I get questions – especially around my birthday and the end of the year – about how my 17 Before 2017 list is coming along. The short answer is okay so far. Here’s a quick summary:
Progress This Year (2014)
- Read more than 10,500 pages so far this year towards my goal of reading 90,000 pages. The last time I counted 55% of the time had passed and I had read 56% of my reading goal, so I’m on track.
- Visited my sisters in their new locations – Copenhagen in July and Hong Kong in November – towards my goal of biennial sister trips.
- Asked a man out on a date. Check. To see how this went see item #1 in the “Not Yet Accomplished” list below.
- Set up a recurring payment to a favourite charity for the amount I spent monthly on pet food.
In Progress
- Donate blood annually. I haven’t donated this year, yet.
Not Yet Accomplished
- Fall in love (maybe a few times).
- Try anti-aging cream for 6 months
- Travel to Prince Edward Island
Previously Completed
- Learn to scuba dive
- Hike Kilimanjaro
- Be Deputy Director of an organization managing public health programs
- Work on a project that is not HIV/AIDS related
- Run a 10k
Items I Want to Change
So there are three items on my list that just aren’t resonating with me right now. I’m not sure what to do about them, because I also don’t have ideas for what to replace them with. Here’s what I’m thinking about:
- Attend a yoga retreat – it seemed like a good idea at the time. In hindsight I enjoy yoga, but not enough to practice regularly that would naturally lend towards attending a retreat. (I want to replace this with something appropriately “athletic” – maybe run a 5k every year and force myself to catch up from previous years?)
- Knit a sweater I’ll actually wear. Really on the fence about this. I haven’t knit anything since I added it to my list. Of course I previously removed being on a scrapbooking creative team from my list and now I’ve been on one for the last 18 months. So maybe that should just count as my “crafty” item?
- Have an impromptu conversation in Spanish. I love this idea in theory, have not been motivated enough to pull off in practice. I’m keeping it on the list for now and re-downloaded Duolingo on my phone. I am headed to Mexico in March for a wedding, so hopefully that will provide extra motivation.