This morning, several girls in my Instagram stories posted outfit-of-the-day videos. I see these fit checks all the time, and I never pay them any attention, but today, I had an idea. Because I wear the same shirt and pants every day, I thought it would be funny to do my own outfit-of-the-day videos where every video is the same outfit. So, I made the first video, and in it, I said it was day 1 of a 365-day outfit-of-the-day challenge. That’s now the second year-long challenge I’ve committed myself to since the beginning of the year, three days ago.

What Did I Set Myself Up For?

It might be a tad overly ambitious to think I can just add two new items to my routine and keep them for a year, especially considering those aren’t the only two new tasks I’ve added to my routine this year. Fortunately, I am very good at making things a habit because I am a creature of such.

A Blog For Two Eyes Only

On July 20, 2020, I started journaling to try to figure out why I have felt like shit every day of my adult life. I thought if I could keep track of everything I ate and drank in a day, what I did, where I went, who I talked to, what the weather was like, and any other seemingly significant detail about my day, then I might eventually be able to identify a pattern and eliminate whatever it was that was making me feel like I had crude oil surging through my veins instead of blood.

Many times, when I was younger, I attempted to keep a journal, but it never stuck because I didn’t know what to write about. I thought I needed to write profound bits of self-reflection like Doogie Howser did at the end of each episode. I didn’t have anything deeply insightful to write, or rather, I wasn’t willing to put my innermost thoughts down on paper where someone might read them. So, every journal I ever started ended up being destroyed. I’m bummed about that. I would love to see what younger versions of me were thinking at various points in my life.

Two weeks after I started journalling someone stole the catalytic converter off my work van. This was during the pandemic when I wasn’t working, so I didn’t know they stole it for five days. I knew when they stole it, though, because the sound of their saws ripping through my van’s exhaust system woke me up at 3 a.m. I didn’t know what I heard, but I knew it was my van, so I ran out front, but all I saw was a Nissan Pathfinder turning the corner in front of my house.

Sink That Hook

In the morning, I jotted down the details of my arousal, and then I called my insurance company. The adjuster sounded like she was going to give me a hard time about my claim, so I started taking copious contemporaneous notes to prepare for battle. I ended up not needing them, but it sparked something in me. I was hooked. From that moment on, I wanted records of everything I did throughout the day. I don’t know what for. It’s just sort of comforting, and as an added bonus, I have won many disagreements since I started journaling because I can recall the details of whatever is being disputed with a few strokes of the keys.

It’s A Double-Edged Sword, Though.

In the middle of May last year, I bought a pint of Haagen Daaz Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream because it sounded tasty. I ate half of it that night and the other half the next night. Little did I know at the time that that was the beginning of a six-month-long Haagen Daaz Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream habit. One pint every other day. In November, the store started offering them at $1 off if you buy four, so I started buying them four at a time. I’m too old to be eating like this. I had to quit. On Christmas Eve, I jumped from ice cream to sugar cookies. That wasn’t a good choice, but it seems to have helped. I’ve only been clean a week, but I think I’ve got it licked.

All that is to say that I might have a better-than-average chance of pulling at least one, if not both, of these year-long challenges off.

Of course, it could go the other way, too.

In 2022, Bonnie wanted to post a photo every day based on the different “national days,” like National Doughnut Day, National Hopscotch Day, National Step-Mom With Benefits Day, etc. I don’t think we made it through January. The problem with that challenge was that you had to come up with an idea every day and then procure the requisite supplies, stage it, shoot it, edit it, publish it, tag it, and come up with a caption. That’s a lot of work. I think the bar for my challenges is considerably low. All I have to do is post a photo here and publish a short video about my outfit of the day, wherever I happen to be. Add to that my natural inclination to do the same thing every day, and I’ve got this year in the bag. Maybe. 🤞