29 before 29

Let me start this post by noting that three of my good friends are named Amanda. My boyfriend's best friend is named Amanda, one of my closest friends who is as close as a sister is Amanda and one of my closest work confidants is an Amanda. This can get confusing especially when they aren't really prone to nicknames. Anyways, work Amanda and I both have December birthdays. Last year she compiled a list of 28 goals to accomplish before 28 and then she blogged about them and then she felt really fulfilled. This year, I want to get me some of that. So today I present my list of 29 goals before 29.

In creating this list, I made up a lot of rules to govern this process and a goal of how many goals I wanted to check off and timeline and spreadsheet. Yesterday, on my birthday, I decided that I wanted the theme of the next year to be "More Adventure, Less Worry" so I decided to do away with the trite planning that has derailed me so many times and just be in the moment with each goal. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, I still turn 29. If I want to make something on this list happen, I have the power to manifest its ability to happen. So I present 29 before 29 in no particular order.

1. Sell one thing on Etsy
2. Save $300 in a Christmas fund
3. Get another tattoo
4. Go surfing
5. One month no spending
6. Hit my goal weight
7. Knit something other than a neck warmer
8. Write more, specifically in this blog
9. Complete 200 Jazzercise classes
10. Learn to make sausage w/ casing
11. Teach Girlfriend 3 new tricks
12. Read 12 books
13. Go to the opera/ballet/symphony
14. Eat rabbit
15. Camp with Jake more
16. Watch all Disney animated movies (There are 53 counting Frozen.)
17. Run a race
18. Put money in a savings account aside from my Christmas fund, possibly using the week in the year method
19. Do ten diamond push-ups successfuly with perfect posture
20. Learn the foxtrot with my friend Kate
21. Make some sort of fermented beverage
22. Email my grandma 4 times
23. Mail cards to my mom, dad, brother, grandma and grandpa for their birthdays and Mother's/Father's day
24. Get my oil changed 4 times
25. Get a passport
26. Use my passport to leave the country
27. Write a children's story
28. Play in a soccer game
29. Hike in the desert

On My Birthday

Birthdays are a time for personal reflection on where we have come from and where we are going. We remember childhood parties as a kid and realize how quickly social security is coming. For those of use who's birthday fall in December, we also get swept into a wave of resolutions and new ways of life. Each year, I want to see measurable growth. I want to be evolving from the man I am into the man I want to be and see clear steps in that direction. My last post highlighted some big steps I've taken in the last year. I've also decided to outline 29 goals I'd like to achieve before I turn 29 which I will share more about tomorrow.

Today, I want to talk about the present or, at the very least, being present. In putting together my 29 before 29, I've found that I rule my life primarily by making mistakes in the past and planning to rectify them in the future. I charged too much on my credit card last month so this next month I can't do anything fun. I ate two doughnuts yesterday so I will do a double at the gym tomorrow. My friend didn't set up his 401k early enough and I don't have the money to set one up so I should worry about my future not being great.

I saw this great movie today, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", and the whole time I thought about how I didn't want to just sit back and help people accomplish their goals anymore. I want to be the person on the front line taking the bull by the horns. I realized that maybe the reason I feel so unfulfilled at time is because I am not fulfilling my true spirit of adventure.

This year I want to live in the moment. I want to look up at the sky and see the constellation. When I lay on my death bed, I know that I will be happy if I can say that my life was full and rich not happy because I have $580,000 in an account somewhere. I want to see monuments and make new friends and drink new coffee with old friends and build some stuff. I want beauty and excitement and I don't want anxiety and dread. I want healthy fear and risky moments. I want passion and danger instead of routine and order.

More adventure, less worry.

Tomorrow, I will lay out my goals for the year.  Some will learn from past mistakes and some will be forward thinking but for the next year I use the principal "more adventure, less worry" as my guiding influence. Today, I embrace the spirit in me to do more, to see more and to be more. 

Shut It Down.

It seems each time we get to this poing the year spirals like a cyclone and in a matter of weeks Jesus will be a year older and the world will be a year older. We'll all get nostalgic and innovation will halt for tradition for just a minute and then it will be January. It is cold in January.

As my bank account gets real tight and there aren't enough hours in a day, I am reminded to take a few minutes and slow down. If you are going to wrap something up, you might as well put a bow on it. Today, I take a pause and reflect on my accomplishment from the past year. As I put together a list of goals for the next year, it is important that we look at what went well.

• Jake and I moved in together. We live in a tiny beautiful apartment. We don't fight anymore than we did before and we've put the haters to shame. I come home to him sometimes laying on the couch covered in a blanket watching bad Netflix and I smile each time.
• Jake and I got Girlfriend who just stopped chewing her nylabone to check up on me. Now she is making a bed out of the blankets I just folded on the coffee table. I wasn't sold on getting a dog and the first two months we hell but I can't imagine life without this sweet little girl.
• I lost 30 pounds. It was expensive and exhausting and annoying but I lost 30 pounds. I will acknowledge that I didn't hit my goal set for myself in April of getting under my BMI but I also didn't let that derail me.
• I started Jazzercise. Friday was my 150th class this year. I've maintained a 5 class a week schedule and rarely fallen off.

This reads a lot like one of those tacky letters you get in a Christmas card. The kind that list the vacations someone went on that is barely an aquintance and you don't care about but still read. Blogs are the new Christmas letter.