In  13 weeks I’ll be celebrating my 65th birthday. How did that even happen? It doesn’t feel so long ago that my whole life was in front of me. Now, another fifteen years feels ambitious.  If I throw in my dodgy heart Saturday week may be a win. 

It is an interesting place to be. When the majority of your life is behind you there is a focus. I don’t have lots of time. If I want to do something I have to start planning for it now. And doing it.

But whilst the majority of my life is now a memory I certainly don’t believe that the best is behind me. There is a feeling of liberation, empowerment. That anything is possible.

I recently had an interesting conversation with a friend about goals. She is as goal driven as am I but it dawned on me that I didn’t use to be. Life presented itself with opportunities which I took. And my work was very outcome driven so, maybe that quenched my goal thirst.

On reflection my goal mentality started to emerge when I became interested in fitness. A lot of my goals have been strength and endurance focused:

• 5 Great Swims (2012)
• Spartan (2014)
• Tough Mudder (2016)
• Half Marathon (2017)
• 3 National Peaks (2017), 3 Yorkshire Peaks (2018), 3 Welsh Peaks (2019), Carrauntoohil (2022)
• Hyrox x 3 (2022/23)
• Deadlifting 120kg (2023)

And I remain goal driven where my fitness is concerned. At a time of my life when strength and endurance starts to take a bit of a nose dive having a fitness goal, even if it is to retain what I currently have, helps keep me strong and as fast as I can be.

My number one goal for my 65th birthday is to do a pull up. It has been on my list for years but has been elusive. I’ve now got just a few weeks to go for it.

A month after my 65^th birthday I’ll be competing in my 4^th Hyrox.

So what else? There are still a number of places I want to visit and experiences to be had. I’m setting myself a 52 for 52 target for 2024. 52 experiences, places in the next 52 weeks. From making sour dough, experimenting with reels, walking the Norfolk coastal path to embracing my creativity.

I’ve signed up for an art course. I have a very limited artistic skill set. When I was doing my O levels (yes that long ago) I wasn’t allowed to do art, I was that bad. So doing an art course is way out of my comfort zone. But I did a taster workshop a couple of weeks ago. I loved it and the end result wasn’t a car crash. It was a fairly respectable festive robin.

But rest assured I won’t be joining a choir. I sound like Brigette Jones on a bad day.

I want to build my coaching business up. I feel as if I have so much to give as a coach. I love how it can change lives. I’m now coming to the end of my second year doing a Masters in Coaching. A 15,000 word dissertation is on the horizon.

At the centre of a life that want to live with purpose and passion is my health. Ten years ago this was something I took for granted. Since then I’ve experienced two periods of ill health. I needed open heart surgery in 2015 and developed an overactive thyroid in 2021. Both brought into focus that my health is everything. Without it joy is sucked out of life. So a lot of what I do is about protecting what I have and enjoying life while I’m still healthy and relatively fit.

To that end on my 65th birthday I will celebrate with a 6.5km run, 65 burpees and 65 wall balls. Followed by a dirty burger and a porn star martini. There has to be a balance. 

Happy New Year.