Birthday special: 35 things I wish to come true by my next birthday

Putting these wishes out there for you and the Universe

Image: Adi Goldstein | Unsplash

Back in 2015, I had a rudimentary blog in which I created a slideshow of my travel bucket list for the year. Though I’ve lost the link to that post, something interesting resulted from it.

Over the next few years, I ended up visiting 3–4 of the 7 destinations featured in it! These were either self-funded, self-planned trips the Universe helped made happen or work trips sponsored by my previous employer.

That experience taught me the power of spelling out what you want in writing or images. I wonder whether I’d have been able to tour so many places if I wouldn’t have taken the time to figure out my dream destinations.

So, while contemplating a blog post for my birthday this year, I thought why not put out my wish-list itself as an entry. What if you’d like to create your own?

I have another birthday-related blog post ready, but I’m rescheduling it for another week or perhaps the next year itself in order to focus on this exercise.

Agreed, it’s a big list. But then why not ask for whatever’s on your mind and heart, without worrying about the cost, time, or effort involved?

That’s why here’s my list in no particular order for the year until my next birthday, which is when I turn 35. I’ve tried to be as specific as possible where it wasn’t too revelatory, but let’s not worry about that for now and just get our wants and desires out. Also, no pressure on fulfilling every single one of them—even if one gets done, I’d count it as a huge achievement, though I’ll put in as much amount of work as is possible for me:

1) Learning film and video editing

2) Reaching or crossing my dream income, ideally by collaborating with the best clients

3) Moving into a new home and planning its décor—preferably, a duplex apartment on rent for my family and me

Image: Nathan Van Egmond | Unsplash

4) Investing in my financial education and building a strong bank of assets (and finding out how this can be done without money necessarily going out)

5) Seeing my blog visits cross the 10,000-mark—coming up with a strategy for it and implementing it

6) Learning acting, creating a portfolio, and auditioning as much as I can

Image: Kyle Head | Unsplash

7) Giving more than taking—finding out a cause I believe in and contributing to it

8) Seeing my book PiKu & ViRu (buy or download here) turned into a major motion picture (or at least optioned by a big studio)

9) Learning improv comedy and performing stand-up acts

Image: Bogomil Mihaylov | Unsplash

10) Writing and publishing PiKu & ViRu 2 (or at least getting the manuscript ready and approaching publishers) and drafting a strong marketing strategy for it

11) Seeing one more story of mine go into production—creating a bank of 20+ screenplays to increase my chances

12) Prioritising skin- and haircare

Image: Hemptouch CBD | Unsplash

13) Streamlining my business and becoming more organised

14) Starting web publications of my own

15) Travelling to Kashmir and the Himalayas once the pandemic situation improves

Image: prayer flags | Unsplash

16) Reading at least one page of a book per day

17) Writing a short story and submitting it to a publication or anthology

18) Meditating every night

Image: Ksenia Makagonova | Unsplash

19) Writing essays and travelogues for publications

20) Conducting writing/blogging workshops

21) Investing in an oven and learning baking

Image: Hello I'm Nik 🍔 | Unsplash

22) Checking emails and social media only on certain fixed hours

23) Hiring a manager or assistant

24) Going on a hike and spending more time in nature

Image: Jake Melara | Unsplash

25) Reading a screenplay every 2–4 weeks

26) Reaching 2,000 Twitter followers, 1,000 Instagram followers, and getting a blue check on Twitter, plus planning and putting out content that helps me achieve these and doing that @ one post/story per day

27) Meeting my dream man

Image: Jonathan Borba | Unsplash

28) Networking more, especially in the film industry—frequenting movie hubs such as Versova and Juhu once it’s safer to go

29) Finding out ways to work/do less and achieve more and implementing them—maybe by scheduling only ONE to-do per day

30) Catching up with the content on Netflix, Hotstar, Zee5, Eros Now (already doing that for Amazon Prime Video)

Image: Matt Wildbore | Unsplash

31) Chewing every morsel 32+ times and enjoying it mindfully

32) Heading out more often for walks and jogs—at least once a week for an hour

33) Netting 6–8 hours of sleep every night

Image: Alexander Possingham | Unsplash

34) Getting >100 reviews each on Amazon and Goodreads for P&V

35) Guest-posting on blogs, as well as inviting guest posts on this blog

What’s on your wish-list for the time until your next birthday? Tell me in the comments.