I recently celebrated my 38th birthday.

A couple of days beforehand, I had one evening where for around two hours I had a crushing low mood and a sense that I was rapidly getting old with not that much to show for it. The feeling was triggered by a song that I heard that reminded me of the day I turned 18, twenty years previously.

I think it is quite a common feeling for people in their 30s to have. You realise, one way or another, that time is slipping past. However it is very important to realise that we forget all the many negative things about our past as well; it wasn’t all exciting and amazing each day. I had my challenges in my 20s as well. But it definitely felt more adventurous. I have had an abundance of problems to deal with over the last 5 years, and this has caused me to reflect a lot about what I actually want to do in the limited time all of us have, every day, to work towards something meaningful.

I decided, therefore, to do something about it. You can’t go back in time, but you can prepare ahead a little, and you can have some kind of aim. As I like goal setting so much, I also decided to have a series of goals that started on my 38th birthday, and will finish the day before I turn 39. My version of a New Year’s resolution. If you think about it, your own New Year starts on your birthday, not January 1st. Unless you happen to be born on January 1st…

So my final question is this: What are you prioritising this year?

For my 38th year, I am trying to do one walk on every 1:25k map of Northern England. It’s a big, ambitious project. Lots of reasons for it, but one of the main ones is that I am lucky to still have my health and I don’t want to keep putting something like this off for another time. Also, being single helps with this as I have no children etc to care for. Who knows if I will be able to do this challenge ever again? The time to start is now.

I started this project today, and write this blog having just finished my first walk. There’s 53 more to go. I have just less than one year to do it. And then a book to write…

The series of questions is done now, and I’ve decided to stop blogging. I do actively plan to post on Instagram (@lead_for_a_living) and put some videos on YouTube, so if you want to keep up with what I am doing, feel free to follow me on those channels. Perhaps see you there?

Thank you all for reading my blogs, much appreciated!