I was looking for a series idea for 2025 and this presented itself to me in a fever dream of substack excitement and if you know me at all, you know that meant I had to record it immediately

This week I turned 39 and although I’m not dreading 40, I wanted to use it as a deadline to push myself out of my comfort zone but also to maybe tick some things off I’ve been needing to get done.

I have ADHD and I’ve spent my whole life not understanding why I can’t do things until the last minute and now I know, I can try to reverse engineer situations to manufacture that 11th hour motivation. The ‘almost out of time’ feeling a lot of people feel as they approach a big birthday could work in my favour

I have 52 weeks in which to do 40 things

Right now I only have 20(ish) ideas so this post is an attempt at crowd sourcing the other half

Here’s my list so far, in no particular order

* Have What She’s Having - Visit Katz Deli

* Learn Film Photography

* Have a Colour Analysis

* Write a Book

* Get My Smear (and remove my coil)

* Take a Pottery Class

* Learn to Crochet

* Do a Handstand for 10 seconds

* Read a Physical Book

* Create a Planner to sell

* Go to a Pilates Class

* Make Something I Can Wear

* Watch a New York Sunset

* Watch Fireworks at Disney

* Buy a Piece of Original Art

* Give up Alcohol

* Learn to Play a Song on Piano

* Write a letter to my 50 year old self

* Play The Lottery

* See a Motivational Speaker

* Give Blood

* Take Myself on a Solo Date

I shared this with a friend who said, ‘you’ve never had a smear??’ which tipped me off that perhaps I should clarify, these are not all things I’ve never done but things I want/need to do this year.

My plan is to check in with you weekly and see how I’m doing with the list and possibly even take you along with me on some of the more interesting adventures

My vision board for 40 is a picture of Cher that I found in a vinyl my friend gave me for my birthday. She is 100 years old and more vibrant than I have ever felt in my 39 years. She has a joie de vivre and a don’t-give-a-f**k-attitude that I aspire to and so with that in mind, I’m going to call this my ‘40 by 40 f**k-it-list’

I will be sharing this journey across every platform so whether you prefer snappy videos, long rambles, quick voice notes or full on audio episodes, I have you covered.

This is going to be so much fun, I’m already wondering how we can extend it in 2026. Leave me your suggestions and I’ll be back next week with the final list!

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