40 before 40 list

A few years ago, before I turned 30, I created a list of thirty things that I wanted to do before my next big milestone birthday. I had a lot of fun creating the list, revisiting and revising it and of course, crossing things off. That list helped me focus my goals, what I wanted to do, see and accomplish over a few years. It was a good experience for me and I have been throwing around the idea of doing it again.

I recently finally decided to try to do the same thing before I turn 40 which is still 8 years away but is looming out there in the future. At first I thought making a list of forty things I wanted to do, experience, try, accomplish, see, etc. would be easy. Turns out in some ways it was, I mean, I want to visit more than 40 different places. But my idea was to try to focus on more than just a travel bucket list. I wanted to include goals for different aspects of my life. It actually had taken since about the start of this year to come up with my first definitive list of what I would like to do over the next almost-decade. Some of them are lofty goals and others I could probably do next weekend if I wanted to. Some of them are brand new and others are repeats of my last list or things I didn´t end up getting to or finishing.

So here you have it, my list of 40 things I would like to do before reaching the big 4-0:

1. Buy a house
2. Go back to school
3. Grow our family
4. Go on a cruise
5. Go to Ireland
6. Restart my Italian
7. Walk part of the Camino de Santiago
8. Visit our family in France
9. Explore more of the north of Spain
10. Go back to Italy
11. Go to Nashville
12. Read at least ten books a year
13. Continue my blog
14. Take the girls to a show
15. Go see snow with our kiddos
16. Have another bird as a pet
17. Learn how to make homemade bread
18. Join a book club
19. Donate my hair again
20. Start going back to church
21. Find/create a mom tribe here in Spain
22. Create a new holiday tradition at Christmas
23. See a big Broadway-esque show
24. Get my Spanish driver´s license
25. Take an official Spanish language exam
26. Start a business
27. Get chickens
28. Visit a new country
29. Spend the day at the spa
30. Go camping
31. Go to a concert
32. Get a flamenca dress
33. Continue my Christmas ornament collection
34. Introduce the girls to another language
35. Be debt free
36. Learn to dance for the feria
37. Got to Disney again
38. Finish the Game of Thrones series (show and books)
39. Go on a road trip vacation
40. Go to a paint and pour class

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