Around my 38th birthday last week I took some retreat time to relax, ask myself questions and do some daydreaming about the future. During my retreat I did my 40 thing to Do Before I’m 40 List. My list consists of improvements I want to make, things that are important to me, and things I think would be fun. Too many goal lists only have improvements to make.
Photo by Stella Brazil
**** denotes personal
- Exercise 5 days a week for 3 months. [My former goal was 7 days a week and I usually get 4 workouts in. I think I will strive for 5 before I go to 7]
- Go on a family vacation to Montana
- Get caught up on scrapbooking
- Start and end my day with stillness, not technology
- Begin using cloth napkins again
- Get one massage a month [This used to be a habit that I fell out of]
- Incorporate 5 minutes of silence into my daily quiet time.
- Enforce how the family speaks to one another. [Why do teens have to speak so meanly sometimes?]
- Memorize 10 verses
- Limit myself to 2 hours of TV a day [I’ve been getting caught up in the election coverage]
- Reach out weekly as a pastoral care elder
- Experiment with no sugar for 30 days
- Use my debt reduction plan
- *****
- Encourage the kids to have a daily quiet time
- Send weekly encouraging notes
- Pray daily for my husband and kids
- Keep the Sabaath weekly [almost there, but still needs some tweaking]
- Take a one hour yoga class
- Take a drawing class
- Rejoin a writer’s group
- Buy fresh flowers weekly for one summer
- Create a quitting work ritual for when I am done with work for the day
- Go kayaking down the Kalamazoo river with the family
- Allergy proof my bedroom
- *****
- Go on a 2 hour bike ride
- Give blog
- Visit Windmill Island
- No complaining or criticizing for one week
- Get a real facial
- Learn to whistle
- Learn to skip stones
- Practice eating only when hungry for 30 days
- Live within my means
- *****
- *****
- Go on a weekend away with my husband
- Get up by 7am consistently
- *****
Do you have any upcoming birthdays or events that are important to you that you can use as momentum for starting some of those goals you will do "someday"?
This is is a great idea. I have to do the same but before I’m 30! Good luck with your list 😉
I love the ************* ones – they make me insanely curious, by the way 🙂
Good list. Thanks for the reminder – I need to have another look at my life list but at the moment I’m so caught up with that ONE main thing, that all the other things fade into insignificance 🙂
I would like to comment on #10. When I quit work to become a full time home-maker I vowed I would not turn into a cliche’ and get hooked on “soaps”. I stayed true to my vow for a very long time. But then my husband went on a two-week mission trip and the days and nights became extremely longgggggggg. Next thing I know I am hooked on not one but two. So, a year and a half later, I did the math and realized I was squandering 7.5 hours of my life a week watching people have the same fights they had six months ago and this person being un-faithful to husband #? . I was beginning to lose track of who was with who. Thought Jesus probably wasn’t too thrilled with me filling my head with all that garbage. I quit “cold turkey”. And I am so glad I did. Now my husband says, “You got what done today? How in the world did you have time to get all that done?” I am way happier and far more energetic not watching tv. And I even could justify the time spent in front of the”boob tube”. I was ironing, eating lunch, Stretching, lifting weights, cleaning, cross-stitching, etc. Why, I was multi-tasking, don’t you know! And one more thing, before I stop rambling. I read that if you have become discontent with your financial situation and you find yourself wanting more and more material possessions – Check to see if you have recently increased your television watching.
a good list and yes, maybe I will make one too but considering that I am thinking over 60 – in age– some of them may have to be short term goals-LOL
off to start the list………hugs,
Great idea. I am finishing my 35 pounds lost before 35. So 40 things to be proud of by 40! will be next! ok, i procrastinate alot, (why i read you!) so I gave myself 5 years to do it!
Well, I haven’t popped on here in forever it feels like (not and have left a comment, anyway). Happy Birthday for goodness sake, from another (albeit slightly older) October Baby. I would have less than 12 full months to go through a 40×40 list…so as tempted as I am…LOL!
Mademoiselle, good luck on your list!
Marcia, that’s a great idea, taking a look at the rest of your list.
Robin – thanks for sharing how you did it. My main problem lately has been news/politics.
LOL Meme
Ani – slow and steady works great!
Thanks Tookshire. Yes, just say no to that challenge, you have enough on your plate!