What I Learned from The Birthday List (+ a recap)

I’m turning 26 tomorrow and as cliche as it sounds, I can’t believe how much has happened this year. How much I’ve changed.

Shortly after my birthday last year, it felt as though my world was ripped apart. I went through a period of deep sadness and uncertainty and some days it was a struggle just to get out of bed and do what had to be done to get by. And yet, I still found my birthday list inspiring. It reminded me of the things I wanted to accomplish. The kind of year I wanted to have. The chances I wanted to take. The person I wanted to be.

Now, having gone through this process, I didn’t cross of every single item, but I did have an incredible year and I learned a lot about the power of dreaming and following through on my goals.

I learned that goals and dreams push you forward. They should scare you and push you out of your comfort zone. Because of my list I pounced on opportunities I might otherwise have passed on because I was too tired. Too stress. Too scared. Just posing the challenge myself proved to provide an enormous amount of incentive.

That being said, it helps to dream SMART (Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time-related). Last year I did a great job of dreaming big, but I didn’t spend as much time figuring out the logistics of getting it all done. This year I’m breaking my bigger birthday list goals into steps and creating a rough plan of when I want to do each item so that I have enough time, energy, and money. I still want to allow a certain amount of room for spontaneity, but I also want to  see that I’m making continual progress on crossing off each item.

There’s a time to push through and there’s a time to let go. There were times when I wanted to give up on the idea of moving to England completely. I was so, so afraid and it seemed impossible to make it work. But in my heart of hearts, I knew I really wanted this. So I worked through my fear and one step at a time, I got here. But there were other goals that I let go. We’re all constantly changing and even in the course of a year, it makes sense that we’ll no longer want the things that we wanted in the beginning. The Desire Map process helped me get clear on my core desired feelings (how I want to feel all of the time) and that has been essential in seeing he difference of when to push through the fear and when to let something go because it just doesn’t jive with who I want to be and how I want to feel.

And lastly, sharing your goals is powerful. I enjoyed sharing my successes with you and knowing that I’d made my dreams public created a sense of accountability that I wouldn’t have had if I’d kept this all to myself. It meant so much to me to have you all cheering me on and to hear that I’d inspired a few of you to start a list of your own.

So, before I got to bed on the eve of my 26th birthday, here’s a look back on the list I created one year ago:

1. Learn a song on ukelele.I think I learned about three chords on my ukulele and it wouldn’t fit in my carry-on to bring it over on my move. My dreams of tiny-guitar playing have been sidelined.

2. Get head shots. Yes! The amazing Katherine Rothman took some headshots for me in December and we have a date for next weekend to take another set that are more in line with the rebranding I’m working on at the moment.

3. and business cards! Yes! Thank you Moo.com. I have mini cards for blogging and I’ll be getting larger cards for my freelance work as soon as my new logo is finished.

4. Build my online portfolio/professional website. I did this and then recently took it down. I did the work of gathering and linking to my past work, but it will be getting a refreshed look and new copy to fit with the aforementioned rebrand.

5. Get my driver’s license. I made the conscious decision to skip this one as it seemed like a waste of money right before moving since I don’t know when I’ll be living in Canada again.

6. Make crème brûlée. I’m a bit bummed to have missed this one but I kept questioning whether it was worth buying the little dessert torch for a dish I may only make once. At least I did eat some wicked crème brûlée in Paris! Maybe when I have a flat that has room for dinner parties, I’ll invest in the equipment and make it my signature dessert.

7. Visit a new country. Sadly no. I was lucky enough to visit a few new cities (like Bath and Oxford) and I have plans to visit several new (-to-me) countries in 2014.

8. Understand my camera. Yes and no. I took The “M” and taught myself the settings on my camera but I have to admit I haven’t practiced shooting in manual enough to really feel comfortable with it. It’s going on this year’s list.

9. Go on a road trip. Unless driving to the cottage with my mom counts, no. Perhaps if I got my license and could thus be a better road trip companion, I could make this one happen.

10. Make all of my clothing, or buy indie or secondhand. Yes! As a total thrift store junkie and having spent half of last year working in a vintage store, this wasn’t too difficult to achieve but it was very satisfying. I made an exception for under garments, tights, and my winter jacket.

11. Paint regularly. I started out the year doing really well with this one as I was decorating the pages in my art journal with watercolour but I haven’t painted since moving as I don’t have any supplies here.

12. Take a dance class. Yes! This one was so much fun and really pushed me outside of my comfort zone. I’m excited to be going back to Drink Shop Do for a very different dance class next month.

13. Face my fear of heights. I certainly didn’t feel very triumphant, but I did make it to the top of the Arc de Triomphe!

14. See live music every month. Often this just meant listening to a local musician at the pub, but it was nice to make it a priority. This year I think I’d like to go to more big gigs.

15. Design a line of jewelry. The idea with this one was to actually produce the line and start an Etsy shop. I sketched out the collection and started sourcing some of the materials, but decided to shelve the idea for now in order to work on other projects. I still really love the concept I was working on though, so I do plan on going back to it some day.

16. Move to England. Heck yes! I’m livin’ la vie da Britain (or something).

17. Pitch 12 new (to me) magazines. I fell short on this one as I was less focused on my editorial work this year. I did start writing for a couple of great publications, one of which I’m really excited to announce to you soon!

18. Take part in a reading group. Yes, and I gained the most amazing group of badass babes in the process!

19. Go to a tattoo convention. Not yet, but I’m going to one in May!

20. Shoot 12 rolls of film. I ended up being a bit discouraged with this one. I had 2 rolls of film developed (which I shared), 2 that ripped while I was winding them after finishing the roll, and 2 that I thought had been lost by the company developing them (but luckily I should now be getting back next week). It was feeling too expensive to keep on with when the results were so uncertain that I’d get any prints back, but I still want to treat myself to a roll of film every once in a while.

21. Shoot a gun. This was the item that surprised people the most, but I’m really glad I crossed it off. What an adrenaline rush!

22. 52 weeks of DIY. I didn’t end up completing a new project this week but I did spend at least some time, cutting, pasting, sewing, mending, or otherwise crafting each week this year.

23. Read War and Peace. I read 10% of this epic novel and was going to force myself to plough through to the end, but I decided that life’s too short. I wasn’t enjoying it and there’s so much great literature out there, so I skipped it.

24. Learn how to do a cartwheel. A repetitive strain injury was causing me a lot of pain over the summer, so I put this one off and then completely forgot about it. If anyone wants to hang out with me in a park when it gets warmer and teach me, I’ll be your eager student!

25. Practice yoga. I’ve started doing some yoga videos at home, but have yet to get into a regular practice. It’s going back on the list this year.

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing my new birthday list of 26 things I want to do before turning 27. And if you’re working on a list of your own, I’d love if you’d share it with me in the comments. Let’s support each other in being bold, dreaming big, and living sparkly, fluorescent lives!

To sprinkles on cupcakes & twirling in tutus,