I do love a good podcast and one of my absolute favourites is Gretchen Rubin’s Happier. She does it with her sister – Liz Craft – who also has a great podcast called Happier in Hollywood with her writing partner Sarah Fain.
One of their key ideas over the last couple of years is to do a number for a year e.g. 19 for 2019, 20 for 2020 and of course 21 for 2021.
Last year I did 20 for 2020 and it was interesting to observe what did get done and what didn’t . There was some of them that I could have completed e.g. cross stitch piece and watching a play (I could have done that online – as I did with the musical) . I surprised myself by doing the 52 newsletters and I found that I enjoyed doing jigsaws more than I thought I would (have done quite a few since that first one) . I really enjoyed the audio books – I found it a very different experience to reading the book but if anything it made it easier.
So in that spirit, here is my 21 for 2021. Some of them are aspirational – they may or may not happen depending on Covid and other things but I like the idea of just naming what I would like to happen. They are , as they say on the best talent shows, in no particular order…
Updated November 2021
- Go for a cycle somewhere (I say that every year after watching the Tour de France – this year I’m going to make it happen). I did that – not quite a stage of the Tour – but I had forgotten about how much I enjoyed being on a bike. I also realise that I find the idea of cycling on narrow rural roads with the amount of traffic truly terrifying… However I have now decided to book next July off to watch both the men’s and women’s race..not sure if that really counts though
- Learn about the basics of Bitcoin – nothing fancy – just to know the basics of it. Half started it but not really done enough. Again, bit all over the place. Downloaded an app but haven’t really progressed it.
- Read the Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough. Still on track – finished Fortune’s Favourites and now onto Caesar’s Women – plan to finish that by mid-July. Great guns on this. Am on the last book – on track to finish it well ahead of the year end
- Listen to Hamilton (done that already on Spotify – fabulous stuff!).
- Do a 10 k race (setting the bar low for this one – run it all, finish it and don’t die – even if they are putting out the lights when I come in). Still can’t decide about this. I‘ve parked this for this year. I’ve been struggling with any sort of motivation around exercise (even walking for the last 3-4 months)
- Do a hill walk again with my son – it was one of my highlights from last year. A beautiful day in Connemara – what’s not to love?. We’ve talked about it, agreed to do it, but is weather dependent. We didn’t do it – and I do regret that. We just couldn’t get the weather and schedule to combine. My lack of motivation around fitness in the second half of this year hasn’t helped either.
- Visit Worm’s Head – Wales (Scene of the Wheel of Fortune by Susan Howatch). Probably not this year with Covid. Not happening this year – but we have rescheduled that trip so maybe for 2022…
- Create a playlist of all Prefab Sprout’s albums from start to finish and listen to it. (Found the playlist – now just to listen to it). Something I am going to do while on holidays. Did it – it was truly delightful and doing a playlist of all the albums of a favourite artist is something I am going to do next year as well
- Read 21 books (ones I already have on my Kindle – have my two done already for January – well on track with this one)
- Listen a Jane Austen audio book – probably Emma. I am dropping this. I’m finding it too boring for words – of which there are too many in this book…
- Do a long walk – probably 15 to 20 Km, Still can’t decide. I‘ve parked this for this year. I’ve been struggling with any sort of motivation around exercise (even walking for the last 3-4 months)
- Listen to a Shakespeare play on audio – Now have to decide which one.. Listened to Othello on Spotify – that was really enjoyable – more than I expected. I listened to it while waiting for my COVID vaccine – two of them are linked now
- Join a book club (already done). I have attended all these and it means that I’ve read books that perhaps I wouldn’t do otherwise e.g. on Marketing
- Learn three basic dance moves – had forgotten this one. I wanted to do this one with a view to doing some exercise other than walking…Still nothing happening with this one.
- Visit a friend of mine in Cork (got the date set up – so looking forward to this). That happened and it was wonderful.
- Get around the house finished….probably not. No but we did decide that we would work towards doing something small every week – clearing some briars, getting stuff to the recycling centre – it’s progress.
- Explore the idea of doing a podcast (third episode of six recorded and thoroughly enjoying it). Here is the link
- Visit Scéirde (a rocky place off the coast) – again, COVID permitting. This did not happen. This is one of these “I want to do this before I die” visits…
- Learn more about Artificial Intelligence – maybe do a course on it (Still investigating this – think I just want an overview first). This is another one that is stuck – have to give some thought on lowering the bar on that one. I’ve registered for a short course – but done nothing on it.
- Learn more about ways to learn faster e.g accelerated learning, Ultralearning and see if there are ways for me to implement it in my training. I’ve decided that I am going to use the Ultralearning book to help design one for the summer. I‘ve enrolled in the Rapid Learner course to help me improve my learning techniques – I am constantly in a state of learning with IT and I want to learn some good techniques.
- Create a new habit to help me listen more regularly to podcasts e.g. lunch and a podcast. Combine walking with a podcast. I have done this a couple of times. It worked really well one time and then didn’t work at all the second time. So the jury is out. I’ve now started combining doing a jigsaw with a podcast and that has been working quite well.
Updated June 2021
- Go for a cycle somewhere (I say that every year after watching the Tour de France – this year I’m going to make it happen). I did that – not quite a stage of the Tour – but I had forgotten about how much I enjoyed being on a bike. I also realise that I find the idea of cycling on narrow rural roads with the amount of traffic truly terrifying…
- Learn about the basics of Bitcoin – nothing fancy – just to know the basics of it. Half started it but not really done enough.
- Read the Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough. Still on track – finished Fortune’s Favourites and now onto Caesar’s Women – plan to finish that by mid-July
- Listen to Hamilton (done that already on Spotify – fabulous stuff!)
- Do a 10 k race (setting the bar low for this one – run it all, finish it and don’t die – even if they are putting out the lights when I come in). Still can’t decide about this
- Do a hill walk again with my son – it was one of my highlights from last year. A beautiful day in Connemara – what’s not to love?. We’ve talked about it, agreed to do it, but is weather dependent.
- Visit Worm’s Head – Wales (Scene of the Wheel of Fortune by Susan Howatch). Probably not this year with Covid
- Create a playlist of all Prefab Sprout’s albums from start to finish and listen to it. (Found the playlist – now just to listen to it). Something I am going to do while on holidays.
- Read 21 books (ones I already have on my Kindle – have my two done already for January – well on track with this one)
- Listen a Jane Austen audio book – probably Emma. I am dropping this. I’m finding it too boring for words – of which there are too many in this book…
- Do a long walk – probably 15 to 20 Km, Still can’t decide
- Listen to a Shakespeare play on audio – Now have to decide which one..
- Join a book club (already done)
- Learn three basic dance moves – had forgotten this one. I wanted to do this one with a view to doing some exercise other than walking…
- Visit a friend of mine in Cork (got the date set up – so looking forward to this)
- Get around the house finished….probably not
- Explore the idea of doing a podcast (third episode of six recorded and thoroughly enjoying it)
- Visit Scéirde (a rocky place off the coast) – again, COVID permitting
- Learn more about Artificial Intelligence – maybe do a course on it (Still investigating this – think I just want an overview first)
- Learn more about ways to learn faster e.g accelerated learning, Ultralearning and see if there are ways for me to implement it in my training. I’ve decided that I am going to use the Ultralearning book to help design one for the summer
- Create a new habit to help me listen more regularly to podcasts e.g. lunch and a podcast. Combine walking with a podcast. I have done this a couple of times. It worked really well one time and then didn’t work at all the second time. So the jury is out.