Tomorrow I will be officially 31 years of age. Yup, now well and truly on the slippery slope downwards, towards the dreaded “old age” that will eventually catch up to all of us. A lot changed in one year, and from having a lot of goals in front of me, and perhaps being a little despondent and questioning at this exact point a year ago, I am now down to only a handful of life achievements that I aspire to, or that I can at least think of.

Case in point. I now have my loving wife, my comfortable home, my beautiful daughter, I’m earning a decent salary in a field which I enjoy, I have a reliable car for a change, and my journey towards that elusive black belt continues at a steady pace.

So what does this mean for me and the things I still want to achieve in life?

Without a doubt, one of my crowning achievements in life! :)

Well actually I’m in a pretty rosy position, considering that I literally only have four identified achievements that are of any importance to me – and best of all, all four of these “life” goals are actually very, very achievable. And so in no particular order…

One, I would one day love to be a published author – I want to write a book, actually, probably a fair number of them taking into consideration all of the ideas that continuously bounce around my head. This one is no problem because a) writing holds no challenge for me (as far as I’m concerned) and b) thanks to the world of self-publishing opened up by the realm of e-books and their electronic partners like the Kindle and Nook, getting something out there into the public really doesn’t have any real barrier to entry any more!

Two, I would like to be a published cartoonist, having cartoons that are either in some form of print or at least appearing on some heavy hitter online site. Again, this is actually pretty doable considering I have the necessary skills in all aspects of generating comics (hell, I do it already when I have the time), so no worries there.

Three, I really want to run my own business. Thankfully, being a top to bottom developer makes it really easy for me to come up with and implement concepts from start to finish before setting them loose on the public, and with virtually no upfront costs or investments required because I work in the digital realm, I could literally start up something tomorrow if I was so inclined!

Four, eventually run my own dojo, again something that will be quite doable in time – on have reached the necessary proficiency of course, and considering the variety of venues (both indoor and outdoor) that I have trained in over my own period of learning means that this one isn’t quite as restricted as a person might first think.

And that is really it as far as the things I really do still want to achieve in my life goes. Like I pointed out, all four very easy to achieve by my measure, the only thing needed being of course time, something which always seems pretty scarce for a 08:30 to 17:00 working salary-man with a six month old baby, house, cats and wife on his hands! :P

But they will all eventually come to pass and as such, I can quite truthfully and happily say I’m in a good place (as per usual). No emotional baggage, past trauma or disasters pulling me down, no strange mental or well-being afflictions making me miserable, a loving and comfortable living environment, a sense of purpose and necessity thanks to my helpless little baby girl – yup, just like LG likes to say, life IS good.

So turning 31 is no real biggie, I have confidence in my future and am looking forward to what it will bring.

And as for celebrating it?

Well thanks to the boss’ new policy of automatic leave on your birthday, and a willing babysitter in terms of Ouma and Oupa, Chantelle and I will be out and about in Cape Town, with fingers crossed in terms of the weather, so that things like the Table Mountain cable car, biodiversity park, Waterfront and the all important day long self-indulgence can take place!