Happy Birthday to me! I’ve had an amazing day so far. Received loads of lovely presents, even some from as far afield as Japan, but it is not just a time for celebration. Today marks the half way point to the completion of my Kettle List.
With this has come the very real awareness that I now only have 5 years left to complete it.
So let’s have a look at what that means
What I have done already
I have officially completed 8 tasks – so it has taken 50% of the time I have to do just 16% of the tasks.
One of the issues is that many of the tasks are cumulative, such as completing the “50 things to do before 11 and three quarters”, so even though I have been working towards them, they have yet to be done.
If you want to check out the completed tasks that have been written up, have a look at the menu above under the Things I Want to Do.
Here you will find various tales of passing my driving test, visiting Japan, and publishing my first book.
If you are a little confused at this point, let me just direct you to the posts below.
They explain exactly what a Kettle List is, and why you definitely need to write one for yourself.
What I plan to do in 2022
After revisiting the list, I realised that there are a number of tasks that I could complete this year if I set my mind to it. What better way to celebrate the halfway point than by piling on extra pressure!
Some are even ‘booked in’ already like my ‘Tough Mudder’ in August, and my ‘Channel Swim’. These will go towards the tasks I added which in hindsight were fairly broad. I just wrote RUN and SWIM without much thought to what that meant.
What it means for me this year though is that I will run a 5km obstacle course…through mud…and water…and over obstacles. Which I am sure will be fun!
It also means I have signed up for another Conqueror medal (Which I have mentioned in previous posts, and they even provided me with a link so you could get a 10% discount should you choose to join me) I currently have 4 medals and I am ‘walking’ around Hawaii for a 5th, however, I have decided to exclusively use pool lengths to track my latest challenge ‘Swim the channel’. It will take a while, as I am not the quickest of swimmers, but is definitely doable by the end of the year if I start now.
Getting crafty
A number of my tasks involve a craft or learning a new skill.
A great example of this is my ‘Make 1000 cranes’ task. Despite having 5 years, as of the beginning of this week I had only folded 30 of them. With a spurt of ‘mid-life’ energy, I sat and folded another 20 on Monday night.
After doing some quick maths I realised that if I made 3 a day, I could finish this task by Christmas…But if I did about 20 per day, I could be finished in a few months and tick off another task.
I also intend to finish that Cross stitch that has been plaguing me, as well as work on the crochet top I have been meaning to start.
The last time I started a crochet top it became a quilt, so I’m going to go for lighter wool this time!
How I plan to do it
By making use of Warren Buffet’s goal strategy I have assigned a small task to each month on which to focus. This means I should end the year by completing 6 whole tasks. I will have also have worked towards my ‘visit every county’ task, as well as a few of those that appear on the 40 x 40 – the completion of which is on the Kettle List!
Here is the list to hold myself accountable.:
April – start and make good headway into a cross-stitch
May – Complete the Crane Task
June– start working on a Crochet top
July – Go to a beach and get in the sea! (Cornwall?) / Zen retreat
August – Tough Mudder – should have also lost 1 stone by then.
Septemeber – flexibility Challenge
October – Conference in the Lake District (ticks off 2 tasks on the 40 x 40)
November – Complete ‘Swim the Channel’ (1409 lengths)
December – Take my N5 Japanese exam
So the next 9 months will be busy, but they will get me closer to my goal of completing the Kettle list, as well as all the skills I will develop and the health benefits I will reap.