Last night I was rummaging through the kitchen drawer, not just any drawer, THAT drawer. You know the one, the one that’s filled with ‘stuff’. ‘Stuff’ that doesn’t belong in the kitchen and technically doesn’t belong anywhere. It’s filled with bits of paper, a few folders, pens, tape, wrapping paper, maybe a tape measure that hasn’t made it back to the toolbox, you know the one, just ‘stuff’.

As I rummaged I came across an old notebook, a notebook that was a Christmas present in 2004. When I received this book I was 23 years old and it was given to me by my boyfriend at the time. Inside the front cover it read:

I carried through with this exercise and inside this book I wrote down my dreams, where I wanted to be and what I wanted life to be like in 5, 10, 20 and even 40 years time. At the time these dreams felt like climbing a mountain, like climbing Mount Everest, like the impossible. Now eight years on after rummaging through the kitchen drawer, I look back in awe. While there’s still a few mountains to climb, it turns out most of them weren’t so massive after all and they definitely weren’t the impossible!

Where will you be and what will life be like for you in 5, 10, 20 or even 40 years time? It is in your hands, write it down and turn your dreams into reality.

P.S. That boyfriend at the time became my husband and in 32 years time, 40 years on from when I wrote in this book, we’ll be sitting on the deck of our beach front bach, with wine in hand, watching the sun go down reflecting on a life filled with travel, food, family and friends.