I was inspired recently to create a 46 before 46 list after reading a post by Team Nuun co-leader Brian Fisher. Brian's wife Kaitlin went on a 242 day running streak before her 30th birthday. After reading the article I thought, I need to do this. I need to create a list of things that are attainable, silly, fun, and most importantly, out of your comfort zone.
Seeing as my birthday is at the end of this month, I decided to aim for next year's birthday, giving me a full year to complete all 46 goals. Coming up with a well-rounded list of 46 was more difficult than I expected. I noticed I was tending to focus solely on running and fitness goals. I was tempted to do my own running streak but realized this completely contradicted my aim to remain injury free and build back up slowly and smartly. So instead it became a yoga streak. This eventually became a yoga or meditation streak. And finally...minimum 30 minutes of exercise every damn day, whatever that may be. This made more sense...eventually. I didn't want to focus on one movement or exercise because that's what I've been doing with running. I need to mix things up. Get on my bike, do some yoga, stair repeats at Wreck Beach, 30 minutes of burpees (which is definitely NOT one of the 46 things on my list). I thought of adding 'go for a helicopter ride' to the list, but didn't want to jinx having to get rescued by NSR.
Over the weeks the list grew, shrank, grew some more, changed and finally became this:
I'm most excited for #46. I sure hope these still exist. Now...to just find a contact with a Firehouse that has a pole!
Push your limits and reach for the stars.
Seeing as my birthday is at the end of this month, I decided to aim for next year's birthday, giving me a full year to complete all 46 goals. Coming up with a well-rounded list of 46 was more difficult than I expected. I noticed I was tending to focus solely on running and fitness goals. I was tempted to do my own running streak but realized this completely contradicted my aim to remain injury free and build back up slowly and smartly. So instead it became a yoga streak. This eventually became a yoga or meditation streak. And finally...minimum 30 minutes of exercise every damn day, whatever that may be. This made more sense...eventually. I didn't want to focus on one movement or exercise because that's what I've been doing with running. I need to mix things up. Get on my bike, do some yoga, stair repeats at Wreck Beach, 30 minutes of burpees (which is definitely NOT one of the 46 things on my list). I thought of adding 'go for a helicopter ride' to the list, but didn't want to jinx having to get rescued by NSR.
Over the weeks the list grew, shrank, grew some more, changed and finally became this:
- Learn to juggle
- Learn a language or hone your French and Spanish
- Read 52 novels
- Read 26 non-fiction books
- 30 mins of exercise every day
- See a sunrise from a mountaintop
- See a sunset from a mountaintop
- Run Mountain Highway
- Triple Grind
- Do a headstand
- Do a handstand
- Clean the apartment from top to bottom
- Cook through an entire cookbook
- Grind or BCMC under an hour
- Buy a stranger a meal
- Paint something
- Hang photos
- Spend an average of $500 a month not including bills, rent or travel
- Stay off social media for one week
- Go to a museum, gallery, show or movie once a month
- Send my friends flowers just because
- Make an item of clothing you can wear out of the house
- Go to a yoga retreat
- Take a spontaneous trip
- Go skinny dipping
- Buy a piece of art
- Fly a kite
- Go on a picnic
- Take a bike maintenance workshop
- Use all my gift cards
- Run a beer mile
- Do the splits
- Eat a bowl of really good ramen
- Go star-gazing
- Volunteer at a race
- Get a pedicure
- Get a non-sport therapy massage
- Get my palm read
- Go to high tea
- Eat durian
- Get a mammogram
- Build a sandcastle
- Have a professional photo shoot
- Learn to make and can jam
- Make an origami crane
- Slide down a Firehouse pole
- Go skydiving
I'm most excited for #46. I sure hope these still exist. Now...to just find a contact with a Firehouse that has a pole!
Push your limits and reach for the stars.