The Challenges!

Here we go! The challenges are finally live on the blog with their own page (later than planned, as usual 😅), and I've been working on some of them for a while now. 😎

I aim to post an update and reflect on my progress once a month, but I thought an initial post with some additional info might be a good start... so here it goes! Thoughts, comments, suggestions are all welcome at the end. 

The first group of challenges are the ones I intend (hope?) to achieve over my birthday year (so until the end of July 2027):

１- Celebrate my birthday with over 50 people who are important to me. 🎉 

Organising one giant 50-person party is impossible considering my global background and relations, so I'm celebrating with people in different places and at different times throughout the year. These are of course family, friends and close colleagues. I actually started this one back in March in the Philippines! 😉

２- Send 50 postcards to people who are important to me. 💌 

Every trip I take, I try and send a few postcards - if I can find cards or stamps! This time I want to stop for a moment and reflect on the person I'm sending the card to and what they mean to me.

３- Visit 50 new places. 📍

What counts as a new place? Well obviously any new country. Or a new region or city I haven't been to before in a country I have visited. But also any new specific place within somewhere I already know counts too. Like a museum I haven't been to. Or a park, a monument, a cultural space... I hope this will encourage me to appreciate the familiar a bit more. Oh! And any new country /region /city only counts as 1 new place on the first visit, regardless of how many individual spots I explore within it!

４- Read 50 new (for me) books, of which at least 20 should be in French or Spanish. 📚 

This one is of course pretty straightforward: just pushing me to read more, and to read new books instead of rereading old favourites. And also to make more of an effort to read books that aren't in English. 50 books in 1 year will definitely be a challenge, I've only managed it twice before at the height of the pandemic!

５- Write 50 blog posts (in whichever blog). ✍️

This is about pushing me to start writing again and reawaken the blogs. All three of them.

６- Spend 50' every day for 50 days doing at least one of these things: reading, writing, walking or swimming. ⌛

Again, pushing me to dedicate time to things I things I enjoy and really should be doing more regularly!

７- Walk 50km/month for at least five months. 👣 

Same... but with Strava holding me accountable! 😅

８- Reflect on 50 memories, old or new. 🧠

This is inspired by a little "Memories" book my sister Gabby gave me for my birthday! 😍 She's challenged me to take the time to look back and think on memories from childhood until now (about people, places, times... whatever!), but also to jot down any new memories I want to reflect on.

９- Make 50 additions to my Adventure Books. 📖 

Similarly to others, this is pushing me to dive into something I enjoy but have been procrastinating. It's also the other challenge I'm not sure I'll be able to complete on time, simply because of the time it takes to come up with and create each spread. I've had them for almost three years and have only filled in a few of the pages with country lists etc, none of the actual country pages... I have two of them: the Original edition, in which I'm keeping track of countries visited for work, and the Ultimate edition, for the holidays, family visits, or bonus places I see during/after work trips.

10 - Celebrate Star Wars 50th Anniversary with a full movies + series watch in chronological order. ⭐

No one who knows me will be surprised by this one! 😂 Star Wars was my first "geeky obsession" and remains so to this day. I've been wanting to a full watch for a while but again keep saying "maybe next year". And considering we are practically the same age (they were filming the first film the year I was born), it seems to me the perfect time!!! The only thing is, I had intended to do this between January and May 2027, but Ahsoka season 2 will be out in January and I'm not sure I can marathon through the whole prequel saga (incl. Clone Wars) and the original trilogy (& Rebels) in time to watch Ahsoka "live" and have it fit chronologically in the rewatch... So do I wait a few months to watch it? Or do I watch it live out of order and then rewatch it when I catch up? Ahhh! Geeky problems! 😜

These next two challenges I won't be able accomplish within a year since one depends on movies being released in the cinema and the other on me (or my friends) coming up with ideas (that are feasible!).

11 - Do 50 "crazy" things, that I come up with or are suggested by friends. ✌

This is about pushing me out of my comfort zone or just daring me to do something a bit "different" or taking things a bit further than usual.

⇒ Do you have any suggestions / proposals for me? Please feel free to leave them in this Google form! Who knows, I might actually do it! I of course reserve the right to not do it if I feel it's a bit too crazy or dangerous or too expensive... Although that last point might just mean it happens at a later date when my finances are healthier.

12 - Watch 50 movies celebrating a milestone anniversary in the cinema (if possible). 🎥 

I love cinema! Being in the dark room, watching amazing stories come to life on the big screen, surrounded by the sounds... I got the idea to do this last year when Jaws was rereleased for its 50th Anniversary and so I've already been working on this challenge for a year now. The "if possible" part means if the movie is out in the cinema but for whatever reason (e.g. illness) I can't go and end up watching it at home, then it counts! Because sometimes it's out for a very limited run (even just a single day) and well I can't be in two places at once. If I do end up seeing at home, it has to be at the same time as it's in the cinema.

The Road to 60! These are expanding the challenge through the next decade, being more ambitious in scale. I'm at 65 (?) countries I think, we'll see how feasible visiting another 35 in the next decade is... especially since lately I just keep repeating countries for work instead of going to new ones.

13 - Read around the world book challenge. 📚 

This is inspired by several posts I've come across on Instagram. I've been a bookworm for as long as I can remember, and I've often tried to find books by authors from countries I was visiting. This is going to make it more purposeful. And the count starts from zero on my birthday, meaning if I've already read something from a country before then it doesn't matter, I have to find another book to read. What's the current country tally? 198 I believe? 10 years, let's hope that's enough time!!!

⇒ I'm going to need help coming up with titles... If you have suggestions please feel free to leave them in this Google form! 

Conditions: the book has to be by an author from the country, mostly set in the country, and it has to be a book you've read and enjoyed! Oh and if you know me personally, bonus points if you think it's something up my alley...

14 - Reach a tally of 100 countries visited. 🗺

This is to push me to start doing some solo traveling and get out and explore the world more purposefully, not just depending on work to take me to new places. Also it's a bit of a rivalry with one of my colleagues! I thought I had visited more countries than he has, but he's been traveling a lot on his personal time and when we downloaded the BEEN travel app and compared... well not only is he about 10 ahead of me, but I had visited fewer countries than I thought! Something must be done about this... 😈

#Challenging50 - blog post #3