Good day friends!
As of today, according to Sir Google, there are officially 1,357 days left until my 40th birthday. Ugh, lol!
Last year, on my 35th birthday, I published a list of 40 things (HERE) I wanted to accomplish before I reached that milestone birthday. That of course was before my world fell apart, back when I thought my life (in the short term at least) would be much brighter than I now see it (dimmed by my dad’s illness and ultimate passing, followed by a global pandemic). Despite everything that has happened in the last year, I haven’t given up on this challenge, but I have decided to rewrite the list. I even made it one of my 20 Goals for 2020 (HERE), and I have achieved that goal, hooray!
So why rewrite? As I’ve gotten incrementally closer to 40 with each day that has passed since I wrote my first iteration of this list, I’ve become more anxiety stricken and perhaps superstitious even… prior to Pandemic News 24/7, it seemed like there were A LOT of stories on the news about issues in the air (like they reported something crazy every day). It started making me very panicky about the the thought of flying. Many of the items on my list involved travel that would require taking a plane. So that’s why I decided to ditch the original list (not completely, and I didn’t remove ALL travel goals) and start over. This also gave me the opportunity to replace some other things on the list that I had changed my mind about.
I won’t go on at length about each item, but if I’ve started (bolded), or made progress/completed (bold italic) any of them already I will note it below. So without further ado, here is my new and improved 40 x 40 list!
- Become a fur-mama
- Grow a vegetable garden I grew peppers (and some herbs) last year and plan to do so again this year, plus some!
- Be more natural
- Go on local adventures
- Visit Boston in the fall
- See the Grand Canyon
- Find relief from chronic back pain
- Practice Pilates again
- Get strong
- Learn Italian
- Design books
- Write and publish an e-book
- Start refinishing furniture
- Design/make/sell jewelry
- Learn hand lettering/ script handwriting
- Perfect my signature
- Take more pictures
- Save more money
- Eat a Mediterranean diet
- Develop a proper skin care routine I had this one crossed off at my last checkin (HERE) but since then my skin has gotten fussy, so this is still a work in progress.
- Practice meditation
- Practice gratitude
- Create art more regularly
- Consume art and culture
- Become a member of an art museum
- Read 40 books Am up to 16 books since last January, so I’m definitely on track!
- Be less selfish
- Be less serious
- Live with less
- Start a YouTube channel
- Learn to say hello in 40 languages
- Start an Etsy shop
- Reboot blogging Done! Here I am!
- Whittle down my wardrobe (create a capsule?) Working on this as part of Living With Less…
- Start sending birthday cards & snail mail
- Reach 100 Instagram followers and post consistently
- Keep up with world news
- Be a better housekeeper & homemaker
- Do regular digital detoxes
- Find balance
Do you have a life wishlist you’re working on?
Many thanks and much love,
laf
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
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