A few days ago, I completed my 30th lap around the sun! This crazy milestone that everyone talks about for what feels like a whole decade. As soon as you hit your 25th birthday, it seems like all anyone can talk about is your big 30th. It’s the one. The one where you’re entering into this massively new chapter, this whole new decade of your life. You survived your twenties, the decade of going wild, making mistakes, getting lost, getting found, falling in love, going on adventures, and discovering who you truly are.

Now that you’re entering into your thirties, the game changes, you’re supposed to know yourself by now. You’re expected to have it figured out because, well, you’re basically a full-fledged adult now. You’re past your go-wild, go-party and go-crazy phase of life.

Well I don’t know about any of yall in your thirties, but I sure as hell don’t have it all figured out. And I am so far from being out of my go-wild and go-adventure phase of life. I’ve still got a hell of alot of life left to live and alot more adventures to embark on!

Breaking into this new chapter in life, I knew I wanted to start off with a fresh mindset, fresh perspective, and fresh goals.

After an absolute roller coaster of a time traveling around Asia for nine months last year, I did quite a bit of soul searching. I dove in to truly reflect on that experience, all of my previous travels, and how I want to move forward with my adventures in the future.

After exploring the world (relatively aimlessly) for the last seven years, I wanted to step into a new chapter and mindset of traveling. While solo budget traveling with basically no plans ever and an almost comical bank account has been the absolute most incredible experience of my entire life, it’s definitely started to take a bit of a toll on me and my mental and emotional well-being. I want my travels and my experiences to become a bit more focused. I want to start setting tangible goals and start reaching for bigger objectives. I want to have direction.

Having this mindset, I knew I wanted my birthday to be kind of a starting line for this new chapter of traveling and all-together, just existing. I follow a beautiful travel blog called Traveling Jackie, where she talks alot about solo traveling and all of the struggles and rewards that come with that lifestyle. She has this practice every year, where she sets goals for herself and then comes up with one word that basically ties it all together and that’s her word for the year. It helps her stay focused and keeps her on the right path to accomplish all of her goals.

I really love this idea and thought I would try it for this new decade that I would be stepping into. My soul has definitely been craving some sort of direction in my life, whether it be career-based or lifestyle-based, or where I want to go next or where I want to end up in the future. So then I thought “Direction” would be a nice word for my year to focus on, but the more I meditated and reflected on it, the word “Align” stuck out to me a bit more. Alignment is when you are in sync with both the universe and the highest version of yourself. This word truly resonates with me because it is in some ways synonymous with “direction” but it goes a bit deeper and connects that direction with the deepest parts of your soul. You truly are the most fulfilled and alive when you are living in alignment with the highest and most beautiful version of yourself and what your life’s purpose is.

After reflecting on what I’m desiring for this next year of my life, I decided that in order to truly align and commit to my intention of setting tangible goals and objectives, I needed a list! You’ve probably heard of the “Thirty Before Thirty” lists of all of the things people want to accomplish before they turn thirty. Well, I took a bit of a spin on it, and decided to make a “Thirty in Thirty”, which is basically all of the things I want to accomplish in my thirtieth year! This list is here to help give me direction and to help me stay in alignment with the desires of my soul and what I want out of life and out of this next chapter. Some are physical goals and ways that I want to push myself in the mountains. Others are focused on self-care and personal growth. And others are just for fun, always trying to live my life in the most wonderful, beautiful, and fulfilling way possible!

When I was reflecting and writing out this list, I felt so giddy. Just seeing all of these beautiful dreams and adventures that I have on paper and thinking about the day I will cross each of them off made me incredibly excited for this next year! I feel so much gratitude that I have the privilege to live such a beautiful and adventurous life and never want to take a single moment of it for granted!

Here’s my personal Thirty in Thirty List and hopefully this inspires you to make your own for this upcoming year! I’ve got some big adventures planned, so if you’re keen to join in on some of these, reach out and let’s make them happen together! I’ll be updating and adding photos to the list as I complete them all!

My Thirty in Thirty List

Go sky diving- preferably over snowcapped mountains (luckily, I just became friends with like 10 sky diving instructors haha!)
Go mountaineering- ropes, crampons and ice axes required- DONE!

Travel to at least one new country (South America or Africa? once I leave New Zealand in April)
Go on a solo-cation in a beautiful cabin somewhere in the mountains (no technology, just me, my journal, and Momma Nature)
Ride in a hot air balloon
Ayahuasca retreat (only in South America, or if not, than another plant medicine retreat)
Climb a 3000m peak (one of the highest peaks in New Zealand)
Get my wildflower tattoo
Go to a festival (still planning which one and hoping to go to more than one!)
Sleep more nights outside than inside
Write a letter to 30 people who have been meaningful in my life
Write out my Bucket List and create my Vision Board
Go on a service trip
Host a themed party (Murder Mystery, Masquerade Ball, Renaissance…)
Start a podcast (Meg’s Adventtures- stories of all of my crazy and wild travel experiences!)
Learn Spanish (if in South America, or a different language if in another country for long enough)
Go on a no-phone trip (at least two weeks)
Host a spiritual retreat or a spiritual women’s circle
Set one tangible monthly goal each month
Go on a bike packing trip (still in the works of planning, but hopefully somewhere in South America or Africa)
Do a three-day fast
Play guitar at a live music night at a bar
Take an acting class
Host a couchsurfer
Learn to drive manual
Guide a recreational V3A3 canyon
Sign up for an NZOIA assessment course (preferably alpine travel)
Learn about investments and start investing my savings
Crochet a crop top
Start building an adventure travel company

Wow, typing those out got me all excited all over again! Life is full of so many beautiful adventures, beautiful moments and beautiful people if you can take the time to see it all. I hope that this year will lead to some incredible adventures, mountains of self growth, and genuine connections with other beautiful souls.

It still blows me away that I’m honestly in my thirties now!! I feel wayyyyy too young to be thirty already. I still very much feel like a kid at heart! However, each year has brought so many challenges which all lead to an incomparable amount of self growth. Each day, I have learned more and more about myself and how to navigate through this crazy journey we call life and I am more than excited to see how life will continue to push me to grow and teach me new lessons.

Goodbye wild twenties and hello wild thirties!