This has nothing to do with my business.

Well, let me explain. Maybe it really does…..

I turn 50 next year!

You see, I just turned 49 years old, and was pondering the fact that I have now entered year number 50 in my life. I don't know why that number stands out, but it does.  Next June I will turn 50 years old.

Immediately, I went into panic mode.

Remember all those dreams I've had over the years of what I'd do in my life? How could I already be turning 50, and not be where I thought I was “supposed” to be?

Why my 40th plans went down the drain…

I remember in my 20's and 30's thinking that by the age of 40 I'd have it all figured out: the perfect size body, the dream home, a certain net worth, a dream career, etc.

40 came and went without the perfect body or dream home.

Maybe 40 was when I would START working on the perfect body and start thinking about the dream home? And, start really making major goals for the business I was in at the time.

Interesting that the “dream job” (according to my husband) came along around that time….I was 41 at the time I started working for the University Foundation. I think my husband and I both thought that job would help out with a lot of financial areas in our life. And it would allow us to gather the resources we wanted in order to finally build our dream home.

Then the unthinkable happened.

2012….6 months after starting my new job, and several months after buying the land to build our dream home on….. our son Trevor died by suicide.

Instead of enjoying the process of building our dream home, in my mind the building process became a MUST for my husband's mental health and a way for me to be able to move out of the home Trevor had taken his life in.

Instead of the dream body I had started working on, (I had just lost about 19 pounds with Weight Watchers) I gained 40 pounds.

And, there was no thought at the time about really focusing on making the new job I had recently started into a fulfilling career.

My whole life was turned upside down and I felt lost and unable to concentrate on anything.

That was then, this is now.  I'm taking the opportunity to use this upcoming birthday to redo the goals I had when I turned 40.

What I've decided to do this year to make it count…

I really contemplated how to use this year for the best.

Should I make a bucket list? A list of 50 things to do in the next 52 weeks? I think that what I came up with suits me well for where I am right now in my health and business.  And I'm super excited to share it.

Here's my plan.  I'm using this blog as an accountability thread to report how it's all going. I'd like to have a journal to see how it began, and what changes have happened over the year.

My 50 things list looks like this:

• 12 personal or business development books to read (1 per month)

• 12 places to visit that I've never been but thought I wanted to go (mostly in Michigan….those places you always think you'll visit and never do)

• 12 habits to work on doing consistently

• 14 areas of things to declutter in my home

Each week I'll report on what part of the list I'm working on for the month and how it's going.

I'm really excited because I know that making little changes on a regular basis can add up to big things.

My vision for my 50th…

By June 14, 2020….things will have changed.

My vision is:

• My body shape and weight will have changed

• I'll be wearing different types of clothes

• I'll have become more physically healthy

• I'll have grown my business by leaps and bounds

• I'll have visited 12 new places

• I'll have learned even better how to consistently show up for myself and love and honor my dreams

• I'll have had so much fun while doing all the work of it

I intend to enjoy every day of this next year in some way. I know that it won't always be smooth sailing. I expect there to be bumps in the road, and times when I just don't feel like doing what I said I was going to do.  But, I'm going to decide right now that I want to do it anyway.

And, I want to be honest with myself about what the issues are, and what thoughts are working against me when I really don't feel like doing the consistent thing I said I'd do.

So, in the end, this next year's journey is about my business.

It's about learning more about myself and how to change my behaviors in a deeper way so that I can help my clients more too. I have found that coaching clients is really easy when I've been through the exact things they need help with…..so my learning will help them too:)

LET THE FUN BEGIN!