It’s become a tradition for me to write a new year post on this site, setting out what goals I’m going to try and fail at over the coming twelve months. Last year’s post was a little bit different, as we were all worn down by a pandemic that didn’t seem to be ending any time soon. I finished that post with the optimistic thought: “So here’s to 2021, and hoping that this time next year, we can all start making proper resolutions again.”

Ah. Yea. Well… you see, the pandemic is still kicking our butts, so do we really want to add to that pressure?

However, I do have a mind to get something going, so I’m turning my attention to 30 day challenges. They are supposedly quite useful to try and get you doing something every day to build it into a habit, and I think I could do with a bit more of that in my life. I’ve thought up a handful of them, that I might try this year. They’re relatively straight-forward and mostly indoors because who knows what’s going to happen next?

The first one is to spend 30 days regaining my Duolingo streak. I’ve used Duolingo on and off for years, and really got into it last year, building up a streak in the 100s of days. But then I lost my head and the pressure of having that huge streak got to me so I deliberately let it reset. What a fool! Since then, I’ve barely been able to string together one or two days at a time.

So, that’s the first of this year’s plans. 30 days of language learning courtesy of the big green owl. I will report back if it takes off, but if it doesn’t, let’s not mention it again and just look forward to 2023 where we can have another go!