⭐️ How to Play More
What if you did something you loved to do 52 times in 2025?
If you’re a patron, you’ve already seen this letter, as you were invited first!
Hello, dear reader,
In 2024, I made a goal to do something I loved, 52 times. I wanted to play in the water once a week. Or more realistically, it was take a month off and then do the thing four times in seven days.
This turned out to be a great schedule which gave me enough time to slack off (whee!) and still be able to easily catch up.
I did 52 wild swims in open water (actually, I hit 70 by the end of the year). Pictures over at Instagram if you want to see me swimming with a turtle!
And while I want to keep wild swimming next year because I'm now totally hooked, I also want to make myself a new, fun goal.
Want to play along, too? In a very Anti-Resolution way, that is. Resolutions are for the birds — willpower isn’t conducive to making big, instant change.
Instead, this is an adventurous challenge for fun and joy. Not to get things done.
My New Personal Goal for 2025:
This year, I’m going to art journal 52 times.
Nope, I’m not a visual artist. I’ve only ever tried drawing once before as an adult, when in 2014, I started a daily sketching challenge. I went from this on day 2:
To this, on day 65
I show this just to prove drawing can be learned (I have zero natural skill). I was working through the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, which is an amazing book that I’ll definitely pull out again.
But I flamed out on that 2014 challenge because drawing every day was way too hard. I’m decidedly not a fan of “Don’t Break the Chain” kinds of things because I get too upset when I inevitably do break the chain. I broke the daily drawing chain on day 187 and basically, um, I never drew again. Whoops!
52 bad drawings this year, though? With some words written around them to remind me of what I was thinking about while drawing? Bring it on.
I'd love my art journal to look like this:
from MerelJournals
I tried to do a beautiful page a little early, and got this delicious wonkiness:
(I love chronicling a starting point, don't you?)
WHAT I WANT TO REMEMBER:
What I got out of the 52 swims was a new way to look back at my year.
Each time I got out of the water, I jotted down where I was, the temperature of the water, and what happened that day.
This morning, as I lay in the tub after swim #70, I scrolled back through the year.
I was reminded that in January, the Wellington water was summery and warm. In February, my sister Bethany and I started swimming together. In March, I went swimming alone after an AA meeting and felt baptized by joy. In April, my doctor told me not to swim alone in cold water because of my allergy to it, and I was heartbroken. By May, I’d started a small group that has swum after every Sunday meeting without fail ever since (yes, I’m proud of this — this is now the kind of tradition that will continue whether or not I'm in attendance).
Last week, I swam with that group, and we laughed at the people flocking to the warm beach, to the suddenly-not-freezing water. “Look at them,” we mocked kindly. “So soft. Where we they in the middle of winter, huh?”
We swam to the pontoon, which was rocking a spindly Christmas tree. We stood on the platform and chatted while we used our sea legs and hips to absorb each swell. Then we cheered each other in turn as we jumped and dove back into the water.
Looking at my notes of the swims allows me to remember my year in a unique way, inside a one-of-a-kind frame.
So.
Do you want to do Adventure 52 with me?
HOW TO PLAY
1. Pick a thing you’d like to do 52 times by the end of 2025.
This should be something you’d love to do, not something you feel you “should” do. For example, 52 workouts to lose weight? No way. Throw that idea out. That’s a “should.” But 52 power lifting sessions because you just started doing it and it’s SO fun for you? Great!
Another example: 52 chapters revised to finish your book? Nah, sis. That’s a “should.” (And it’s not a bad goal! But we’re not trying to Get Shit Done with Adventure 52. We’re trying to live our lives more deeply, 52 times.) Reword it for play! 52 solo writing sessions in a location you love, perhaps? Maybe you’ll revise those chapters, maybe you'll start a totally new project instead, but you’ll have fun, no matter what.
2. Make sure the goal is joyful.
Joyful. Not onerous. You want it to be something you wouldn’t quite do 52 times without this wee push, but you don’t want it to take so much time or effort that you abandon it in two months. Every time I fell behind in my 52 Wild Swims, I joyfully realized, Oh, boy, I’ll have to swim extra this week! Yay!
3. Devise a way to chronicle it.
I used a simple Google Keep note on my phone to track my swims (I liked that I could access it on my computer, too). You could use a notebook, or a spreadsheet, or it might track itself, as my 52 art journal entries will. But do catch it somehow.
4. Tell someone about it (optional but recommended)
Tell someone! That could be a friend, or your partner, or you can tell me using either of these two methods:
Respond directly to this email and drop me a message with what adventure you'll try!
Or if you're at the $5 or up Patreon level (join anytime), you'll be able to access a new Adventure 52 Slack channel (a private channel over at my Onward Writer Slack). I’ll post there each week how I’m doing (maybe with pictures if the journaling isn’t too private), and you’re welcome to do the same, no matter what you’re working on. You can join HERE now!
I'm so excited about catching my days in this new net of play, and if you want to join us, I can't wait to see what you come up with!
As always, thank you so much for your support. It really (truly) means the world to me.
love,
Rachael
PS - This is maybe my favorite sketch I ever did during that old challenge:
Lyle Lovett says, "Everything informs us about everything else, doesn't it?" Lyle's always right.
PPS - If you’re a writer interested in taking my 90 Days to Done or 90 Day Revision course in 2025, make sure you’re on my notify-early list, HERE. Classes will open in February for the March session and this is the best way to not miss it selling out!