Celebrate Your Birth Day

from last year's list: plant a garden

I am a girl with systems.  I’ve got a written calendar where I keep track of my appointments.  I’ve got a year-long to do notebook that allows me to list 34 things to do on every day of the year.  I list everything that takes me more than five minutes- my workout, making Happy’s lunch for preschool, switching out my fantasy football line-up as well as write an article draft, update spreadsheets, call So and So.  The elaborate to do list and carefully kept calendar have been my thing since high school (I refuse to let electronics to take over these things for me- writing down my lists and appointments seem to imprint them for me and highlighting each item when it’s done is so satisfying) but it is my birthday “system”- the annual birthday list– that gives me the most satisfaction (which is saying a lot). 

When it came time to write Beautiful You, the birthday list seemed like an absolute for inclusion.  It is officially Day 32.  But I had no idea how the birthday list would be received.  It’s a big commitment that requires readers to really embrace the entirety of the Beautiful You concept.  And while it’s early yet to know what someone thinks of the birthday list and especially how the list goes for them, I was graced today with this incredibly early and surprising feedback from a young woman who was an editorial intern at Seal Press when my proposal made its way across their desks.  Here is a little of what she wrote on her blog in a post called That One Book Proposal on Monday: 

Last summer as an editorial intern, I had the pleasure of dissecting a proposal for a fantastic book by Rosie Molinary called Beautiful You: A Daily Guide to Radical Self-Acceptance. Now, I look over a lot of proposals in my field of work. A lot. And I always feel like I forget almost every single one of them. But this one literally changed my life. I read through each sample chapter, enjoying the premise of the book: that you should appreciate who you are – as an individual, not just as a mother, sister, friend, or girlfriend – each and every day. Then I got to a section where she suggests making a list of goals every year for your birthday. The number of goals should equal the number of years you’re turning. The idea was infectious. During my lunch break, I walked to a nearby park and wrote frantically, filling up the page with all the things I dreamed for myself. It felt substantial in a way that New Years resolutions never do. It felt necessary.

Back to me  (note: read how Carrie’s first list turned out– she turns 23 next week and has a new list to craft– on her blog!):   and so, in honor of the birthday list, in honor of Carrie’s birthday and her list, in honor of BY coming out, in honor of your birthday, it is time for some celebrating.  In the comments section, share at least one thing that you’d like to do– it does not have to be of the colossal bucket list variety and can just be a nice, good stretch for who and where you are right now (one of my list items this year was taking my eight-year-old Kitchen Aid mixer out of the box for the first time and using it)– before your next birthday.  I’ll take comments until 8 am EST on Monday, October 11th.  Then, everyone’s name will go in the Halloween pumpkin jar on my desk  and one winner will score a signed copy of Beautiful You. 

I’ll get us started.  My next birthday list will include: take more surf lessons.