“Age is not important unless you’re a cheese.”
Helen Hayes
Turning 50 isn’t hard in the literal sense. One day it’s a Tuesday and you are 49, the next day is a Wednesday and you are 50 years old. Sure, literally it is not difficult. But we all know how the mind plays tricks on you about the aging process.
If you follow us on social media, you have heard us talk about our “Year of 50.” The idea has been to take ownership of the emotional transition from being “40 something” to “50 something.” We couldn’t ignore it, because to us, turning 50 is a big deal.
“Forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of old age.”
Victor Hugo
Take ownership we did! We created 50 goals to honor turning 50 years old. Most importantly, we recognize turning 50 is a gift as sadly there are too many people who never make it to 50. There are also people who make it to 50 but with failing health, or within a few years receive a surprising cancer diagnosis, or some other major health crisis comes along. Is 50 goals a lot? Of course it is! We know how ridiculous it sounds to some of you but we needed to show 50 who’s boss.
I turned 50 in August and Brian in October of 2021. We spent a lot of time that year creating SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-based) goals. We shared our goals with a few people for accountability but ultimately knew we would need to keep each other accountable. It’s not fair to hand your friend 50 goals and ask him/her to hold you accountable. Haha, I know, I tried. It’s overwhelming, but that is why one of our goals is to re-assess them every week; it’s our accountability goal. Haha!
We decided our “Year of 50” would happen throughout 2022. We started working on them before 2022 began but this wasn’t so much about starting on a birthday and ending on a birthday but rather the bigger picture of just making it happen.
You can easily presume why we chose 50 goals. But more than a number we wanted our goals to touch on various areas of our life from health & fitness, to adventure & travel, to home projects, to personal, and our community. We didn’t want our goals to be all be self-serving, giving back has been a big part of who we are and who we will continue to be.
Here they are, all 50 of them for all of you to see. Hold on while I catch my breath. Preparing for this blog has been tough because I am not interested in what others think about our goals. I love the accountability of typing away on my computer, creating this record of my intentions, and coming back to it every now and again (which is why I blog). I’m also eternally optimistic and I pray someone gets an ounce of inspiration from any blog we post.
How is it going thus far? To be real, some days are better than others. It’s only January and we have checked 8 goals off the list! We have several goals that will take more time to complete but we are on track. The goals are big. We feel the responsibility and pressure, but even more, we are on cloud nine watching the process work.
We set our intention for our year to turn 50. We will not surrender, dwell on the change, or wait around for whatever life has in store. We are having fun and keep creating adventures. If we are so lucky to get another 50 years of life, we are focused on creating what we want them to look like.
One of my goals is to blog monthly throughout this year. It’s January and I am kicking it off today! My goal is to talk about what individual goals look like in the weeds of detail, what they mean to us, and why we are focusing on a specific area. For now, I am heading off to the gynecologist. I know she is going to tell me it’s time to get my ovaries out. Hahahaha! Let the year of 50 begin…
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