Reflections on the Past Year

When I began my 40 New Adventures challenges, I must admit that I was a bit concerned about taking on such a time-consuming task. How would I fit all these new activities in to my already packed schedule? It wasn’t until a friend emailed me saying how great he thought it was that I was finally taking the time to do something for myself that I started to look at it a bit differently. All my fellow busy moms know that we don’t take time for ourselves nearly enough. Suddenly, this whole undertaking took on a new flavor. Not only was I getting to experience new things, but I was making time for me amidst all my responsibilities to other people. That was a cool revelation.


And you know what? One of the early lessons I learned during my year is that my family’s world won’t grind to a halt if mom excuses herself for a few hours to go have some fun. They managed quite well during my absences and nobody ended with up missing limbs. We moms get so accustomed to being the ones who run the show all the time, that we tend to forget that the show can actually run on auto-pilot at times. That’s a nice realization.

I’ve heard it said one can discover their passions by answering this question: “If you won the lottery and didn’t have to work, what would you spend your time doing?” Well, I’ve decided that another way to catch a glimpse into your interests is to challenge yourself to trying new things. What type of activities routinely surface? The answer provides some insight into your interests. I’ve reflected on this idea several times during the year, and the answers for me don’t surprise me one bit. I LOVE to travel. Quite a few of my new adventures took place outside the boundaries of Colorado Springs. Had I had more time and money, I would have enjoyed other adventures all around the country. I also like artistic undertakings, and I consider baking a form of art. Look at my “creating” type activities: glass fusing, making a fondant cake, painting a Bob Ross picture, making crepes, bean cake and sushi. As a very young child one of the highlights of my summer was the Arts and Crafts classes taught by the local community activities group. Art class in school was a favorite of mine. Some things simply don’t change with age. Finally, I like a good adventure. I like to engage in physical activities. Cattle branding, curling, snowshoeing, wakeboarding, indoor skydiving, hiking—these all fall into the adventure category for me.

Another advantage of this type of challenge was totally unforeseen by me. I had many people suggest adventures to me for which I was able to answer, “I’ve already done that. “ That prompted me to take a look at some of the amazing things I’ve already done in life: hiked the Grand Canyon, hiked Pikes Peak, piloted a helicopter, went scuba diving, swam with dolphins, etc. I’ve done some really neat things in life, and this challenge caused me to pause and reflect on those a bit.

This past year was fantastic, amazing, exciting, fun, adventurous, inspiring, unpredictable---you name it. I am incredibly thankful that I took on this challenge. I made great memories with my family. I experienced a treasure trove of new activities. I learned a good deal. I spent time with many friends that I otherwise probably wouldn’t have seen during the year outside of our normal environments. Having a sense of urgency allowed me to move many items from my “Gonna do that someday” column in life to the “Been there, done that” column. I know I would have eventually gotten around to completing some of them anyway, but why wait for someday? I learned to turn “someday’ into “today.”

Several people have asked me what my favorite adventure was. That is, obviously, a tough question. My family and I have discussed it at length. It is hard to compare indoor skydiving to watching My Fair Lady. They’re not quite in the same category. I feel like the politically correct gym teacher who says, “You’re all winners,” when I say that all the activities were meaningful to me. However, if I had to choose one single activity which I thought was the highlight of my year of adventure, I would have to say………insert drumroll here…….cattle branding. It lived up to the word “adventure” in every way. It was exciting, challenging and dangerous. We shared the day with some great friends which made it even more fun. We were helping to complete a real life task, so there was a sense of accomplishment. And, it was certainly not your run-of-the-mill new adventure. How many people in this world can say they’ve assisted in a cattle branding?

Do I think this past year has changed my outlook on life? Yes, I do. I believe that I will be more inclined to go and “do” rather than “plan to do it eventually.” Whether it is something simple like eating at a new restaurant, taking a different road home from work, or something larger like traveling to a new state, I will be more inclined to say, “Let’s go----NOW.”

I encourage each and every one of you to challenge yourself with a similar undertaking. Pick and year and pick a number of new experiences to tackle. You will NOT be disappointed. I sincerely hope that my kids and husband all choose to do this at some point in their lives, and I can’t wait to be a part of their new adventures! Go carpe some diem!