12 challenges in 12 months. Again.
What is it?
In 2021, I decided to make life more interesting by doing 12 challenges in 12 months — one challenge per month. They ranged from giving up sugar to posting on Instagram daily, from cold showers to waking up before 9 AM. Some were easy, some were brutal, all were worth it.
It was such a transformative experience that I'm doing it again in 2025, with a brand-new lineup of challenges. This time with new challenges, higher ambitions, and hopefully even better results. Each month will bring a different adventure: some to improve daily life, some purely for fun, and some to push my boundaries or experiment with emerging tech.
Why?
The initial motivation back in 2021 was simple curiosity and a desire to shake things up. The results were profound. Not only did I develop a stronger sense of discipline, but I also discovered the power of consistent, incremental effort. It was a potent reminder that while we often overestimate what we can achieve in a day, we vastly underestimate what we can achieve in a year. Plus, it made the year feel much, much longer.
I love the idea of small experiments that last just long enough to see real results. Monthly challenges give me a perfect balance:
- Long enough to see genuine effects: A week is too short, a year is too long. A month is the sweet spot — just enough time to figure out whether something is useful or not.
- Short enough to stay motivated: If I hate it, I only need to do it for 30 days. If I love it, I might keep it going forever.
- A cheatcode against time: Doing something unfamiliar breaks routine and forces me to look at my day-to-day differently. It’s a guaranteed way to slow down time, create memories, and find new passions.
The 2021 challenges taught me something surprising: most life-changing habits are not that hard to build. The hardest part is starting. Once you start and keep going, it gets progressively easier. Some changes that seemed impossible at first became so natural that I kept them long after the challenge month ended.
And honestly, while some of the challenges were hard and I was struggling when completing them, I missed the feeling of being challenged, every day.
Why monthly instead of weekly?
A week is too short to see meaningful results or to assess if a habit is worth keeping. It's too easy to power through seven days of anything, even if you hate it. A month is different. If you realize that something doesn't serve you well, you won't be able to stick with it for 30 days. A month is long enough to experience real benefits or to conclude that a particular change isn't worth pursuing further.
What kind of goals?
I try to keep a balance. Some challenges aim to improve health or productivity, others aim to spark creativity or simply inject fun into daily life.
Like in 2021, I'm balancing "do more of" and "do less of" types of goals. This time, there are eight goals of addition (doing more of something) and four goals of subtraction (doing less of something).
The challenges span various life aspects:
- Physical health
- Mental well-being
- Learning
- Skill development
- Habit formation
- Personal growth
I think I have a good mix to keep it interesting throughout the year.
Challenges for 2025
- January: AI Agents Month Building and integrating AI agents into my daily life, starting with simple tasks and progressing to more complex automations. Starting with foundational skills and a Minimum Viable Agent (MVA) in January, this challenge will evolve throughout the year.
- February: Sleep optimization Tracking sleep patterns and experimenting with different sleep hygiene practices to find my optimal routine.
- March: No elevator Taking stairs instead of elevators, incorporating more movement into daily life. Bonus: I live on the 9th floor.
- April: No screen before sleep No screens an hour (or two hours? not sure if that's possible for me) before bedtime, replacing digital wind-down with more calming activities.
- May: Learn a physical skill Dedicating 15 minutes daily to learning a new physical skill - could be juggling, a dance routine, or another motor skill. For now, I'm leaning towards juggling. I'd be starting from zero skill.
- June: 10k steps Walking 10,000 steps every day, rain or shine.
- July: Eat only whole foods Stick to real, unprocessed ingredients. No quick packaged meals, no added sugar, minimal refined stuff. This might be the hardest challenge for me, but it’s a massive health upgrade, if I can pull it off.
- August: Drink only water No coffee, tea, alcohol, or any other beverages - just water. Food is fine, I'm not giving up food.
- September: Daily stretching/yoga A quick daily routine to improve flexibility and counter the effects of desk work.
- October: Niche expertise Pick a very specific subject I know nothing about — maybe something quirky like lockpicking or the history of pirates — and dive into it for an hour a day. Read, watch videos, practice if possible. By the end, I’ll present or write a thorough overview of what I learned.
- November: Technical explanations Creating one technical explanation daily, making complex topics accessible to others. Unless by November AI will make this obsolete. I'll come up with something else then.
- December: Breathwork Daily breathing exercises for better focus, energy, and calm. It’s a small investment that can deliver big benefits in calmness, stress relief, and even energy. And I'll have a world-class breathing expert to guide me.
How will I measure success?
- Daily completion: I either do the thing or I don’t. If I skip a day, that’s a fail for that day. Each challenge is measured by the number of days I successfully complete it within the month.
- Subjective difficulty: I’ll track how hard it feels each day, from 1 (effortless) to 10 (brutal). This helps me see patterns and figure out ways to make the habit simpler.
- Personal outcome: I’ll also see if the challenge yields actual benefits, like how my energy changes, or whether my AI agents are saving me time.
How will I stay accountable?
I'll write a detailed article at the end of each month, sharing my completion rate, effort scores, key learnings, and whether I plan to continue with any elements of the challenge. These articles will serve both as accountability and as guidance for others who might want to try similar challenges. I'll also send weekly updates to my email list, along with anything interesting I've learned. Join here if you want to follow the journey closer and get more details.
It starts now
The journey of 12 challenges in 12 months was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. It taught me the power of consistency, the joy of achievement and self-improvement, and the surprising truth that sometimes, the most impactful changes come from the simplest of actions, consistently applied.
Drop your email here if you want to follow this journey, or follow me on Twitter for daily updates and insights.
I'm excited to see where this new set of challenges takes me, and I invite you all to join me on this adventure. Whether you pick one challenge to try yourself or simply follow along, I hope my journey inspires you to push your own limits and discover what you're capable of. Let's make 2025 a year of growth, discovery, and maybe, just a bit of magic.