Happy Monday, everyone! Last week I read Bailey‘s 2018 goals update and I thought – I should really revisit my goals for my 30 Before 30 List, because ::gulp:: we are more than halfway there. My 30th birthday is January 12th, so I’ve got just under 6 months to check off some more stuff. Let’s take a peek and see how well I’ve done so far. The photo below was taken on the night of my 29th birthday!
30 Before 30 – A Halfway Update
1. Read More! Ideally – 1 Book Per Month – IN PROGRESS! I would honestly like to give myself a big pat on the back for this one, because I’ve been reading a ton and while I can’t vouch for how the rest of the year will pan out, I think I’ve read close to 25 books so far this year. You can read my book recommendations on 16 Nail Biting Thrillers You Won’t Be Able To Put Down + 12 Thrilling Beach Reads For Summer if you are in need of a new book!
2. Land A Book Deal – NOT YET! – I say yet, because hey — things can happen at any point. This is still something I really want to accomplish, so I haven’t lost hope, even though I’ve got an inbox full of rejection letters.
3. Pay Attention To Details – I’ve gotten better about this one, but I don’t want to really check it off, because I feel like this will be ongoing for me for the rest of my life. Hey, that’s not a bad thing, right?
4. Develop A Morning Routine – DONE! I have become so regimented in this that I now struggle with breaking it for when I need to do other things like meetings, calls, etc. So maybe I went a little bit overboard with my morning routine, but hey – I at least accomplished it!
5. Run A Marathon – DONE! Read more here.
6. Swim With Sharks – DONE! We had the most epic adventure doing this in Moorea and you can read about it here.
7. Visit Greece – Not going to happen before 30, but it’s on the docket for next spring – woohoo!
8. Donate Anything I Don’t Use Or Wear – IN PROGRESS! – I shared the state of my closet on Instagram stories and yikes – it’s just scary and embarrassing the amount of stuff I have, so I’ve been slowly going through every single drawer and closet making bags of things I don’t use or wear. In all honesty, the consumerism around the blogging world lately is killing me. Personally, I don’t care if something is only $5, if you don’t need it, that’s $5 you can put toward groceries. GAH! I could go on and on here, but yeah – working on this.
9. Match Dane’s Salary – IN PROGRESS – Since we are only halfway, I can’t say with certainty this is going to happen, but I’m on track to give it a big ole CHECK, which makes me super happy!
10. Trip With College Girlfriends – DONE! – I am heading to D.C. next month for a bachelorette party and we will all see each other. Hooray!
11. Try A New Recipe Per Month – IN PROGRESS! – This one is kind of easy for me, because I really love to cook, but it’s so easy to fall into making what you already know how to make week after week. My favorite recipes can be found here.
12. Stress Less About Small Things – DONE – I feel like this goal was taken care of the morning after I published my 30 Before 30 List, because it’s when the false missile alert happened here in Hawaii. In an instant, my life was turned on its head thinking we only had 15 minutes or less to live. Safe to say I had NO CLUE that I’d be checking off this one so soon. I wrote an entire post on the Hawaii Missile Alert the day it happened that you can read here.
13. Take Care Of My Skin – IN PROGRESS! – I downloaded the ThinkDirty app on my phone and realized that every single product I was using on my skin was bad for me. Further, every single product in my house was killing me (in some way). So I started using skin + reef safe sunscreen and I’m making the transition to natural deodorant. I’ll be honest – I’m waiting until my current skincare products are gone before diving headfirst into natural ones. I’ll keep you updated on this, probably with a full post LOL
14. Move Back To The Mainland – UGH. We are still in Hawaii until further notice. That’s all I have to say about that.
15. Get Back On Board With Meal Planning – OFF + ON – I don’t know what I was thinking with this one given the amount of traveling and time away we had on the docket for this year, but we have been trying our darnedest while at home. I fell majorly off last winter and never really got back in the saddle. You can read more about this here, here + here. I also try to post our meal plans (when I do them) over on my Facebook page, so make sure you are following there!
16. Spend A Girl’s Weekend With My Mom – I really hope I can make this happen before the end of the year!
17. Go On Vacation With Both Sets Of Parents – Half check! We went to Alaska with Dane’s parents and will be visiting mine in November.
18. Host A Pinterest-Worthy Dinner Party – This has not happened LOL! Our rental house isn’t big enough to host a dinner party and to be honest, we don’t have a ton of people we could invite here (they’ve all left!), so maybe this will get put on hold until post-30.
19. Ice Skate At Rockefeller Plaza – If we make it to NYC at Christmas (#goals), then I really hope this can get a big check mark!
20. Donate Time/Money To One Charity Per Month – I’m embarrassed to admit that this hasn’t happened, but checking in here is the exact motivation I need to research some places that could use time or resources.
21. Learn How To Meditate/Enjoy Yoga – DONE! – Well, maybe only partially done, because I am in love with meditation, but yoga is still up for debate. You can read about my love of meditation and manifestation, but the only really yoga practice I do is some moves at night before bed to help with stretching out my back and making me sleepy.
22. Expand Our Family by 4 legs – No more dogs for us until we are out of Hawaii. Of course, we thought we would be out of Hawaii by now (see #14), so this one is on hold.
23. Reduce Waste (reusable bottles, less paper towels, etc) – IN PROGRESS! – I don’t know if it’s living in Hawaii or just all the chatter in the news recently, but I’m so much more keenly aware of how much waste is being put into our oceans, parks, etc. It’s SCARY!
24. Go Offline For A Week – DONE! Did this during our cruise to Alaska and it was freaking phenomenal. I highly recommend it for everyone. You can see all of my Alaska posts here or read all about what I really thought about cruising to Alaska here.
25. Pay Off My Student Loan – This will be done by the end of the year! WOO!
26. Send More Snail Mail – IN PROGRESS! – I’ve been sending letters once per week to grandparents and friends, which I’m proud of. It can be really isolating living out in the center of the ocean on an island, so I look forward to mailing letters/postcards/packages to our family.
27. Call My Grandma More Often – IN PROGRESS – I’m much better about sending her letters, but calling her from time to time has happened, too. She’s the best!
28. Ride In A Hot Air Balloon – We have this booked in Africa for later this year!
29. Throw/Attend A Theme Party – No, but I would NOT be sad if I had a themed 30th birthday party! Preferably Selena themed or 80s themed.
30. Go RVing – I still think this would be so freaking fun, but I’m not sure it’s going to happen before I turn 30. Thankfully there is life beyond 30, which is when I’m certain this will happen 🙂
And there you have it – a halfway point on my 30 Before 30 list. To be honest, I have come a lot further than I originally thought when I first sat down to pen this post, so I’m anxious to see how the next 6ish months goes. Here’s to 30!