In my birthday post, I mentioned a 365 day challenge that I’m starting to make sure that I am maximizing my experiences and staying fulfilled.

One of the things that has happened as I get older and a little more stuck in my ways is that I don’t meet as many people as I used to. I am no longer in college, I don’t have a very social job and a lot of my normal responsibilities include being with the same people all the time. In order for me to make new acquaintances, I have to be intentional about it. So when my blog friend James invited me to start a yearlong challenge and I began to think about what I wanted to spend a year focusing on, this is what came to mind – I would make a plan of 365 kinds of people that I want to meet and try to meet at least one of them every day. The next step in formulating a challenge of this sort was figuring out whether there are indeed 365 different kinds of people and how would I know what category they fall into until I’ve met them. Well, that discovery is part of the fun, isn’t it?

I love geography and history and would love to visit every country in the world but until then, wouldn’t it be fun to meet someone from each of the almost 200 official countries of the world? Then how about a person from every one of the 50 United States. That’s around 250. Then how about alumni from the  8 Ivy League universities? Or professionals who work in certain fields? And while we’re at it, how about meeting some celebrities that I admire? That might be a little more difficult to accomplish but it’s not a challenge if it’s all easy, right? This will require some planning and some high level intentional living but all in all, this is how the list will be compiled. There will be 365 categories and I plan to cross off one item on the list every day and on my next birthday, I would love to be able to announce that I have met 365 new people.

Some of these are definitely going to be easier to accomplish than others. It will be easy to encounter another Jamaican or a native New Yorker that I’ve never met before. Meeting someone from Vanuatu will take a little more effort. The population of that country is less than 300K so statistically, I am starting with a much smaller sample, plus since they are all the way on the other side of the world on the coast of Australia and maybe two people per year leave that country to visit New York (I’m just saying), I might have to set up camp at JFK airport if I want to meet those two when they visit.

I’ll create a new tab on the front page of my blog so that you can join me on the journey as I update my progress. I’ll probably meet 50 people from the list, instead of 365 but wouldn’t it be something if I am able to say that I met 365 new people in a year? Watch me try!

What about you? Do you make big life changes after your birthday?