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Bucket list

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. What’s their plan? Not much.”- Jim Rohn

I came across this free tool online called Bucket List recently. I haven’t signed up, but by the looks of it you can log your life goals or ‘bucket list’ items and then tick things off the list, share them with friends and get inspired by over 2 million ideas. It’s a lovely idea.

The idea of ‘things you must do before you die’ is nice, but I think it’s almost too big. It also has a sense of racing against time about it, which I’m not sure I like so much. I’m not very good at setting personal goals, in fact, I don’t think I ever really have. I’ve set loads of professional goals, knowing what I wanted out of my business and my career, and at points I’ve been very driven about those things, but in doing so I’ve neglected to think about the ‘me’ stuff. When you put so much of your time into your work it’s difficult to think about life outside of that.

Also, achieving big goals can tend to cost lots of money and take lots of time, and that can make them feel unachievable when you don’t have much of either. Trouble is, if you don’t make plans and goals, you get caught up in the day-to-day and life passes by in a flash. Not so much of a big deal when you’re younger, but heading rapidly into my mid-forties it’s starting to feel like I should have some sort of plan.

So I’ve been thinking about things I’d like to do, at home at work and at play. Not so much a bucket list but at least a set of personal goals. I’ve been inspired by my weight loss this year, although it’s only partly about the weight loss itself and actually as much about my ability to decide to do something for me and stick to it. It’s given me a confidence that I can achieve a personal goal, and importantly, not self-sabotage when I’ve been stressed or tired or fed up.

I think some of my aversion to ‘planning’ things for my personal life comes from the fact I plan things for my professional life. My whole work-life is about lists and plans and goals and stuff that needs to happen in the future. Perhaps doing that for myself feels a bit too much like work? But that said, I do enjoy ticking things off of lists, that sense of satisfaction of completion and achievement. So, I think I will have a go at compiling some goals, ones that aren’t based around work – some near and some far – and resist the urge to make it read like a to-do list!

The first things I’ve come up with are:

1. Learn Spanish (no, not buy a boat!)

There’s nothing really stopping me from doing this one, other than time and determination, but I’d love to learn Spanish! I love Spain and I would love to live there for a while, so being able to speak the language would be essential for that. Baby steps – learn the language first!

2. The Edinburgh Festival

I’d love to visit the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Not just for a weekend or a few days, but actually rent an apartment and stay for the full 3 weeks one August, and really get into it. I think the hardest thing would be deciding which shows to go to.

3. The Isle of Man TT

There is nothing quite like the Isle of Man TT Races. It’s held in May every year and is the premier motorcycle road race in the world. The 37-mile Mountain Course is totally unique and I’d love to spend the full 14 days there, soaking up the atmosphere. Ideally I’d love to go as part of a race team – I did that for the NW200 last year and it was amazing. I’m lucky enough to know someone who raced last year and this year and I’ve met a few of the riders, so even listening to it on Manx Radio makes it feel more special.

4. Get more exercise

Constantly on my list of things to do, though it might be easier now I’ve lost some weight. It’s more about finding space in my life to fit exercise in. I’ve never really enjoyed going to the gym – I used to love martial arts and team games like Netball. Maybe I need to find something I like, rather than just trying to plod on with the gym?

5. Make a money plan

Financial planning is not exactly my strong point. But I would like to buy a house in Summer 2016 so time to make busy with a financial plan! The trouble with a plan that basically involves saving more, is how to fit in the things like 2 + 3 which involve spending money… 🙂

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25th August 2014

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This week I’m thinking about…

Work – there’s lots of it, and it’s taking over most of my waking-hour thoughts at the moment. Good thing I like my job.

Getting old – my Nan is not very well and had a fall earlier in the week. The balance between independence in the home and safety is a fine one. Upsetting times.

Motorbikes – I’m missing not being part of a race team this year. Mind you, it’s good for the mileage on the car and for not losing weekends. Every cloud.

Holidays – not until Christmas, but there is a cheeky week off planned in September. Maybe we’ll whizz somewhere on the motorbike.

All the stuff I want to do, but don’t seem to have the time. Situation normal.

7th August 2014

Live

Perfect day out

Himself got a new motorbike this week, so we decided to go out together for the first time on it today. I had a sports massage booked in Hove this morning, so we left early to get down there. The first time on the new bike was amazing – it’s so smooth and comfortable, and doesn’t feel as big when you’re on it as it looks.

After the massage we rode over to Lewes. What a lovely little town – it was a bit quiet, I was expecting more shops to be open but it might have been because of the WWI memorial service in the town.

We stopped for a cup of tea and paid our respects at the memorial. We then took a long, leisurely ride back through the beautiful villages of East Sussex, stopping off at The Bluebell Railway.

The Bluebell Railway is an 11 mile stretch of track between Horsted Keynes, Sheffield Park and East Grinstead. It still uses steam trains and was the first preserved standard gauge steam-operated passenger railway in the world to operate a public service. Largely run by volunteers, the Society ran its first train on 7 August 1960.

The station at Horsted Keynes is still decorated in vintage style, and we were lucky enough to arrive when there was a locomotive in the station. After a refreshing Fab lolly we made our way home. A lovely day out.

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3rd August 2014

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Car booting and park walking

Busy few weeks, at work and at home. The weekend before last I got it into my head that I was going to do a car boot sale to get rid of some of my old rubbish. Since moving the Lavish office a month ago the garage looks like a furniture warehouse and there’s loads of stuff that can go. The furniture will need to go on eBay, but the smaller things can be sold and a boot fair seemed the obvious place to start.

I somehow managed to talk Himself into coming with me, though it seemed to slighly defeat the object that we had to go and buy ANOTHER table just to put the stuff I wanted to get rid of on. Especially as I’ve got at least 3 spare tables already. Only none of those would fit in the car!

We went to Brighton Racecourse, set up our stall and waited. And waited…I’ve done car boots before and always had people clambering over the car as you’re unloading it. Not so much here.

We eventually sold a quite a few bits, though we came home with way too much stuff – I’d hoped to get rid of most of it. So now I’ve still got half the car boot stuff AND an extra table…Hmmm

Last Sunday, another early start as I got up to get into London to do the Hyde Park Race for Life with my pals Mel and Lauren. When we first started losing weight we booked to do the Race for Life as a sort of mini-milestone. None of us are exactly sprint runners, so we’d already decided beforehand to walk the course. We set off at a steady pace and completed the walk in just under an hour. It was a beautiful sunny day and as ever, reading some of the dedications pinned to the ladies was emotional. We raised a bit of money for Cancer Research (thank you to everyone who donated) and had a nice morning with a bit of exercise thrown in. And when I got home there was even an on-brand pink cocktail waiting for me.

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2nd August 2014

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The power of time off

I wrote a bit earlier in the year about how holidays are healthy, allowing us to de-stress and get motivated, but Stefan Sagmeister goes quite a bit further. In this TED talk he explains how he closes his New York design studio every seven years for a year-long sabbatical.

Sagmeister talks about the idea that you have around 25 years of your life for learning, around 40 years for working and only 15 years for retirement – the time when we supposedly get to do the relaxing or inspiring or new things we’ve always wanted to do.

Of course this assumes you go to university (I didn’t) and probably that you’ll be able to retire at around 65 (I won’t). For many of us the learning bit is much shorter and the working bit is much longer, so the idea of having a sabbatical every 7 years – basically bringing ‘forward’ a year of your retirement into your working life every 7 years is an attractive one.

The problem of course is that there are very few businesses that could consider such a radical idea – you have to be able to afford it, clearly, and you have to have clients or customers that will come back. While there might be long-term benefits, as Sagmeister explains, the short-term risk and revenue hit would make this impossible for most companies. And if you don’t run your own company, the idea that your employers would be up for this is probably quite unlikely. However, when you see the creative inspiration Sagmeister gets from his time off, and you imagine the possibilities of the things you can do, you can see how amazing it would be to do this.

So, does this concept have to require a full year? Is there something more realistic or achievable, that means somehow perhaps we can find ways to get out of the daily routine and explore how to keep inspired, to refresh creativity and importantly, keep mentally healthy? And how would that differ from a holiday or a day off? It’s a difficult one, when you work 5 days a week, that’s for sure!

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20th July 2014

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My clothes don’t fit!

Clearly I’ve not been very good at keeping my blog updated, but in my defence I can’t believe how quickly the last 11 weeks have gone by!

The biggest news is that I’ve lost 17lb. 17lb fecking pound! Amazing! I’ve been following a no/lo carb food plan (with special allowance for a dash of cranberry in my Cosmoplitan!). It has actually been really easy and I don’t think of it as being on a diet at all. It’s now just the way I eat. Cutting out sugar and heavy carbs has had a great effect, and I’ve definitely dropped about 1.5 dress sizes all over, most noticeably on my legs and bum. So much so that I’m finding that lots of my clothes are looking too big, which is a nice problem to have but could get expensive!

I thought it would be harder to limit the foods that I love – especially potatoes – but the key is to make sure you make everything you eat super-tasty. Roast dinner used to include loads of roast tatties and yorkshire puds, but now I make sure we have extra-tasty veg and a ‘special’ gravy.

Being quite overweight to start with, I still have some way to go to where I want to be, but I’m happy for it to be a slow process. I think I’m losing around a 1lb a week on average and that’s fine if I can keep that up – it means I’ll have another stone off at least by the time I go on holiday at Christmas. The weight took a long time to go on so it figures it will take a while to come off, and due to a medical condition it might be a bit slower than on someone else anyway. Of course, the thing that will accelerate it is stepping up my sporadic trips to the gym into something more resembling an actual exercise regime…and maybe not having quite so many cocktails 😉

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19th July 2014

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Time for change

So, after much prevaricating, the time has come to try to do something about losing weight.

This is the first week of the low carb eating plan and it’s been interesting so far! I think I’m doing OK with the food and the hunger pangs, though my craving for something sweet is driving me a bit mad. And I haven’t quite given up the alcohol fully – a work-do-thing midweek made that difficult, so I’m easing into that one next week 🙂

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10th May 2014

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Clearing the clutter

I’m in a de-cluttering frame of mind. It might be because I’m full of post-holiday resolutions or just because Summer is coming, and it feels like time to shed the old skin and simplify things.

I know that if I pull everything out of the wardrobe and try and do it all at once I’ll get bored and end up with clothes all over the bedroom for a month, so this week I’ve been trying a new experiment. It’s simple and so far working! I have at least 4 wardrobes full of clothes and shoes (and that’s without the stuff in the drawers). I’ve got things I don’t like anymore, things that don’t suit me and lots of things that don’t fit me. Yet they are still in my wardrobes. I generally cycle the same 8 or so (black) outfits around for work each day and then wear my sloppy clothes at the weekend – so my new experiment is that I have to wear something different everyday. The plan is that if I take something out of the wardrobe and reject it three times then it goes. I figure that if I ever get slim enough to fit half of it again I’d probably want some new stuff anyway.

Not sure how strict I’ll be able to be – but it would be nice to get rid of the things I don’t wear and make some space. Also, I have had some nice compliments this week on wearing colours I wouldn’t normally wear, so let’s see…

“Don’t own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire.”
― Wendell Berry

4th May 2014

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