Summer is almost here! I know we’re all excited for warmer weather and all the adventure summertime brings. Often what ends up happening though is the summer passes us by with nothing new or exciting happening.

How often have you made summer plans like learning how to rollerblade and learning how to decorate cookies and trying paddleboard yoga and maybe taking a photography class on top of all that to capture all the summertime memories?

But before you know it’s September and the rain is pouring down. Cue sad violin music.

We make all these plans for the summer feeling so hopeful and energized by the sun. But we rarely if at all achieve any of them. We slink into fall feeling like we didn’t accomplish anything during the summer.

I’ve been there. I remember exclaiming to my husband last May, we were going to go paddleboarding, rollerblading, and I was going to get better at golf, all in a span of three months when the sun shines.

None of this happened. We never went rollerblading. I actually didn’t go until February which was way past my deadline. We went paddleboarding once. And I think maybe we went to the driving range all of two times.

The summer passed me by, and I was left feeling defeated when September rolled in. My confidence was bruised since I felt like I didn’t accomplish anything, and no goals were checked off on my list.

Not this year though. I am determined to not let that happen to me this year. And you should be too.

Because it doesn’t have to be that hard.

Read More: 33 Journal Prompts to Increase Your Self-Confidence as a Woman

It seems like even though none of us get three months off for the summer anymore, like we did when we were kids, we still feel like it’s supposed to be this magical time of getting a bunch of stuff done and taking on lots of new challenges.

But unlike when we were kids, we now have jobs, responsibilities, and aren’t getting a full three months off. Our phones will still chime, our emails will still ping, and our dogs will still need appointments scheduled and daily walks.

Or instead, we make absolutely no plans and have a very lackluster summer where we don’t try anything new or challenging at all because why bother when we all those things listed above going on.

That’s life. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still have a magical, amazing summer that we’re proud of.

This year instead of piling on a bunch of things to your summer to-do list. I challenge you to pick one.

Confidence comes from competency. We become competent in something by learning about it, consistently practicing it, and figuring it out.

It’s hard to build competency though when we are being pulled in a million different directions.

So, this summer instead of choosing five different things you want to do, simply pick one task you can work on all summer.

Make it a specific goal with numbers and timelines.

This doesn’t have to be an activity that you have to diligently work on 40 hours a week. But it should be something you will need to study, practice, and work at it from time to time throughout the summer.

I love this list of over 100 summer bucket list ideas from Sally at Pennalife.

Your summer goal could be starting a book club. It could be learning to paint a watercolor landscape scene. It could be exploring five new hiking trails. Take up gardening and plant three new vegetables or flowers.

Whatever you want to do this summer is up to you. But just pick one.

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Read More: 49 Quotes to Inspire and Motivate You to Build Confidence 

Pick one goal and become competent in it. And watch your confidence and self-esteem increase.

Keep a summertime journal and write down every time you work on your summer goal. Also write down when you start to see improvements and when your competency starts to increase in this area.

My summer goal this year is to learn to do animation in Procreate. I’ll be taking a class on Udemy for this goal. So, signing up for the class will go in my summer journal. And each time I open the class and work on a new lesson, I will write it down in my journal.  

 I love that Udemy offers dozens of classes on one subject so your knowledge and competence can continue to grow, building even more confidence.

Check out this list of 11 easy hobbies to start today to build your confidence for summer goal ideas.

Craftsy is another fantastic platform to learn creative endeavors like painting, cake decorating, sewing and many more topics.

That’s the great thing about the world we live in. There are amazing platforms like Udemy and Craftsy where we can learn almost anything right in the comfort of our homes or a cute, local coffee shop.

Keep your summer journal with you when you go to the coffee shop though, so you can write down what you learned in your class and what you worked on.

Read More: 33 Empowering Affirmations to Boost Self-Confidence and How to Use Them

Remember to write down everything you did and learned for your summer goal.

Did you reach out to friends about your book club? Or get a library card? Did you download a book on your kindle?

Did you sign up for Craftsy to learn how to paint watercolor? Did you buy art supplies?

Did you look up trails in your area? Did you hike a new trail? Did you sign up for hiking group?

Did you join a gardening forum? Did you plant pumpkin seeds? Did you purchase new gardening tools?

Even if you’re short on time and only five minutes here or there, read an article about a topic within your goal, like when is the best time of the day to go hiking, what are the best watercolor paints, what are the popular books of the summer, what type of fertilizer do tomatoes need?

Gaining knowledge on your goal is still making you more competent in this area, thus building your confidence.

Write down everything you did to get you one step closer to achieving your summertime goal.

By taking all these small steps to reach your big summer goal, you’ll remain focused and motivated.

And with only one goal the chances of you getting distracted and being pulled in a different direction are low.

Set a date where at the end of the summer you’ll sit down and read your journal.

Your confidence will massively increase when you see not only how much consistent effort you put in, but also how much of an improvement you’ve made from June to now.

Make this summer one of the best summers yet! Your challenge to build your confidence this summer is to pick one goal whether it’s learn how to decorate a birthday cake or set up an online store for your stickers, or yoga paddleboarding.

Then write down everything you did to achieve this goal. No step is too small to write down and celebrate.

At the end of the summer, pick a date where you will sit down and read your summer journal to build your confidence by seeing how far you’ve come and applauding yourself for all the consistent work you put into achieving this one goal.

Let me know in the comments below what summer goal you’re choosing!