I am ambitious. I also like lists.
When life threatened me with the prospect of turning 30 I considered my options. I’ve been lucky in my life and I’ve taken most of the opportunities I’ve spotted. Not just sure-fire opportunities I should add. I enjoy rolling the dice on my life, believing that and in general when it comes to regrets, in-action – not kissing that girl, not going on that weekend away- is worse than those actions that didn’t go as advertised.
I’ve been lucky enough to be in a position where I can go forward creating my own luck. So, its in-keeping with my character that I’d try something like this.
30 before 30. A list of goals to achieve before finishing my third decade, written on my 29th birthday. So how would I go about it? And what would I actually put on the list?
I’ve tried to keep these goals personal and somewhat achievable. Ask the internet about what you should put on these lists and it’ll mostly give you travel advice, book recommendations and cooking recipes. Yes, these made it on. On the other hand some advice is terrible. You won’t find “get married” or “have a child” on this list because to set a deadline on things like that is something I don’t this is at all appropriate.
So here is what I ended up with. They’re not in order:
Meet my niece(Completed Dec 17 2018: Meeting Ianthe)Visit 20 different countries (life total)(Completed Jan 7 2019: Ranking my experiences in 20 countries part one \ part two)- Feel confident in Spanish
- Visit 3 new places in Bolivia
- Jump off/out of something big
- Run a 45-minute 10k
- Own a decent bike and use it semi-regularly
- Go on a long horse ride
- Play a set of 7 songs in Spanish at one of my gig nights
- Translate one of my own songs into Spanish and play it at no.9
- Learn the acoustic version of “Big Love” on guitar
- Sing “Cult of Personality” as loud as possible onstage with a band
- Read and understand Lorca’s “Bodas de Sangre”, “Yerma” and “The Casa de Bernada Alba” in Spanish
- Take 10 book recommendations and read them
- Read all of “The Idiot”. Not just the first 250 pages like I normally do
- Watch and have an opinion on every movie from a reputable “Top 50 movies of all time” list
- Listen to and have an opinion on every album from a reputable “Top 50 albums of all time” list
- Complete Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Find a new hobby
- Reach a goal within that hobby
- Learn to cook 3 dishes reasonably well
Go vegan for a month(Completed 1 Sept 2018: What I learned)Own a plot of land(Completed 4 Sept 2018: 500m2 of Potential)Plant half a dozen trees(Completed 13 Oct 2018: Life on Life)- Decorate my room, including one item that I made myself
- Do an ancestry test
- Try, and succeed, an escape room
- Get a tattoo
- Write and publish educational material for Language Connection (my business)
- Learn to do various little things that everyone should be able to do, but you somehow haven’t learned yet because you shied away from it as a child
Most of these need a bit of explanation, and some are definitely easier than others. Some could be done in a day, others take several stages of planning and execution. For the sake of brevity I haven’t added all the caveats that make these successes or not, but they do exist if any scrupulous eyes are reading.
Mostly, these goals are about the attempt and not the success. Maybe I’ll hit all 30, maybe I won’t; but it should be fun finding out. I want to set out with the idea that this is all achievable and so the target is very much 30 before 30. This blog should help me hold myself to account, and knowing that someone might be reading this should also be good motivation.
A couple of close friends of mine have talked about lists for their 29th birthdays after hearing me harp on about it so much so if you, reader, are doing or thinking of doing anything similar- hit me up.
Wish me luck!
lukemalkin 