40 things to do before turning 41

So, every year in anticipation of my birthday, I write a list.

Do a set of fifteen regular pushups. Take my parents to visit family in Puerto Rico. Complete a century bicycle ride. Raise at least $5000 for cancer research. Work with turtles.

It started as a simple dare. Find something to do outside of your job, I told myself in that third year of teaching when my work hours stretched from 6 am until 10 pm, or you will end up celebrating your sixtieth birthday wondering where your life went. But when I sat down to consider what hobby I might take up, so much interested me that I had no idea where to start. I wanted to try it all, and so I invented a system that would let me, at the very least, try most of it. My first list was written in the days leading up to my 25th birthday. Scrawled across the pages of a journal, I listed the 25 things I wanted to do before I turned 26.

Back then, it was mostly a practical venture. I started to run, paid off student loans, saved money, increased my retirement savings. Each year, the list grew a little more daring, balancing the trivial with the important, the safe with the stretches. I learned to paint with watercolors, went kayaking, sang karaoke even though I have no business singing (it was in Brazil and so my hope was that the language barrier covered up my lack of melody. Just to be clear, it didn’t.). I took other risks like submitting my poetry and non-fiction essays to literary magazines and performing in The Vagina Monologues. Each checkmark on the list made me feel more alive.

Indeed, I was living more fully—with both practical challenges and extraordinary experiences informing my growth. Learning to swim made me safer. Learning CPR helped me to keep others safe. Scale a 5.7c peak in rock climbing? Made me reach deep inside for the reservoirs of strength and endurance. When my father was diagnosed with cancer, I channeled my need to do even more than serve as his chemo companion by joining Team in Training and raising close to $10,000 for cancer research.  It is not just my athleticism that has changed. I have helped my family, traveled and experienced other cultures, made new friends, engaged in my community, developed artistic skills, invested in issues that are dear to me, become better read.

To be honest, some of my exploits have been at odds with my skills or personality.  Parasailing reminded me how scared I was of heights, but I stayed up there the whole time, singing quietly to myself. Competing in a duathlon against some of the area’s finest athletes (when I signed up, I noticed that it said Finest in the title of the event, but I thought they meant well-organized and not really competitive) forced me to get in touch with the reality that I was doing the event to impress myself and not anyone else. And while it would seem that these were failed experiments, I think it is impossible to fail at anything on the list. I have never completed all the tasks on any year’s list, my interior monologue telling me I should have begun the list in my teens so I could have had a chance at a clean sweep. But the fact that the list exists lures me to want to check things off, look it over, and make plans.

I know that I live better and more dramatically because the list exists. At the end of each ‘birth’year, I evaluate the past list. I recall each experience and think about its significance to me. I consider who I have been and who I am becoming, and I decide whether an unmet goal should go on the next year’s list or if its lure is no longer calling me. The list is not just a ritual. It is a formula for how I can make life happen in the midst of deadlines and duties. Regardless of what I come up with for the lists, each year is cloaked in adventure, compassion, self-improvement and satisfaction. It is a gift to myself, a celebration of life, a list that keeps me living out loud.

This year (today), I am turning 40 so here is the newest list so far… 

1. Create a vision board.

2.  Take my birthday off.

3.  Redo the backyard.

4.  Read 30 books for pleasure.

5.  Read 5 books to support personal/ professional growth.

6.  Try 6 new Charlotte restaurants.

7.  Replace carpet in master bedroom.

8.  Take singing lessons.

9.  Take a workshop.

10.  Hear an author speak.

11.  Find the perfect kitchen rug.

12.  Finish Happy’s “office”.

13.  Start a 529 account.

14.  Tweak personal style.

15.  Update Happy’s journal and then write at least one entry per month.

16.  Make a family yearbook.

17.  Weekly fitness, yoga, or Pilates class for at least 40 weeks.

18.  Launch a teleseminar.

19.  Do a massive purge/clean out of every room in the house.

20.  Set up a little free library. 

21.   Vacation with girlfriends.

22.  Do something (professionally) that scares and pushes me.

23.  Do something new with my hair (I am thinking highlights.).

24.  Go trampolining. 

25.  Set aside 30 minutes each week for do/watch/read (These are things I file away to watch/read/do later and time never allows for it).

26.  Participate in Books for Soldiers. 

27.  Upgrade a soldier’s helmet at Operation-Helmet.org.

28.  Ride water (surf, kayak, and/or paddle board).

29.  Visit Cline’s.

30.  Check out Boulevard at SouthEnd.

31.  Finish the attic reorganization.

32.  Do Thai Yoga.

33.  Have a family picnic.

34.  Plant a garden (foil the rabbits!).

35.  Order Pantone postcards.  Send them regularly enough that I run out before my next birthday.

36.  Pay for a stranger’s meal.

37 .  Make crepes or cinnamon rolls from scratch.

38-40?

Got any suggestions for items #38-40?  Do you have a birthday list? What is on your list?

On another note, it is always fun to celebrate with others so I am offering a special to you for my annual visionSPARK workshop.  And for those of you who are a distance away, you can participate, too, as visionSPARK is going virtual in 2014.

visionSPARK:: because intention matters

Every new year begins with our vision for it.  But dreaming about it isn’t enough.  Vision has to be captured, inspiration alighted, and intention set.                 At visionSPARK, you’ll capture your ideal life’s vision not just in conversation and words but in a tangible, inspirational vision board. You’ll imagine the possibilities in a pre-workshop workbook, gather inspiration, and then create your vision with thoughtful support during the workshop. You’ll leave with an inspirational board to display, a touchstone word to root you and reinforce your commitment during the year, a gentle call to action to guide you and the motivation to manifest the life you imagine.

In person:

January 2 from  6 pm – 9:30 pm, January 3 from 9 am – 12:30 pm, or January 4 from 9 am – 12:30 pm                                                                                                                                                           Triple Play Farm in Davidson, North Carolina $50

Virtual:

January 9 from 12 to 2 pm EST ON YOUR PHONE $40  

Birthday Special:  Enter the word HAPPY as a discount code when registering by 11:59 PM on November 18 and receive the in person workshop for $40 and the virtual one for $35.  

Can’t wait to spark our years together!