30 Before 30 – Goals to Accomplish Before My 30th Birthday

I’m having an issue where some images are not appearing properly; I’m sorry if you encounter broken or blurry images in this post. I’m working to get this fixed and appreciate your support.

These photos come from an amazing service called Death to the Stock Photo. Trust me, I’m hooked on what they do in providing high quality photos for free, but you’ll still see a healthy mix of my own photos too.

As of yesterday, I am officially 30 months away from my 30th birthday. While I’d like to think that this milestone won’t seem like a big deal, I have a feeling that in two-and-a-half years, I might feel differently. To preemptively make my 30th birthday a celebration rather than a commiseration, I’ve decided to make it all positive. With 30 goals to accomplish before 30, I’m hoping that I can look at my 30th birthday as a pathway forward to another awesome decade, rather than a window looking backward on a decade that could have been more awesome.

Whenever I accomplish one of these goals, I’ll be sure to add a post about it–so we can all celebrate together, and I can hopefully inspire you to start setting and accomplishing your goals too!

Travel Goals

1. Finish the ‘Around the World’ calendar: Cairo, Moscow, Athens, Sydney, Tokyo, New York
2. Swim in the Mediterranean Sea
3. See Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog’s Day
4. Take a Caribbean Cruise
5. Scale a wall of the Grand Canyon (NB: on mule-back!)
6. Hike Symphony Lakes Trail (Alaska)
7. Bike to Eklutna Glacier (Alaska)
8. Go swimming with dolphins
9. Visit Africa
10. Spend at least one month living abroad in the same place

Business Goals

11. Get an article published in an outside publication, online (Completed 12/3/14)
12. Get an article published in an outside publication, in print
13. Have someone outside of my family pay for one of my canvas prints (Completed 1/22/15)
14. Have my photography displayed in a gallery
15. Purchase a new digital camera (Completed 12/8/14)
16. Have 500+ email subscribers
17. Run a print ad in a magazine for the site
18. Purchase a new computer for work/travel
19. Begin a long-term brand partnership (>1 year)
20. Cross 5,000 Twitter followers (Completed 3/9/15)

Personal Goals

21. Re-run my personal London 10k route
22. Run my personal Seattle 10k route
23. Plan and execute the ultimate destination 30^th birthday party
24. Pay off all my credit card debt and pay down the rest of my car
25. Begin writing a book of short stories, memoirs, etc.
26. Become a dual-citizen with Croatia
27. Become intermediate to proficiently fluent in a foreign language
28. Sell one of my canvas paintings
29. Invest >$1000 in a new professional & travel wardrobe
30. Buy a really, really nice set of sheets

Do you have any big milestones coming up? What goals have you set, if any?

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