Stop Making Plans and get busy Living Life

On 5 August 2015 I was 49 which means in less  than a year I will be fifty.  It can’t be true.  I can’t be nearly 50.  I haven’t decided what I want to do when I grow up.  I haven’t done all the things I dreamed about when I was a kid.  It turns out John Lennon was right “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans”.

Or in my case life is what happened when I was busy doing other things. Don’t get me wrong, many of those things were important.  I’ve raised two sons, got a good job and own my own home (ok so I’ve got a mortgage but one day it will be mine).  I’ve swam with dolphins, seen the pyramids and changed the law but I haven’t exactly set the world on fire.  When I was kid I believed I could fix the world (thanks for that one Mam) but now I know that isn’t true.  But I still believe I can make a difference because we all can if we try.  So a few weeks ago I set myself two tasks

Tasks 1: By 5 August 2015 (the day I’m 49) find 5iftyby5ifty.  That’s 50 challenges to complete before I’m 50.  I didn’t have a clue what they would be but they had to be something I always dreamed of, something that makes a difference or something a little bit crazy.  And they couldn’t be anything I had done before.  I’m not rich so they couldn’t be things that cost a fortune and as I have Multiple Sclerosis I can’t run marathons or climb mountains.  But with help from friends and family we came up with a list I hope will be exciting and challenging.

Task 2: And this is where the hard work starts.  By 5 August 2016, when I reach the big 50 I hope I will have completed every challenge on the list.  I’ll need to average one challenge a week (that gives me a two week break) so it will be hard.  Some challenges might take the whole year to complete but I am determined to do it.

I’ll use this website to write about how I’m getting on and I’ll use social media to get other people involved.  I don’t know if many people will be interested but who knows maybe others will decide they want to join me to Swim with the Sharks, Walk on Fire or Go Dancing in the Rain and together we’ll raise that £5,000 for charity.  I don’t know if anyone will read what I have to say but by the time I’m 50 I hope I’ll be able to say I stopped making plans and got busy living life.