The List

or: Staving off a mid-life crisis by having a very organised mid-life crisis

I'm 39.  Only one year away from the big four-oh.  Older enough that both grey hairs and ear hairs are becoming an issue.  Basically dead, if you ask my kids. I've had plenty of time to do things.  I've even actually achieved some of them.  I'm mostly happy, except when I'm exhausted from the children, I've got a beautiful wife who thrashes me at board games 75% of the time (ok, maybe closer to 80%), and I've got a worthwhile, interesting job that pays me enough money to keep me in board games to be thrashed at.  Things, it has to be said, are pretty good.

But, and there was always going to be a but to that set up, there's a few things that niggle.  Little things I've never done.  A sense that I've let some passions slip in the daily grind.  A tiny voice muttering "bloody hell, you're a bit dull, aren't you" in my ear at night, whispering dissatisfaction with my sense of self.

or: Things To Do In Dalkeith When You're (Not) Dead

So, with the aid of many friends and relations - plus a not insignificant amount of input from myself - I've come up with this.  The List.  (The capital letters are important.  They make it A Thing, not just a fleeting fancy.)  Forty challenges, to be undertaken before I turn 40.  Most are new experiences, although some are excuses to pick up a faded passion, dust it off and breathe new life back into it.

The rules are simple.  The list is divided into two types of challenge: long-term and one-off.  Long-term challenges are projects which are likely to last the whole year.  Success is measured in terms set by me and entirely arbitrary.  For most of these, simply doing them on a regular basis throughout the year will be sufficient.  Exceptions to this are detailed in the list below.  One-off challenges are simple.  I've either done them or not by the end of the year.  Each challenge will get written up here, with a minimum of one post per week going up.  (These posts form the basis of the "finish a writing project" challenge, with success being posting on a regular basis throughout the year and covering every challenge in a moderate amount of depth.)  Long-term challenges will get a main post detailing why I'm doing them (and how), plus regular updates at the end of the weekly postings.

That's it.  No other criteria.  No charitable pan-handling.  Just me, a list of 40 activities ranging from the worthy to the bloody stupid, and 52 weeks.  Well, 51 actually.  I'm not starting in earnest until next week, as holidays apply to challenges as well!

or: Forty Ways To Leave Your Sofa

So, without further ado, here it is. The List, complete with credits for who suggested any idea and any specific criteria for success.  Brace yourselves!

Long-term Challenges

  1. Learn French (me)
  2. Learn to draw (me)
  3. Finish a writing project (me)
  4. Design a board game for grown ups (me - has to get to playable prototype by 31 March 2019)
  5. Learn swordfighting (Andy Leask)
  6. Do 10 pull ups (Andy Law - yes, this is a long-term goal for me!)
  7. Eat healthily and take 30+ minutes exercise a day (many people in concert)
  8. Write a thank you letter (emails and phone calls do not count) for every gift received over the year (Tatty)
  9. Take and share a photo a day each day for a year (Laura)
  10. Read only women authors for the year (Juliet)

 One-off Challenges

  1. Kayak to somewhere I've never been (Magnus)
  2. Learn a song on the guitar (Andy Leask)
  3. Learn to pick a lock (me)
  4. Learn to tango (Lindsay)
  5. Perform poetry, written by me, in public (Magnus)
  6. Milk a thing (Magnus)
  7. Paddle out to neck deep in freezing water and stay there for 40 seconds (Andy Law)
  8. Dye my hair a bright colour (Andy Law)
  9. Hold a creepy-crawly type beastie (Andy Law)
  10. Volunteer for a local charity event (Andy Law)
  11. Buy 40 scratch cards (Andy Law)
  12. Invest £40 and try and make a profit (Andy Law)
  13. Climb a munroe, with the entire family, with me being the only one allowed to carry the children.  Take a photo at the top.  (Christine.)
  14. Go axe throwing (Magnus/me)
  15. Try fire spinning (Jackie)
  16. Run a mile (Shra and Neil)
  17. Learn to bake bread (Emmy)
  18. Attend one or more preview nights at the Lyceum (Juliet)
  19. March in Pride (Juliet)
  20. Waxing - crack and sack (Mike)
  21. Learn the bongos (Ben)
  22. Skinny dip (Matt)
  23. Hold a karaoke night at an actual karaoke venue (Lindsay)
  24. Whittle a thing (Jen)
  25. Drive something I've never driven before (Dougie)
  26. Make a banner for Processions (Lindsay)
  27. Moon the neighbours (*redacted!*)
  28. Brew beer (Logan)
  29. Ask a stranger what their passion is (Stephanie)
  30. Go to three local tourist attractions I've never been to (Graham)

Backup Challenges

It seems pretty likely that some of these will end up not being possible, so I've got a backup list of challenges which I can attempt (or not) as the mood and availability takes me.
  1. Get a family photo taken (Andy Law)
  2. Do a turn as a Boylesque (Lindsay)
  3. House sit (Gregor)
  4. Acro (Danielle)
  5. Spend a night in one of Renae's dresses in public (Donna)
  6. Travel 100m by pogo stick (Graham)
  7. Play a game of touch rugby (Neil)
  8. Cycle to work for a week (Andy Law)

On Your Marks...

So that's it.  All the challenges, in handy list form, that I'll be attempting over the next year.  Wish me luck! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One-Off Challenge 22: Skinny Dip

Image
One of my rules of my challenges is that they're suspended when I'm on holiday.  Unfortunately, while it's the school holidays and we've got Renae's mum, step-dad and brother staying with us, I'm not on holiday, so the challenges continue unabated! This challenge is courtesy of... Matt Boyce. The challenge Skinny dip.  No specifics, so I'm taking this to be swimming naked somewhere public.  No other restrictions. Challenge accepted. This is probably not how you expect a skinny dipping challenge to start, but yesterday I was at a kid's birthday party... Listen, don't dial that third '9', just put the phone down and hear me out. OK, our nephew Charlie turned 6 yesterday.  As his party, he chose "cake in the woods".  It was pretty much what you might expect.  Cake.  In the woods.  The woods being Roslin Glen Country Park.  There was cake.  There were party games.  There was lots of splashing about in the river. The d
Read more

Challenge 2: Learn To Draw

Image
My pre-course drawings.  The bottom one is a bagel, in case you can't tell. So, what's this challenge all about? When I was at school (many, many years ago now), there were three things that never came naturally to me and to which I did not apply myself.  They were art, music and foreign languages.  (PE never really came naturally either, beyond a certain degree of competence at catching balls, but I enjoyed it enough to at least try.)  Of those three subjects, I've always quietly regretted not putting the effort into French.  I took it to Standard Grade, but no further.  I dropped it because it was hard and I wasn't great at it.  But this entry isn't about French, it's about art.  Did I regret dropping that even before Standard Grade level? Well, no.  Because I knew I was bad at art.  I knew I couldn't draw.  How did I know?  Seven years of primary school art classes on a Wednesday afternoon is how.  Seven years of boredom and disappointment as my
Read more

Challenge 1: Learn French

So, what's this challenge all about? I mentioned last entry that there were three things I wasn't good at in school: art, music and foreign languages. We've covered art in the learn to draw challenge, now it's time for SPEAKING LOUDLY AND SLOWLY TO JOHNNY FOREIGNER. Unlike art, I did do French up to Standard Grade, but, if I'm being honest, that was only because I had to take it that far. French never grabbed me. Whether it was something about the method of teaching, the late start (I was in S1 before I ever darkened the door of a second language) or just teen-aged laziness, French never spoke to me. In return, I only ever grunted monosyllabicly back in an accent best described as "not French". Come the end of S4, I dropped it and never looked back.  Until a year and a half later.  Instead of doing sixth year at my school, I did a year in high school in the states via a cultural exchange programme where I went there and no one came here. (I
Read more