I had the pleasure of welcoming to my podcast, Choosing Hope: Ordinary People doing Extraordinary Things, a woman with an enthralling story, Martha Southgate.  Martha lives in Chicago and hosts a podcast called Broken to Brave.  Early in 2018, when she was about to turn 50, all hell broke loose for Martha. She says in her podcast:

To say I reacted strongly would be an understatement. I was in shock. I was devastated. Angry. Scared. Hopeless. I took to my bed. About 6 months later, I forced myself out of bed. I had wasted my adult life hiding in fear. I couldn’t get those years back, but I could try to salvage the years I had left. I challenged myself to do 50 brave things before I turned 51. This is the story of my year of living dangerously.

In my interview with Martha, we explored how she took matters into her own hands and challenged herself to live fully and fearlessly.  She also reveals some of the brave things she has done and what she learnt about herself through this process. 

Martha’s story inspired me to come up with my own list of 50 things I want to accomplish by December 31, 2021 – some fun, some frivolous, some serious.  These are not life goals; they are just “in the moment” stuff that popped into my head after my interview with Martha. I just took out my journal and wrote, without judgement, without discerning and evaluating.  From a place of vulnerability, here is a partial list of what I dared to put on paper.  And in the past couple of months, I have joyfully completed many of the things, and I’m working on adding more things to get to 50 before the start of 2021.

1. Sell 1,000 copies of my book Choosing Hope: 1 Woman, 3 Cancers
2. Teach a workshop on “How to Write a Memoir” at the Winnipeg Author’s Festival – done
3. Have a coffee date with Ali Velshi – wishful thinking
4. Rent and ride a bike for 20 minutes – maybe next year
5. Create a Fall Wardrobe on a budget – done
6. Get an invite to use my neighbour’s swimming pool! – done
7. Stay in a downtown waterfront condo for 3 days
8. Watch a movie at the Drive-In Theatre – done
9. Read Ben Rhodes book, “The World As It Is”, Zakaria’s “10 lessons for a post-pandemic world” and Maddows,  “Bagman” – in progress
10. Watch RBG’s documentary and Obama’s documentary, “The Final Year”
11. Learn advanced features of BigVu – in progress
12. Raise funds for the Journey to Conquer Cancer – done
13. Get an astrological reading – done
14. Buy something from Facebook Marketplace
15. Learn to use twitter and Instagram effectively
16. Do a full crossword puzzle
17. Learn to play scrabble – in progress
18. Get professional headshots done with Noel – done
19. Order grilled chicken from Chick Fiesta – done, multiple times!
20. Revisit Values list – done
21. Wean off CNN – in progress
22. Learn to read tarot cards
23. Walk 5000 steps, 5 days a week. – in progress
24. Facilitate a 12-week Family Connections program – done
25. Learn how to make cauliflower rice.

This has been a fun and interesting experience. Every day I quickly skim through this list to see what I might tackle. I have managed to knock off a few things on this list, others are works in progress and a few more are yet to be added. If you had to come up with your list of 50 Things, what might it include?

To listen to my conversation with Martha, please click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1056577/6817435-choosing-hope-martha-southgate