The Road Not Taken

Having just celebrated my 28th birthday a week ago, I find myself once again reflecting on my life. What does this life have in store for me? Will I ever accomplish all my goals? What exactly are the goals most important to me? Will I ever be more than ordinary?

Today while flicking through some blogs, I discovered one called In the New that intrigued me. Blogger Jen is trying to do 31 new things in the 31 days before she turn 31. She's an experienced doer of new things (refer to her other new thing endeavor) and she seems to select manageable activities. They're not too wild and crazy, although I suppose that would depend on your perspective huh? I read through some of her entries and was really inspired and entertained by them.

Her goal to do something new every day reminded me of something I read about a year or two ago called The Buried Life. Similar to Jen's desire to do new things, four Canadians asked themselves the ultimate question, "What do you want to do before you die?" Their list of things were a lot more grandiose than Jen's, but they're all completed in a similar manner and for similar reasons.

Both Jen and the guys from The Buried Life want to make the most of every day and really live in the moment. This takes letting go of preconceived notions of what a person can and can't do. It takes resetting your thinking, shifting your priorities and most importantly, just going out there and doing it. This is what I really admire about them.

The last inspirational site I visited was Where The Hell Is Matt? I had seen Matt's site before and found his story to be amazing. He quit his job, traveled parts of the world and made a video. This video was passed from a friend to a friend to a friend until he was web celeb. Then, he was sponsored by a company to continue to travel the world doing exactly what he'd been doing. Being able to see the world and interact with people of different culture's must have been amazing. And all he had to do was quit his job and tape himself dancing. While that sounds easy enough, it is actually a pretty bold move to simply pick up and leave. That is what is truly inspiring - taking the risk to live day-to-day without knowing what is to come.

With this new perspective on life weighing heavily on my mind, I'll take the next two weeks to brainstorm my very own list of new things I want to do before I die. I know I started one way back when I first discovered The Buried Life, but at this point I'm not sure where that list is. In any case, I don't think I got past 20 things so I'm sure I'll be able to recreate it in no time.

I'll post my new list on April 1 for all to see and try to do it over the upcoming days, weeks and months. (Yes, I know it'll probably take years to accomplish but that's the fun of it, right?). If you have any suggestions, send them over. Even if I don't add it to my list, it might just spark an amazing new adventure for you or another reader.