35 Things I Feel Are Important To Do By 35

Happy birthday to me!  I read this article once, when I was 30, about 30 things you should do by 30.  While entertaining I read it with a bit of sarcasm.  Things like ‘own your own umbrella’, ‘start your 401k’, ‘have your career well under way’ (what does that even mean!).  I don’t know, maybe those are good things but I still don’t have an umbrella and I’m ticking over 35 today!  Perhaps that particular list wasn’t right for me but I do like the idea of reflecting on our life on this planet regularly as a way to move forward in an intentional way. Here are 35 things I think are important.

By 35 you should:

1. Be able to follow your intuition and not be heavily influenced by peer pressure.
2. Focused on paying off your debts.
3. Take at least one long road trip.
4. Follow politics and think independently about issues rather than parties.
5. Have some sort of financial plan for supporting yourself when you are too old to work manual/mental labor.
6. Create.  Every day if you can.  Do something that inspires your happiness.
7. Have a ‘bucket list’ accessible for reference.
8. Challenge your fears regularely.
9. Help others and help your community often.
10. Carry $20 in your purse/wallet for emergencies.
11. Forgive yourself for mistakes made in your youth.
12. Have a weeks worth of meals you can whip out without a recipe and without a microwave.
13. Be passionate about something and share that, get involved in it’s path.
14. Learn how to make a good apology (there are four parts!) and offer it first every so often ;-).
15. Read books.
16. Floss your teeth!
17. Accept compliments and say ‘thank you’ often.
18. Choose quality. Friends, furnishings, food, fun.
19. Drink more water.
20. Picnic as often as possible, preferably outside.
21. Try new hairstyles.
22. Know how to use a power tool.
23. Learn how to invest your money.
24. Wear sunscreen.
25. Ask questions.
26. Appreciate the good in others.
27. Appreciate good people more than good things.
28. Time > Money, act accordingly. You can always earn another dollar, you can’t earn another minute.
29. Never sacrifice honestly, integrity and self-respect they are valuable assets.
30. Choose your words wisely, they can haunt you.
31. If you think a nice thing, say the nice thing.
32. Be able to say ‘no’ it’s more important than saying ‘yes’. Learn which is necessary and when.
33. Chose your company well, you are the average of the people you spend the most time with.
34. Realize that you can’t please everyone, that’s okay.
35. Slow down, enjoy deeper.  Being ‘busy’ isn’t a metric of how good your life is.

To Another Year!

I expect this to be a big year of meaningful changes and shifts for me and that’s exciting!  I am off to paint away the rest of the day!  Thank you all for the kind words over the years and being a positive part of my life!  Wishing you all a great year ahead too!