The joy is in the journey.
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The Earth has orbited the sun 40 times since I joined the celestial party.
Around this time last year, I set myself a challenge - a mini 'bucket list' of sorts. I listed 40 things to do before I was 40. I wrote about it HERE: 40 Things to Do Before I Reach 40 I had to think of things that were realistic and achievable without breaking the bank. Here's how I did:
As you can see, I only managed 11 of them. However... There were a few that I crossed off in the year for various reasons:
Skiing and White Water Rafting - we had 2 holidays in the year and neither gave us the opportunity to ski or go rafting.
Tie a message to a balloon and let it go, also, let go of a floating lantern - I didn't want to create unnecessary litter.
Wear coloured contact lenses for the day - several people told me horror stories about people who had caused permanent eye damage from using these.
In the summer, it became apparent that I wasn't going to complete the 40 challenges, so instead, I started recording the awesome things I did:
my #BuckListWin's!
Travelled First Class. Okay, so it was only from Bristol to Taunton by train, but I've never done it before! Swimming in the Black Sea. A holiday to Bulgaria, the weather was scorching and we spent the weekend at Golden Sands. The Blue Lagoon, Iceland. This one had been on my bucket list for a long time.
Rowing the Kennet and Avon Canal. A gorgeous sunny afternoon, midweek, we both took the day off work and went rowing.
See The Northern Lights. Also on our holiday to Iceland, this was a fantastic experience, again, it's been on my bucket list for ages!
A screen free day. Our few days in Bulgaria - no phone, no TV, no internet, no computer. Bliss.
Speed boat along the Thames. A family day trip in the summer. Jeep Safari in Iceland. A day of exploring the tundra, seeing geysers, waterfalls, and glaciers.
A pro- photoshoot. I now have a collection of great business images, thanks to the expertise of Lidia at Visuable, that I use for all my marketing.
A styling session. I may not have lost the weight, but thanks to a styling session with Gosia Scarrott of GS Styling, I can now dress for my shape. At least I look like I've lost weight! I'm still self-employed. I may not have met my income goals with the business, but I have managed to be in profit from day one and haven't had to concede defeat and divide my time by working for someone else. Completed a Speaking Circuit. I took my 'Storytelling for business' talk to Women Mean Business networking groups across the South West and made the decision to join the formal networking club in 2017 Finished the Sheridan and Blake Series. A trilogy that turned into a quadrilogy, finishing my first series of books is a significant milestone in my career as a writer and means I can now move on to other writing projects with pride. I compiled all four into a bumper 4 in 1 eBook Boxset
Published a 'Blogging for Business' book, which is proving to be a great 'gateway product' and 'premium business card' into further consultancy work.
Watched NYE fireworks from the rooftop of an eight-storey building. Made lots of new friends and found my tribe. I realised this when the people who came to my Gabriel's Game book launch party and to my New Years' Eve 40th Birthday party were a completely different bunch of people to a year ago. So, all in all, it may not have been 40 things, but 2016 wasn't all bad... What did you achieve in 2016? Join the party and sign up to my newsletter for exclusive deals, treats, inspiration and general loveliness:
It was Pancake Day yesterday (officially known as Shrove Tuesday) and so today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. I'm not a Christian, like the majority of people in the UK I don't have a religion. However, I grew up in a country where the Head of State is also the head
of the Church of England and our society is built around Christianity.
It means I end up falling into step on the rota of public holidays,
along with the rest of us, marking Christian points on the Calendar,
like Christmas and Easter. I went to Sunday School as a small child, mostly because my 'boyfriend' at the time (I was about 7) would be there and my parents embraced any excuse for me and my brother and sister to get out from under their feet at the weekend. I went to a Christingle service once (I was about 6), because it meant I got to stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve and enjoy every single minute of Christmas Day! As a kid, Christmas Day is the best day ever because you get loads of presents and can eat junk all day. As an adult, it's a chore because you have to do 'the family thing' but at least you're allowed to drink alcohol for breakfast. That's about as far as my engagement with orgainsed religion goes. Although I do know the words to some hymns, having been tortured with them at school, and at various weddings, where people pretend to be Christian for the day so they can get married in a fancy building with pretty windows! Forgive my facetiousness... On a more serious note, Lent is an important point on the calendar for Christians of various denominations. It is a solemn religious observance, in commemoration of the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the desert. In the Church of England it is traditionally described as the 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter (40 days until the next bank holiday...? Denied!). The way I was taught about it as a child was; Pancake Day (sorry, Shrove Tuesday) is the last feast where people use up all the fancy ingredients in their pantry like eggs (and Jif Lemon Juice). I may be making this up in my excessively imaginative writers brain, but I'm sure I have a memory of giving up chocolate for 40 days until Easter. I also remember being impressed by the chef on Blue Peter's ability to flip pancakes - and it still pleases me today when I manage to do it myself! It's all in the wrist-flick... It was meeting Angela, from the charity 'Action for Children', who do amazing work with vulnerable children, that started me thinking about the concept of giving something up and being thankful for what we have. They've started a lovely campaign, reminding us to 'Count Your Blessings' with 40 things to be thankful for and the work the charity does to make those things most of us take for granted accessible to vulnerable children. You can find it here: https://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/media/5417/count-your-blessing-lent-leaflet.pdf My favourites from the 40 things are: Number 37; Unplug and play This reminded me of a TV show I watched as a kid 'Why Don't You'... The message was: 'Why don't you just switch off you're television set and go out and do something less boring instead' Somewhat ironic that my brother and sister and I used to religiously tune in and watch it every Saturday afternoon (instead of being outside doing something less boring instead...)
...it's still true today but you could substitute 'Television Set' for 'Smart Phone' or 'iPad' or 'Laptop'... Be thankful for our awesome connected world that allows us instant access to anything. But make sure you regularly give up that technology too...
Put your phone down when you're spending time with friends and be social with the actual humans present (it really annoys me seeing people sat around in a bar together ignoring each other, playing with their phones!).
Instead of playing computer games, play some sport instead
Number 31; Write a note of warm wishes as a bookmark when you lend out a book I really like this one. This year, I created a list of 40 things to do before I'm 40 . On my list, No. 11 is: Leave a note in a library book This has inspired me to make that note a bookmark with warm wishes written on it. My No. 14 is: Spend a day in the library reading I think I'll combine the two... I'll start with this small token...
Someone else is wishing for what you take for granted
