Today is the 7 April 2011 and marks my 34th birthday. Today also sees the launch of a new personal project called Being 34. The aim of the project is to celebrate reaching a special age within my life not just today but throughout the 12 months of Being 34.

Why 34?

Since I was nine or ten years old 34 has been my favourite number. It’s not necessarily been a lucky number for me, but I’ve always selected it when asked to randomly pick a number, looked for it when choosing items or making purchases and backed it either in the Grand National or at the roulette table.

The reason 34 is my lucky number is down to one man – Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears.

The reason 34 is my lucky number is down to one man – Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears. In the mid to late 1980s I, along with other kids my age, started to follow American Football and my chosen NFL team to support was the Chicago Bears. Walter was one of their star players, a running back who throughout his career broke record after record.

I recently returned to watching American Football after a long time away and have started to develop a much deeper interest in the sport. Last year I read Walter’s autobiography, a book that was written close to his untimely death in 1999. It was a revealing insight into a great man, his inspirational attitude to life, his commitment to his profession, his love for his family and friends and his selfless work for charity. I’ll write more about Walter and his influence on me in a later post, but for now, all you need to know is that he’s one of the reasons I wanted to do something special when I reached 34.

Thinking cap on

So as my 34th birthday approached I started to think of ways to mark reaching this personal landmark. I thought about how many people usually have a small favourite number. For example, many people choose the number seven as its commonly seen as a lucky number. Others choose numbers of their favourite football player (English football here folks – I couldn’t bring myself to call it soccer) or the day they were born which, unless you operate within an ancient or alien calendar, has a ceiling of 31.

I wanted to do something special to mark the occasion of being the same age as my favourite number.

It occurred to me that some people, because of their young age, would never get to appreciate spending a year of their life where their age matches their favourite number. So as I enter 12 months of Being 34 I wanted to do something special to mark the occasion of being the same age as my favourite number.

This is not a bucket list!

I’ve decided to achieve 34 things in the next year and I’ve started to compile a list of activities I want to complete before I reach 35. Some of these activities, tasks, challenges, call them what you will, are pretty basic. However some will require a little more effort and time.

This list is not to be confused with a so-called bucket list of things I want to achieve before I die. If it were then travelling to Japan would be high up there. Instead this list is reflective of my current situation, cash flow, commitments and responsibilities. It’s a list of activities that represent my interests, geographical location, beliefs and things I want to experiment with or have always wanted to try but never got around to doing.
 So without further ado, and in no particular order, here is what I’ve come up with so far:

Stay tuned

The most observant of you will notice that I haven’t a full list of 34 activities yet. That’s because I want to leave some room for suggestions from friends and family and allow for new activities to be added as and when I think of them throughout the year.

I’ll be trying to update the blog as much as I can to keep you abreast of the latest developments with the project. So stay tuned! In the meantime if you should have any suggestions for activities please let me know.

Useful links

Number 34
Walter Payton
Deal or No Deal
BUAFL