personal goals | Kelly Flowers

February 19, 2019
by KD Flowers 1 Comment

40 Before 40 – The Mid-Age Bucket List

bucket list Many moons ago, I was a bright-eyed go-getter, bent on squeezing every drop from the gristly lime of life. I had a lot of things I wanted to do and I was in a big hurry to do them. giphy-3

And then life happened. Every now and then, it occurred to me that the ME I had designed in my twenties was a long gone blueprint, some imaginary being the lab had given up on.

My priorities were unwillingly rearranged with children and societal pressure to normalize and the constant need to pay for some life necessity or another. The nerve.

Then comes 40. I’m on the countdown and it’s time to regroup, assess, question whether all that party planning and crafting really counts as moving forward in life. (Existentially, it is also time to question whether moving forward is the real goal.)

Have I lived enough? I asked myself. Have I accomplished enough? Have I adventured enough? I’ve never even been to India!

This anxiety sent me straight to list making, because making lists is every Type-A’s therapy. A well-written list can solve any problem.

giphy-1

Now, while I’m still ruminating on the existential meaning of life, I’ve constructed a really scintillating list. 40 things I want to do before I turn 40. Because if there’s one other thing a type-a likes, it’s a deadline. 😉

So, if anyone is so inclined… jump on board and do a 50 before 50 or a 30 before 30 or a 47 before 47 (although it, admittedly, doesn’t have the same ring).

(Legal disclaimer: I got a version of this idea from Gretchen Rubin, who on her podcast appearance with none other than Tim Ferriss, talked about her 18 for 2018 resolution list.)

Here’s my 40 Before 40…

Publish book – Come hell or high water
Sing karaoke – IN PUBLIC
See the Northern Lights – I was born in Alaska and don’t even remember ever seeing the aurora borealis. poo.
Do the splits
Take Scottish dancing class – Seems random but I am Scottish, did Scottish dancing as a teenager (see how cool I was?) and am thoroughly obsessed with all things Scottish.
Do 10 pull-ups
Take a painting class
Take a hip-hop/dance class – Maybe improve my Elaine-from-Seinfield moves. Maybe not.
I had to.
Go tent camping – Glamping doesn’t count, much to my city-boy husband’s chagrin.
Take a pottery class
Buy a Motorhome
Motorhome across the country
Go to a horse ranch
Organize/print digital photos – Honestly, this may be the hardest thing on this list.
Go whale watching
Go to Iceland
Try aerial yoga
Try acro yoga
Ride a skateboard – Friends are trying to talk me out of this due to potential physical injury to my middle-aged body.
Learn to ski
Meet Tim Ferriss – Tim, if you’re out there, I’m a total fangirl and will likely have nothing intelligent to say due to nervous paralyzation.
Do a handstand
Get back to my college fluency in Spanish
Remodel our home office
Go rock climbing – Indoor is ok. I’m not a snob or anything.
Learn how to swim strokes – like real swimming, not bobbing and flapping
Play the ukulele
Go to a poetry reading
Read the Harry Potter books – Because I have heard this should be on every bucket list and apparently I’ve been living in a barn having not read them.
Organize travel memorabilia – Hmmm, what to do with train tickets from Belgium, coasters from Peru and sugar packets from Morocco…
Burn music to hard drive – I literally do not have a CD player
Teach my kids to play chess
Teach my son to read
Go to a trampoline gym – I’m thinking without my kids. Would that be weird?
Be vegan for a week
Make a good (thai) curry
Make a scrapbook for my husband’s last birthday – I’m such a giver.
Take self-defense class
Get laser hair removal – because shaving sucks
Ride a jet ski – I have never done this and stole it from my friend’s bucket list because I was like “Oh yeah, I HAVE always wanted to do that.”

So there. I’m about to get at it.

P.S. If any writers out there are feeling mid-life crisis-y like I was, be comforted by the statistic that 95% of great writers are over the hump of 40. Like fine wine, apparently literary success improves with age. One in the pro column for getting older.

March 3, 2017
by KD Flowers Leave a comment

Shaun White I Am Not – Resolution ✅

So I made a goal at the beginning of 2017 to do a snowboard jump. I wasn’t looking to launch from a rail or crouching-tiger-fly off a berm like the punks that snowboard in jeans and don’t bother to wear gloves. I just wanted to leave the ground. A liiiiittle air.

Now, you might not have guessed it, but I was more of a reader growing up. Shocking, I know. Snowboarding is something I learned as an adult when you’re smart and scared like you should be and when you can really kill yourself. So the idea of doing a snowboard jump terrified me, as it should any life-appreciating adult, especially one with my ability in sports.

And that’s why I made this goal. Because I want to be a little terrified. And let’s be honest, I really want to look cool someday.

You know what? (Cue celebration dance…) I did it! More than once! And I crashed. (…Cue awkward dance freeze) More than once. 😕

snowboard-fail Troy is now doing simple tasks for me, like removing my shoes. (So embarrassing.) I can’t sneeze without seizing in pain. Zipping my suitcase was excruciating. And no amount of ibuprofen and red wine makes rolling over less torturous. I know. I’ve tried.

But each time I wince or whimper, inside I give myself one of those cocky little smiles.

source Because 1… no broken bones (yay me) and 2… next time, I’m going to get more than 4 inches off the ground.

When you don’t grow up playing sports, you miss a valuable world lesson. Risk and pain are part of the process. Yeah yeah you say, blah blah blah. But this was lost on me before. Crashing on a snowboard (i.e. catapulted forward so fast you can’t breathe because your lungs have been freight-trained) is the most definitive form of failure. What do you do then? You get up, laugh at yourself, curse at yourself because laughing hurts like a b**** and then do it again.

Because one does not reach a level of prowess by being smart, rational and cautious. Sometimes, you have to get the wind knocked out of you.

January 2, 2017
by KD Flowers 1 Comment

“Resolutions” Never Work

(I started this blog a couple of days ago and then, well… you know, I put it aside. Procrastination, you old nemesis! 2017 is going to be on your a$$!)

Pre-New Year’s Eve Post

Now is a good time to eat pie. Because pretty soon, my New Year resolutions won’t allow it. After the cooking and serving and saran-wrapping, you can’t see the fridge light. And then, eating leftovers becomes a bit of a goal. Each Tupperware emptied, an accomplishment. You can see how this line of thinking gets out of hand. I am nothing if not goal-oriented, for some suuuper important things, like emptying the fridge.

Soon will NOT be the time to eat pie, it will be to deny thyself. Whether it be donuts, laziness or procrastination, the New Year is about doing what you don’t want to do (like an early morning run) and not doing what you want to do (like eat ice cream and watch Westworld until 2am). Ah, the constant battle that divides doers and, well, non-doers.

I’m ready (after I finish this piece of pie) to hit the ground running. I’ll spend the next couple of days writing what I call resolutions but are really goals. There’s an important difference. Resolutions say “do better”. Goals say “here is a step to do better”. So I don’t do resolutions. I DO goals. But I really like the word “resolution” so I still use it.

Now it’s time to flurry into action putting away my Clark Griswold Christmas because 2017 doesn’t have room for that kind of chaos! Continue reading →