25 Things To Do Before I Am 25

I finally made my list! Twenty Five Things To Do Before I Am Twenty Five!

Let's start with the basics!

1-   I'd like to do a push up. Yes, a whole push up. Not the "girl kind" and not up against the wall. A real push up. You know, I  have never done one before. No upper body strength. More on that later.

2-   This year, I'm going to touch my toes. Haven't done it since maybe fourth grade. These are some real intense goals.

3-   Run an 8-minute mile. I'm at around 10 minutes- which I find kinda sad. But at least I'm running.

4-   With speed, I want to also increase  my endurance. A 5K is about three miles, right? Yeah. I wanna do one of those.

5-   Yoga! I was told once that a full yoga session is suppose to be 1 1/2 hour. It's kinda hard to do something your body isn't used to for that long, let alone keep your mind quiet for that long. I'd like to do some full yoga sessions this year.

6-   More Yoga!! Obviously there are tons of news positions I want to try and positions I'm working on but to keep me moving in the right direction, there are two in particular I'd like to accomplish:

                        

The Crow!

And the King Dancer!

Cool, huh?

7-   Archery! This actually goes with my push up goal. I can barely draw back the bow Ray gave me. It's rather heavy. And if I were ever to hunt (more on that in a later blog), I would need to use an even heavier bow! So my goal here is to strengthen up enough that I can use my own bow!

8-  Climb on, of course! I really don't have a super concrete goal except to just climb and continue to improve. If nothing else, I'd like to be able to use smaller holds than I do now. Upper body strength would be helpful here too.

9-  And for my last physical goal, Mountain Biking. Last summer, I did work on uphill biking. But I'm sure those muscles are gone by now. So my main goal here is to be able to bike uphill. And uh, survive downhill.

10-  Okay, maybe this is my last physical goal. This year, Trav and I want to take an anniversary trip to Moab. If all vacation days (because I have those now) go through, we'll have six full days there plus two days of traveling. A week stocked full with mountain biking, climbing, fishing (for Trav), outdoors writing (for me) and hikes! Sounds like paradise! I just want to be ready for it.

11-  Speaking of fishing. I'd like to eat a fish this year. In 2012, I discovered that I actually do like crab, shrimp and lobster. Why not fish? It's way healthy and then I'd have an excuse to go bow fishing. (Yes, I am determined to be an elf). 

12-   In exchange for the fish, I'm going to try to go the whole year without fast food or soda. Of course, for this goal to be even somewhat possible, I need to make some flex room. I'm giving myself permission to drink soda for both July and December Holidays. It's only logical to assume I'd drink then anyway. As for the fast food... as much as I hate to say it, I need to leave room for long drives. I'll try to prepare ahead of time. But sometimes, convenience is necessary.

13-  There's a cross stitch I started two years ago. I need to finish it.

14-  There's a quilt I started a year and a half ago. I'm going to finish that too.

15-  Writing! There's always writing! Unfortunately, I have this thing where I obsess over a chapter so much, and rewrite it some many times, that I never move forward. So I never actually written an entire novel. That's going to change this year. I don't care how drafty it is or if it sucks. I'm finishing a novel!

16-  With that, I never actually submitted a manuscript to a publishing company. I have them. But I know they're not good enough yet. Also, it's kinda scary to do it. It's like opening yourself to failure. But I'm going to submit a manuscript this year. Just to get the process going.

17-  So I have this whole writing articles about equipment project I've been meaning to work on. It's not a tough goal, but I think I need to keep it easy to start off. Again, I think there's a fear associated with it. So 12 articles! That's only one a month! I can do that, right?

18-  This one is kinda silly. On Swag bucks, if you write a book review, -and they like it- you get 500 swag bucks. Which is a $5 amazon gift card plus some. So my goal is to get 500 swag bucks through writing a book review. Hey, 5 bucks for a page... not terrible. But again. It's that fear. I'm bashing it over the head. =)
P.S. If you wanna know about swag bucks, let me know.

19-  Oh I have another physical one! It's a dream of Trav's and mine to backpack through Peru. I also have this wilder dream that we'll backpack/ride bikes through Europe. We're gonna start doing some backpacking trips around here in the Ruby Mountains to start preparing. Trav's done it before. I haven't. Should be an adventure.

20-  Professional Banker Level 2! At my new job, there are 5 levels of Professional Bankers. As a new hire, I'm a level 1. I'd like to move forward to level 2 and be on my way to level 3 by next year. I'd really like to keep this job for the next few years (if not longer) and progress.

21-  I'd like to get more involved in our ward. That includes ward events, services and actually getting to know the other ward members. I'll start on that as soon as we start going to church again... We're totally not taking advantage of the move to get a break. Nope. Not at all.

22-  Get over my fear of hospitals. Yeah.

23-  Volunteering! There was actually talk of me volunteering at the hospital in order help overcome my fears. You know, the whole expose yourself to something and it becomes familiar. No longer the fear of the unknown thing. But I'm not sure what my options there are yet. And really, this isn't something I plan to act on until at least February. I'd like to get settled with work for a bit first.

24-  Social Relationships. This one is very general. But I basically don't want to be closed off to social opportunities anymore. I think being antisocial has caused me to miss out on so many cool experiences and friendships. I want to take advantage of opportunities and learn to be comfortable in my skin- not just in my home.

25-  Finally! I'd like to continue a project I started in our first year of marriage: My Ensign Journal. It actually started out as a school assignment. But I found that hours and hours and hours of reading and rereading the words of prophets has opened my mind to personal revelation. I knew that when the assignment was finished, I needed to continue the work. But I didn't. It's time to pick up where I left off and catch up again.


Every year, I tend to make up a theme or a direction for progress. This year is a bit different. I feel like this year marks the first time I've climbed out of a black hole. A black hole that the thousand headed dragon, my ego, had dragged me down and trapped me with insecurities, doubts, anxieties and fears. But I'm out now. I'm ready to be a happier me. Yay me!