As some of you may know, I recently turned 30. It was an unremarkable milestone as milestones go. Last year I threw a nice big party and invited a whole lot of people. This year, I just had a small group, we drank, ate and talked a little. The next day Sam made me a birthday cake complete with 30 candles, a nice gesture on his part.
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30 seems so old, objectively so. When I was younger 30 seemed to be so very far away. I had this vague notion that I should be retired by 30, or that I should at least have my life sorted out. In many ways it is.
I live with my best friend in a nice apartment with a real view, in a busy city that I love.
Through no virtue on my part I have a boyfriend, an attractive one at that. I’m not thinking too hard about how long it will last but it’s certainly nice.
I have a great job, promising career, good salary, savings, shares and suchlike, my financial future is secure.
In short. Most of the goals I set for myself have been achieved. As a friend of mine once commented: “wow, you live a comfortable lifeâ€. I suppose I do.
So, where to now? Now that I have made it to this turning point in my life, have ceased to be young and am well and truly on my way to becoming old? Well, at my age most people are working on looking after their kids. I don’t expect to be having kids, not in the near future anyway, so I’m going to need to find something else to fill in the gaps. To provide meaning to my life and also so that I can leave behind some kind of tangible legacy when I kick the bucket.Â
I guess that means it’s time for another reprioritisation, in no particular order these are the things I’d like to focus on:
Self improvement – I’m not fat but I’m also far from cut like a diamond. I’d like to focus on this a little. Some discipline and I should have a decent body for years to come.
Writing – I want to write some books and some journal articles. This takes more discipline and a whole lot of effort.
Singing – I’ve got back into singing by joining a choir, but it’s not hard enough. I’m not frightened by performances anymore and I should be. Once again, the D word rears its ugly head.
Flying – I haven’t done a second training flight and I want to. It would be nice to be able to fly, even though it makes me a little queasy. And yup, you guessed it, more discipline required.
Tinkering – I’m a tinkerer. I haven’t done it in ages but things that really float my boat are around Augmented Reality and the like. I can afford to start playing in this arena now. As David White once said to me: “no, Steve, we can’t afford not to playâ€.
Photography – I’ve been making a great deal of progress on this both artistically and technically. I do think I need to start turning this into something more serious. Yes, there’s that discipline word again.
Travel – Maybe I can tie this in with some of the photography stuff. Just takes come planning. Yuck. I hate planning.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I know it’s a little boring at this stage, I hope to have something insightful/witty/beautiful to post sometime in the near future. In the meantime, my watchword for this year in my life is: discipline!