Today I turn 41.
When I shifted from 39 to 40 last April, I started a project to attempt to do 40 new things before the next turnover of years. You can find details about that here.
Today I start a new journey. With a list I've been gathering even as I was working on the previous list. A friend joked recently that she can't wait to see my 80 before 81 list. May I live that long to see it myself.
I challenge each of you out there to craft your own lists — or if a list feels overwhelming, just find one thing you've never done, haven't attempted as an adult, or just feel a craving pulsing through your body to try. Put it at the top of your to-do list. Give yourself a deadline. And then go do it. If you need some accountability, feel free to post in the comments below and I'll be your cheerleader.
And remember, it doesn't matter how you do it, just do. I've spent a lifetime fighting perfectionist tendencies. As I've aged, I've realized that perfect is boring. If I wait for perfect — the perfect situation, the perfect time, the perfect ability — I let fear win.
We only get one life. Make the most of each day, each breath, won't you?
• 41 Before 42 •
- Choreograph a country line dance (and see if Barb will teach it at Cowboys)
- Plant and grow garlic
- Watch every episode of MASH
- Try aerial yoga and/or aerial silks
- Plan my next trip to France (perhaps running a retreat at Little French Retreat)
- Attend a Switchbacks match
- Try kayaking
- Learn barista basics
- Plant flower bulbs this fall
- Take a birding and/or bird banding class
- Continue to reduce my wardrobe, a la Project 333
- Take French language lessons
- Read at least 75 books
- Take classes on how to use the manual functions on my DSLR camera
- Have at least one item of clothing tailored to fit
- Learn to bake croissants
- Get will and living will in order
- Have a bouquet of flowers in the house, fresh once a month
- Attend a fest in Telluride
- Take performance driving lessons
- Add a piece of original art to my collection from an artist I have not yet met
- Stay up once all night until sunrise
- Perform at a poetry slam/open mic
- Learn to bake French macarons
- Attend the Santa Fe Opera
- Be involved with a stage show in some way
- Bake a fruit pie, with homemade crust, from scratch
- Visit at least one new-to-me museum
- Watch one new-to-me movie and one classic film a month
- Play Settlers of Catan
- Stay at the Beaumont Hotel in Ouray
- Take an oracle card-making class
- Research and read more about walking the Camino de Santiago
- Travel (again) with a girlfriend
- Fly a kite
- Send postcards to friends once a month just because
- Try fly fishing
- Visit Shambhala Mountain Center
- Do a Georgia O'Keeffe tour around New Mexico (Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, etc.)
- Do a not-just-head-shot photo shoot (with Becky)
- Get off my ass already and pitch the nun story to Oprah Magazine