It’s coming to that scary time of the year. No, I don’t mean Christmas but rather my birthday.
Hey, with a name like Noeleen, I have to have been a Christmas baby!
It’s ironic that we spend the first twenty years of our lives wishing we were older and then spend the next seventy wishing we were younger. As I approach my 52nd birthday I find myself taking stock of where I am in my life and more importantly where I’d like it to go.
Last year was a pivotal one in my life. I was chosen to be a leader on Operation Transformation. My initial goal in applying for the show was to lose the excess weight that had crept around my midriff over the past few years! I have lost two stone in total and more importantly I have kept if off. I have gone from being a couch potato to completing several 5k runs and a 60k bike ride. In fact if I don’t exercise on a regular basis I miss it. Words I never thought I’d say! I am healthier and fitter now than I was in my 40s. What am I talking about, I feel better about myself than I did in my twenties.
The real transformation was in the self belief that it gave me. I can do anything I set my mind to. After all, if I’ve pulled a fire truck then nothing is impossible.
So instead of dreading my upcoming birthday I’m ready to embrace it. I’ve come up my new project. It’s
52 in 52 at 52.
I aim to do one new thing a week for the coming year. I have several ideas in the pipeline, some big, some small. I am open to suggestions as long as they’re legal!
One of the most inspirational interviews I read was with a very active 90 year old. When asked what her biggest regret in life was, she replied
“Thinking I was too old at 80!”
That made me stop in my tracks. I thought of all the times I had stopped myself from doing something because “I was too old”. Are we not all guilty of that?
I don’t want to be 60, 70 ,80 and look back at think
“Why did I think I was too old at 52?”
Instead I want to think
“Ah 52, that was the year I started really living!”
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