I made it. The end of a year in which I learned to forgive myself, invest in myself, be okay with whatever came up (or fell down) and to love myself again. I even became okay with being inspiring and, trust me, that one was hard.
At the beginning of this year, I went through the motions to cross experiences off my to-do list with little regard to others. At the end of this year, I understand that what I do has an impact on the people around me. It is funny how we are quick to recognize the contributions of others in our lives, but quicker to dismiss that we might have a positive influence in their world.
With that in mind, I decided to punctuate my year with a permanent record of my achievements. Sure, there may be a lasting impression from the whole year, but as I was completing the weeks, it seemed unremarkable. What better way to leave a legacy than to solidify my year with a Guinness Book of World Records Record. That’s right. I trained, and trained some more, to get my name in the book that we all poured over as kids. Ridiculous and adolescent. I know. But isn’t that fun at times? You still laugh at fart jokes. I know you do. You might even retell them occasionally you sassy devil.
I scoured the second-hand shops for bigger and bigger shirts to hold the record for the most t-shirts put on in a minute. I laundered them to get them soft and pliable. I trained for hours on my own. I got my groove and applied to set the record. Then they sent me the rules, and they were not what I was working with, so I started again. The whole ordeal began to feel like an analogy for my year. Let me explain… No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
- I began my experiences small and manageable on my own and got bigger and bigger as the weeks went by–the shirts start small and get bigger and bigger.
- I had to work with the t-shirts to get them soft and pliable. I had to work with my friends and family to get to the point that they couldn’t wait to be part of the next adventure.
- The rules changed part way through. It wasn’t so much the rules as the focus shifted for me sometime around week twenty-eight. It became more about the people with me on my adventure and building a support team to take me into my fifty-first year, and beyond then it did about anything I was accomplishing. I just loved it when my friends and family learned or experienced something new. It surprised me how important that became.
- I piled on a lot in the year. Like the multitude of t-shirts, a lot was going on. But the payoff was worth the effort.
Guinness now has all the evidence they need to decide if I am a world record holder or not but it has stopped mattering. You see, I realized that through the weight of those t-shirts I found out that I don’t need the record to make a lasting impression. Just as the people who supported me for my year of life-list experiences have made a lasting impression on me, I have made my mark on their lives as well. That is powerful to believe about yourself. It took me far too long to get there, and I hope for all of you, you understand it without the upheaval of a year-long challenge.
You are enough. You are an inspiration. You are what the world needs from you.
Thank you. Thank you for reading, following along, for sharing, and inspiring me.
<3 Kristine
My Turning 50 Like a Boss Tip: Pile on your support team, you can have more than you ever thought you’d need.
Check out the video: Rocky’s Got Nothing on Me!
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