I turned 36 in May 2024, and while it hasn’t exactly been the perfect year, it has held some incredible moments. My professional life and career overshadowed a lot through the year, followed closely by my health and family trauma, so I’m hoping, manifesting and working toward a little more balance for the coming year – but I knew in order to make that so, I needed to make some changes.

So, I decided to do a 36 at 36 list, which would comprise of 36 new to me experiences to help me broaden my horizons, & focus some energy on my personal life while I continued to work through the challenges in my professional life.

The idea was that these things shouldn’t be too wild, but more-like small acts that would help me stay balanced, focus on personal evolution and gently step beyond my comfort zone. They needed to be achievable in one year and fit around all the other things I had to deal with in my life. Creating the list was actually more challenging than you’d maybe first imagine!

Below you can see my list, now I think it’s important to mention that I actually started this list in May, I began ticking items off and became a little unwell, so it’s now November and I’m only just getting around to posting this! (Such is life!)
So my plan is to share regular updates as I complete items, however I’m overdue a post or three (!) on the items I’ve already completed – so I will get to that shortly!
To be honest despite the slight delay, completing items has been very exciting and the whole journey is quite thrilling because it may lead to even more adventures, but ultimately, I hope it will help me to get closer to myself.

Who knows, maybe I’ll even do a 40 before 40 following this – if I don’t get too distracted!

Thirty Six at Thirty Six:

1. Make the pilgrimage to Glastonbury Tor on my birthday,
2. Treat myself to flowers.
3. Find magic in every day moments and try to find something magic in each day.
4. Create more harmony in my health habits.
5. Visit a country-fair.
6. Explore the local towns & cities in West Yorkshire.
7. Make time for cuddles with Kevin every day regardless of how ‘busy’ life is.
8. Have a birthday dinner with friends.
9. Stay in a boutique hotel.
10. Explore the Leeds Canal.
11. Design my own nails & get them done at a salon.
12. Visit Emley Moor.
13. Find new to me Pylons (I’ll explain some other time, okay!)
14. Walk around a reservoir.
15, Find new cat friends.
16. Visit a cat café.
17. Join a community. (Stepping beyond the online communities in my world!)
18. Watch the Euros in a bar or pub.
19. Cross the border into Scotland (I’ve done this plenty but I want to really enjoy it in the moment!)
20. Take a spontaneous trip or adventure with a buddy.
21. Address my imposter-syndrome professionally.
22, Go to a live gig (I haven’t been since pre-Covid and its been too long!)
23, Go on a brunch-date.
24, Visit a goat sanctuary.
25, Learn to look after pigs.
26, Visit The Hellfire Caves.
27, Support a wildlife organisation/charity.
28. Visit Spurn-Head.
29. Indulge in a good-for-me self-care glow-up.
30. Make a list of Churches and Cathedrals across Yorkshire to visit.
31. Partake in an adventure challenge.
32, Attend a Park Run.
33, Go birdwatching.
34, Learn to knit.
35, Develop a morning meditation habit.
36, Read 10 books.

Well, there we are! While I track back to tick items off and create my first update, I’d love to know if you’ve done a similar challenge? Perhaps you set yourself some goals in 2024 or are planning to for 2025? I’d love to know and hear about your plans, but feel free to share comments on my list too…

As the year continued and following the start of my recovery journey from some health issues I actually embarked on a second challenge. This challenge is considerably larger and I’ll actually be three years older by the time it completes! In fact, its a little scary to thing that I’ll be almost 40 by the time it does complete! If I’ve learned anything this year though, it’s to break down those fears and I’m doing this one by focusing on the present moment. Taking life a little slower where possible and making time to be present.
That challenge is the 101 in 1001 days list, so, if you’d like to follow my journey as I embark on my 101 in 1001 days challenge, you can find the first post in the series here outlining the full set of tasks and items I plan to complete, as well as my updates as I achieve them!