New Year, Same Laura

 In 2019, I set myself some 30 day challenges for 2020 and met several of them. It seems to me that for creating new habits, 30 days is about the right amount of time for me to feel like I've gotten somewhere, but not too long that I'm going to procrastinate on a given day due to the timeline being weeks away (see this year's book reading project.) Because I have entirely too many interests, I should set my 30 day goals toward the most likely interest/hobby to complete.

Major hobbies:

Running
Hiking
Photography
Piano
Cooking

The weather in January and February is variable in North Carolina. Could be 70 degrees (like today, December 30th, 2021) or snowing and 30. To make sure I have the highest chance of success, I'll select indoor hobbies for months that the weather could be poor. In March, the weather starts to improve, and by April all outdoor activities are a go until the next December... maybe.

January: Practice piano for a half hour each day. Could be etudes, scales, fake book songs, real songs, or Alfred's adult learner books. The only stipulation is to practice piano each day for a half hour.

February: Practice photography with DSLR and Christmas gift of photography glass, going through the exercises in one of my photography books. Goal is to finish one of the books by the end of the month. Probably not the landscape one.

March: Run a mile without stopping. I had good success early this year with run-walking a two mile route, running until I couldn't anymore, then walking the rest of the two miles, with the goal of running to the next bench/bend in the trail/etc.

April: Prepare for and hike the Pinnacle Trail in Crowders Mountain State Park.

May: Advancing the prior March goal, run two miles without stopping.

June: Compile favorite recipes and create a cookbook rough draft sans photographs.

July: Learn two new piano pieces per week for a total of 8 pieces.

August: Prepare for and hike the Sky Pond trail in Rocky Mountain National Park.

September: Run three miles without stopping and participate in the North Hills 5k.

October: Either a 30 day photography challenge or all exercises on another of my photography books.

November: Finish all the exercises in a music theory book.

December: Gather photographs of recipes cooked for cookbook and create/print full cookbook.


By the end of 2022, if I'm successful with my month long goals, I'll be able to run 5ks, finish two large hikes, create better photographs, play piano comfortably for others, and cook, compile and photograph my favorite recipes with a cookbook on order for early 2023. 


Depending on weather and vacation possibilities, not every goal might be reached on the month slated - for example, I might have to push Sky Pond to September, but I'll still be doing most of the preparation in August. I expect to get the photographs for the cookbook throughout the year, with the goal of doing most of the editing work in December.

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