I met a Monica at a Portland Bloggers meeting back in September. We are close in age (I’ve got a little more than a year before hitting the Big 4-0) and she caught my attention with a post titled “39 Things to do Before 40” on her Life Ohm blog. I responded to her post with the comment you see below:
Thank you for the inspiration, Monica! Sounds like we are about the same age : ) I went with your 39 things to do before 40 theme…
- Finish writing our book
- Rent an Airstream for at least a week
- Get back to England to see Paul’s family & friends
- Take an Ayurveda class
- Join Toastmasters
- Pay off school loans (or at least a good chunk)
- Really learn to embroider
- Go back to a vegetarian diet
- Continue to grow my Beachbody business
- Spend more time with my little brother and sister
- Take a digital photography class
- Build up our Caretaking Couple business
- Sell the 4Runner (don’t need it here)
- Continue my search for vintage buttons & ephemera
- Join ancestry.com with my Mom
- Make my own toiletries and candles again (just for fun, not as a biz)
- Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity
- Get back to my yoga classes (at Exhale)
- Start a poker night with new friends
- Calligraphy
- Polish up on my geography
- write a letter a week to a friend, family member, or stranger
- Blog on a regular basis (at least 3x a week)
- Garden (4 raised organic beds at our new digs – yay!)
- Get a monthly massage
- Finish my scrapbooking projects
- Run
- Find a tennis partner
- Learn how to play my guitar
- Go ziplining
- Continue vision boarding
- Visit my friend Laura in Valencia, Spain
- Treat myself to a spa day (for the first time)
- Practice more acts of random kindness
- Finally visit Pike Place Market!
- Figure out all (or at least most) of the functions on my Mac & use them
- Continue to transform our rental house into a “home”
- Get into the habit of staying in the moment
- Focus on people and projects that bring me joy
I would love to keep in touch with you regarding our lists ~ maybe revisit them periodically. Seems we have a lot in common!
V
This (like the vision boarding) has been a fun and enlightening process for me, and I encourage you to make your own list. You don’t have to be turning 40 in order to play ~ just come up with a list of things that you would like to accomplish by a certain date. And if you feel like sharing said list, please do.
PS I have crossed a few things off since September ~ feels good!
I’m so excited about your list and love the items. Pre-40 is a great age, let’s enjoy it and make the most of it. Cheers 🙂
Yes, this is a great age. And now, I’m logging off in order to get back to work on item #1 : ) Cheers!
Ok, Valynne…. Great list! So thorough. I would love to know what items you can “check off” & additions/changes you have made. Great job. I have been working on mine in a journal since my birthday. You know, in prep for the BIG 4-0!
It is an eye-opener, looking at this list several months later! As you know, we are no longer in Portland, which makes a few of these items irrelevant : ) That is part of the fun of life, eh? Looking forward to sharing our 40th year together and keeping each other posted on our progress. You realize this means we have known each other nearly thirty years, now, right? Sigh…