Every five years I try to make some goals or challenges for myself. It’s NOT a bucket list. I just need some external motivation to do things I want to do sometimes, and find checking things off lists quite satisfying.

  1. Pay off credit card debt.
  2. Pay off college loans.
  3. Visit 40 countries (4 to go!)
  4. Visit 40 states (8 to go!)
  5. Read 40 new books
  6. Go on 40 hikes
  7. 40 days with no tv/movies/netflix
  8. Send 40 postcards (30 down)
  9. Lose the last of the weight to get to 40 lbs lost (23 to go!)
  10. Get 400 likes on the Facebook page
  11. Get 400 followers on my Instagram page for this blog
  12. 40 dinner dates with 40 different non-family people (Hannah/Jake, Amie, Suz and Gabriel, Esther and Nathan, Marie, Jaymie and Dana, Claire and Michael, Tracey, Georgie, Nick and Corli, Cindy, Joanna Connie Maggie, Nessa)
  13. Visit Morocco
  14. Visit Portugal
  15. Visit Mongolia
  16. Make hamburgers by hand on the BBQ
  17. Walk the Camino Santiago
  18. Run a 5 or 10K (Smashed it May 1, 2021!)
  19. Host a holiday dinner party (Thanksgiving, Easter, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, Easter)
  20. PUBLISH THE DAMN BOOK
  21. Take a yoga class
  22. Take a new kind of fitness or dance class
  23. Write 800 blogs
  24. Meet someone famous
  25. Complete a dry January (or month of choice)
  26. Blog every day for a month (again)
  27. Give up shopping for Lent
  28. Master a loaf of sourdough bread
  29. Visit an elephant sanctuary
  30. See the Northern Lights
  31. Learn to play Catan
  32. Go one month with no restaurants
  33. Visit Africa and Australia, successfully visiting all seven continents
  34. Start my Masters in Education (applied, was accepted, then covid! But have done a LOT of professional development…will call this even)
  35. Make an apple pie from scratch
  36. Reach 400,000 hits on this blog
  37. Get paid to publish something
  38. Make grandma great’s fried chicken
  39. One month with no chocolate
  40. Read 40 books each year (or 200 total new books)