This isn’t an early April post; don’t worry, your regular, annual ‘Japan based April content ‘will be here then! Pretty sure it is going to be idiom based too…
I thought March would be a great time for a bit of a Kettle List Birthday catch-up. There is now only 3 years left until the ’50 x 50′ ends. Then it is time to upgrade to whatever I decide to do to get me to my sixties.
As I am now turning 47, I am 70% through my forties, but not my Kettle List.
Quick Maths
I thought I would go through the list, do some maths, and see what I need to work on.
There are 13 fully completed tasks, 5 of those were in 2022 (Possibly a post Covid push!).
This is a completion rate of just 26%. It seemed fair to give myself extra time for anything travel related, as we did lose those 2 years due to ‘rona. So if I exclude any tasks that involve foreign travel my rate goes up to 32.5%. Still not great, but I’m all for that ‘final push’ strategy.
What can I do in 2024?
Realistically, I am likely to complete about 3 of the tasks this year – #11 Virtually swim the channel, #29 Learn a Japanese craft, and #44 Drink 50 coffees in 50 cities.
Many of the ones left involve culminative tasks – like # 35 Visit 50 places of worship, or #43 Complete the 50 things to do before you’re 11 3/4 They are slowly being worked on, but it’s hard to express the progress, as I’m not really ticking anything off.
There is also the issue that one of the tasks is literally ‘complete my 40 x 40 list’. This is a stark reminder of the problems caused by putting things off! If I had completed it 7 years ago, we wouldn’t be worrying about it now.
I currently have 8 tasks left on that list, having ticked one off on March 1st by having a #20 night out with my brother.
While I am hoping to get a few of the 40×40 tasks completed this year, I am unlikely to finish them all.
Moving forward
In real terms, I need to look at what is left, and break them down into achievable smaller goals. Some of the tasks just involve me having the time and money to do them, so perhaps prioritising savings might be the way forward with that? What of the other tasks?
I’m currently working through a book called the 12 week year, where I am trying to optimise my time and energy. This will help me focus on what I want to get done, and more importantly, what I can choose to not do, to achieve my goals.
One of the things mentioned in the book is how businesses have an ‘end of year’ push to get things done. If I can create goals with shorter deadlines, perhaps I can trick myself into creating that same urgency 4 times a year?
As part of this I have gone through the whole list to look at what I can work on in 2024. I then created a small task for each of them. Even those that are not happening – like ‘visit New York’ or ‘Zen retreat’. What I did in those instances was enter a few competitions online to win trips to New York (got to be in it to win it, right?) and looked up the costs involved in a UK based retreat.
There is always something I can be doing towards my goals.
I am going to focus on what I can do, not what I can’t do yet.
Let’s see what being 47 has in store for me.