 2020

Hey guys! I’m currently knee-deep in goal planning for 2020, which is both super fun and slightly overwhelming. If you’re in a similar place right now, then this post is perfect for you. I’m sharing 12 things that I want to do this year – one for each month. Then I’ll teach you how to find 12 things that align with your goals for this year, that you can turn into monthly challenges.

12 Things I Want To Do This Year:

1. Improve my hand-lettering. Guys, I’ll be honest, I’m not great at hand-lettering, and I see so many opprotunites where I wish I was better at it. So this is definitely something I want to work on this year!

2. Read 4 books. I want to make it a goal one month this year to read 4 books, I love reading, but if I’m not intentional about it, it doesn’t get done.

3. No snacking. Ugh, I’m so bad at this guys! I want to devote at least one month to being intentional about not snacking so much. I come from a family of snackers, like seriously, someone is always eating something, and it’s so bad. XD

4. Redecorate bed and make it more cozy. I’ve had the same bedding/decor around my bed for a few years now, so I really want to spruce it up with some lights and new pillows/blankets. I’d really like to get my entire room redone, but if that doesn’t happen, at least I’ll get the bed done. 😉

5. Learn how to play Fighting For Me by Riley Clemmons on the piano. I adore Riley Clemmons’ song, “Fighting For Me”, especially the piano version. It’s something I’m really hoping to learn this year!

6. Take a photo each day for a month. Or maybe a video clip. This just sounds like a fun idea, especially if it’s a really pretty month like May, June or October.

7. Practice gratitude. This is something I really want to work on. It’s actually pretty simple, I’ll just write something down that I’m grateful for in my BUJO each day. I love doing this because it makes me find the things I’m grateful for, rather than just overlooking them.

8. Drink only water for a month. Heh. This might get tricky. Especially if it’s in winter, because well winter for me basically consists of huge sweaters, hot cocoa, fuzzy socks and peppermint mochas. I do think it’ll be a good challenge, I mean I mostly drink water, but the occasional soda, lemonade, mocha and more than occasional hot cocoa isn’t a great habit to keep up with. I definitely won’t cut these things out entirely, I’ll just focus on limiting them. 😉

9. No spend month. This is another one that might be tricky, but ahhh, it’ll be so good! I’m actually looking forward to trying this one!

10. Proverbs Bible study. Ahh, I’m really looking forward to this one! Proverbs was really the first book I read when I started reading/studying the Bible more consistently. I’m looking forward to diving deeper into this book!

11. Less screen time. I do online school and I run a blog, and a bunch of other things online, so I’m on the computer quite a bit. Most of the time I’m actually being productive when I’m on here, so I’ll definitely choose this as a summer thing to do, when I don’t have school.

12. Do something nice for someone each day. This is another one that I’m really looking forward to doing! I love doing these random, secret acts of kindness for people! If you’re doing this challenge too, here are some of my ideas 1) Pay for the person behind you at Starbucks 2) Leave $1 bills at the dollar store 3) Leave cookies at a neighbors doorstep anonymously.

Choosing Your Monthly Challenges

Choosing your own monthly challenges can seem kind of intimidating at first. I know it was for me. It might also seem kind of selfish, but it’s not. It’s necessary. I wrote a whole post on self care from a Christian point of view. (If you haven’t read it, go check it out here.) You need to eat food that is good for your body. You need to move your body every day. You need to make habits that bless your body. You need to spend time reading God’s word every day. You need to spend time blessing others. You need to spend time doing things that you enjoy.

All that being said, choose a variety of monthly challenges from each category. Here are some ideas:

Eating Food That Is Good For You:

• No snacking.
• Drink only water for a month.
• Eat more veggies or fewer sweets.

Moving Your Body Every Day:

• Do a 30 day fitness challenge. (Pinterest has so many of these, find one that works for you!)
• Take daily walks.

Blessing Your Body:

• Get more sleep.
• Cut back on spending or do a no spend month.
• Less screen time.
• Quit a bad habit.
• Keep a journal.

Reading God’s Word:

• Do a Proverbs study. (If you didn’t know, Proverbs has 31 chapters, one for every day of the month!!)
• Do a mini worship session where you listen to a few worship songs, then spend time reading God’s word.
• Start a prayer journal, then write when and how God has answered your prayers.

Blessing Others:

• Work on paying it forward. (e.g. pay for the person behind you at Starbucks)
• Random acts of kindness challenge.
• Be intentional about thanking people for small things. (e.g. when someone holds the door for you, when someone lets you go first)

Things You Enjoy:

• Learn to play a new song on your instrument.
• Redecorate an area of your bedroom or apartment.
• Take a photo each day this month.
• Improve a creative skill such as watercolor painting or hand-lettering.

If you have other ideas, feel free to use those as well! The ideas above are just suggestions to get your brain thinking!

How To Choose What To Do Each Month:

Once you have your list of the things that you want to do each month, you’re probably wondering how to choose what you do each month. Here are several ideas:

• Plan them out at the beginning of the year.
• Put all the ideas in a jar and pull one out at the beginning of each month.
• Decide which one you do each month.
• Decide which ones you want to do each season/quarter, then pull them out of the jar.

Personally, I’m going to do the last option. Some of mine are kind of season specific, for example, I don’t want to try to spend less screen time in the middle of the semester (I do online homeschool) and I wouldn’t want to not spend anything in December. So here’s what my schedule looks like:

1st Quarter 2020:

• Learn to play Fighting For Me by Riley Clemmons on the piano.
• No spend month.
• Drink only water for a month.

2nd Quarter 2020:

• No snacking.
• Take a photo each day this month.
• Proverbs Bible study.

3rd Quarter 2020:

• Less screen time.
• Read 4 books.
• Improve my hand-lettering.

4th Quarter 2020:

• Redecorate my bed and make more cozy.
• Practice gratitude.
• Do something nice for someone each day.

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And that pretty much wraps up this post! I hope it was helpful for your goal planning and enjoy the rest of your winter break!

💙 Hannah

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