What's On Your List?
Did you know The Birthday List was based on my own birthday list? Here's how it all got started...
Not long after I graduated college, my husband and I moved to a small town in Northern Montana. Both of us were just starting out in our careers and we each had a mountain of student debt, so we lived frugally for the first few years of our marriage. No destination vacations. No fancy restaurants—a date night at McDonald’s was a treat. No cable television. When we sat in front of the TV, it was to watch the same DVDs we’d watched a hundred times. He watched John Wayne movies, Seinfeld and The Office. I watched Friends on an endless loop.
There’s a Friends episode somewhere in the middle of the series where Phoebe was upset because her villainous, twin sister, Ursula, lied to her about their age. She’s actually a year older than she thought, and Phoebe was devastated because she hadn’t reached the goals she’d set before turning thirty-one. Luckily, her friends all rallied together and helped her check the items off her list.
(Recapping the show isn’t really the point of this blog post, I promise.)
The point is, it was because of that episode that I started my own list. One I’ve kept up since starting it at twenty-five. One I have planned until I reach seventy-five. And one that inspired the premise for The Birthday List.
Like Phoebe’s, my list is broken out by years. (I don’t have a gigantic bucket list, waiting for me to tackle during retirement.) Instead, I set one or two things I want to do before each birthday. And then after each birthday, I write about them in a journal.
What’s on my birthday list?
It has a lot of variety. Those first few years didn’t include trips around the world or lavish purchases. Instead, I added simple things that I’d always wanted to try, such as:
Age 26: Take a martial arts class
Age 27: Learn how to ice skate
Age 28: Run a mile in under seven minutes
Then later years I earmarked for traveling. Things like:
Age 38: Take my kids to Disney World
Age 47: Go to the Sturgis Road Rally
Age 60: See all fifty states
The list has pushed me to do things I wouldn’t have done otherwise. Things I would have put on the back burner, never to make a priority. Some items I’ve simply finished and crossed off the list, never to attempt again. (I’m content running a twelve-minute mile and I know that I’ll never ice skate in the Olympics.)
But other items have changed my life. Ten years after my first karate class, I’m now teaching my son. And because of the list, I wrote a book on a whim and found my dream job.
The birthday list motivates me to make my dreams come true every single year.
So, I’ll leave you with this.
What’s on your list?
***
Don't miss The Birthday List, available now!
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2ENlNr3
iBooks: https://apple.co/2n1oo6W
B&N: http://bit.ly/2DupsKN
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2FWFj2h
The Birthday List
Not long after I graduated college, my husband and I moved to a small town in Northern Montana. Both of us were just starting out in our careers and we each had a mountain of student debt, so we lived frugally for the first few years of our marriage. No destination vacations. No fancy restaurants—a date night at McDonald’s was a treat. No cable television. When we sat in front of the TV, it was to watch the same DVDs we’d watched a hundred times. He watched John Wayne movies, Seinfeld and The Office. I watched Friends on an endless loop.
There’s a Friends episode somewhere in the middle of the series where Phoebe was upset because her villainous, twin sister, Ursula, lied to her about their age. She’s actually a year older than she thought, and Phoebe was devastated because she hadn’t reached the goals she’d set before turning thirty-one. Luckily, her friends all rallied together and helped her check the items off her list.
(Recapping the show isn’t really the point of this blog post, I promise.)
The point is, it was because of that episode that I started my own list. One I’ve kept up since starting it at twenty-five. One I have planned until I reach seventy-five. And one that inspired the premise for The Birthday List.
Like Phoebe’s, my list is broken out by years. (I don’t have a gigantic bucket list, waiting for me to tackle during retirement.) Instead, I set one or two things I want to do before each birthday. And then after each birthday, I write about them in a journal.
What’s on my birthday list?
It has a lot of variety. Those first few years didn’t include trips around the world or lavish purchases. Instead, I added simple things that I’d always wanted to try, such as:
Age 26: Take a martial arts class
Age 27: Learn how to ice skate
Age 28: Run a mile in under seven minutes
Then later years I earmarked for traveling. Things like:
Age 38: Take my kids to Disney World
Age 47: Go to the Sturgis Road Rally
Age 60: See all fifty states
The list has pushed me to do things I wouldn’t have done otherwise. Things I would have put on the back burner, never to make a priority. Some items I’ve simply finished and crossed off the list, never to attempt again. (I’m content running a twelve-minute mile and I know that I’ll never ice skate in the Olympics.)
But other items have changed my life. Ten years after my first karate class, I’m now teaching my son. And because of the list, I wrote a book on a whim and found my dream job.
The birthday list motivates me to make my dreams come true every single year.
So, I’ll leave you with this.
What’s on your list?
***
Don't miss The Birthday List, available now!
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2ENlNr3
iBooks: https://apple.co/2n1oo6W
B&N: http://bit.ly/2DupsKN
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2FWFj2h
The Birthday List
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