“New year, new me.” I imagine that’s one of the most cliché things people say the beginning of the year. New hobby? “New year, new me.” New diet? “New year, new me.” New wardrobe? “New year, new me.”

Alas, as silly as I think the idea is, I fell into the cliché with The Adventure Challenge. I like workbooks, self-help books, language-learning books—anything you can interact with that challenges you in an interesting way. It seemed like instagram knew I liked those things when it started pushing this series on me a few months ago.

After recently seeing my ads change from recommending the couples edition for date ideas to the solo edition for, uh, soloing (thank you, algorithm), I decided to get it. Because it is a new year, and I’m looking for some change, and as the age-old saying goes…

The concept sounds fun. It’s designed to push you out of your comfort zone and typical routine to do something interesting and memorable. The book has 30 challenges based on exploring your city, travel, self-care, meeting new people, and more. Each one has a price estimate, time of day, and an approximate duration so you know how to prepare.

The way you begin is by scratching off a challenge to find out what you’ll be doing. There’s a section to write something before and after the experience and a space to add a little commemorative photo. They sell a cute little polaroid camera to go with the book, but that seemed like too much of an investment for me. I’m into the aesthetic, but I’ve got my own Fujifilm instax like every basic sentimental Millennial should.

The first challenge I did this year was based on travel because I had a solo trip to Puerto Vallarta already planned. It gave me a little more motivation to fulfill my task, which was to meet someone new and do an activity together. At first, I was a little hesitant because it was my first time in the city and it had been a long time since I’d traveled alone. But once I was there quietly judging, I mean, assessing other tourists around me, something unexpected happened: strangers found me.

I was bar hopping one night on my own hoping to find solo companions close to my age, but I had no luck until I stopped by El Colibrí Bar (which is a 9/10, by the way, sophisticated cocktails and vibey). After I received my drink, two people at the table next to me leaned over to chat, and what started as small talk about our separate trips turned into conversation about travel, community, identity, culture, music, and so on. It was honestly riveting, and we ended up going to another bar together afterwards to listen to jazz and continue the deep talk over another drink.

This kind of experience was exactly what I was hoping for when I decided to travel solo. It felt even sweeter because it was so unexpected and our conversation was so rich. Not only did I get to meet cool people, but I can now check an adventure off in the book and tell the world wide web about it.

I love having external motivation to do things, so I’m planning to complete a challenge at least every other week. Even though I started big, I’m looking forward to seeing how The Adventure Challenge adds more local excitement to my life right now. It’s a great push to encourage me even in little ways to step out of my daily routine and be a little more present with myself.