52 in 52: the 2016 edition

52 in 52 for 2016

It’s that time of the year again – time for a new 52 in 52 list! I was talking about it with my friend (Jo from A Rainbow Life) who was a co-creator of the list idea way back when it first began. We were trying to remember how many years we’ve been doing this for, and the oldest we could find was from 2010. I’m sure we’ve been doing it even longer than that, but even so it means that our idea is at least 6 years old now – wow!

I very nearly gave up on doing a list this year, partly because I nearly burned out last year. I was pushing myself incredibly hard on so many deadlines (not just the list), and I just wanted a break. However Jo was able to reinspire me, and thus the trend continues.

Contributing to the burn out was that I had quite a few items on the list that meant that every day of every week I had to be focused on achieving something. There was never any time to just “switch off”. I had weekly posts I had to do, photos each day, certain tasks for each month etc. It was too much. This year I’ve not done that. Some of them still have to be done multiple times, but there’s no limit on how often. There are two items that are within a 30 day limit, but they’re the exception (one of them is because of a particular event I’m participating in). I’m also going to be a lot more generous to myself – if I give it a red hot go but life gets in the way so I miss one or two days or repeats, that’s fine. The point is that I tried. This list is to encourage myself to try new things during the year – not to be a source of stress.

So enough of the background and reflection – let’s get into the list!

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2015 52 in 52: Year in review

This year I realised again I’ve been approaching the 52 in 52 all wrong. I always tend to get to the end and focus on what I didn’t do, then think of it as a failure.

I’m so wrong.

I should be looking at all the things I did do, and celebrating the fact that the year didn’t pass by without trying something new, doing something worthwhile, or impacting someone else’s life. And when I look back on the things I ticked on my 52 in 52 list for 2015, I think I had a pretty darn good year. Where I’ve been able to blog the experience I’ve included a link; I went a bit quiet for the second half of the year so not all of these will have an associated story.

Stayed tuned for the list for 2016!

Physical Activity:

Hire something fun e.g. Mini Moke, Segway, House and/or BBQ boat etc: 

Funnily enough this one only just happened earlier this week – what a way to finish the year! For my sister’s partner’s brother-in-law’s birthday (mouthful much?) he hired a bbq boat and the family were all invited. I made up a stupidly large container of Pim’s punch, there were salads, meat and desserts galore, and we cruised the local waterways. So much fun.

bbq boat

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