Do you want to squeeze all you can out of life? I do. That’s why my motto is “save lives, enjoy your own.” As a physician, I spend a lot of time serving, and I want to live well too. To me, that’s the balance. I want to live with purpose, to contribute to something greater than myself. At the same time, I’m not living for others, and I want to experience all the best life has to offer. That’s why when I heard of the idea of writing down 50 aspirations during a leadership seminar, I absolutely loved it. What better way to brainstorm all your biggest dreams? Writing them down makes them one step closer to becoming a reality. So here’s my list, and I dare you to create one of your own. Don’t hold back as you come up with 50 aspirations for your life! 

The prompt: what does it mean to have 50 aspirations?

If money were no object, and if you were to eliminate limitations of any kind, what 50 things you would like to do, try, accomplish, or experience in your life?

Experience

Live in Spain

Visit Italy and eat everything

Stay in a magical Italian villa

See Argentina

Soak in Japan, culture shock and all

Take a camper van around New Zealand

Have another baby

See the Galapagos islands

Spend a month on a houseboat in Seattle

See Alaska: the mountains of ice, the wildlife, what the cities are like 

Snowboard with my son

Snowboard at Whistler

Experience the Kayakapi Premium Caves in Turkey

Swim with whale sharks

Lope around the West including Glacier NP in an RV or van

Accomplish

Publish a memoir

Speak to over 500 people on a stage

Become a multimillionaire

Get 10,000 pageviews a month on my website

Inspire 1000 women surgeons

Get paid $5k to speak 

Get paid $10k to speak

Write a children’s book about women in male-dominated fields of medicine

Acquire a new income property every couple of years to create a nice portfolio

Own valuable land or a mountain as a potential future homestead or to flip

Indulge

Get a teak cabin in the jungle in Thailand with a personal chef to feed my fam

Rent a big ski cabin with friends

Rent a lake house in Idaho or WA

Enjoy a trip to Hawaii again

Be comfortable in my skin

Become more and more myself

Fly first class

Have someone buy me a first-class ticket to speak or contribute

Laugh every day

Curate a fantastic loungewear wardrobe

Try a personal stylist

Value & treat myself like a pampered pet

Health aspirations

Eschew sugar

Get help optimizing my diet

Maintain my skin/ age well

Maintain a steady weight

Experience every kind of love 

Master the art of setting boundaries

Spend as much time on a catamaran as I damn well please

Trust myself implicitly

Develop my intuition and connection with myself through reading, learning, & exploring

Even as you assemble 50 aspirations, recognize how great your life is now.

As I sit in my hot tub typing this on a sunny California afternoon, I’m already living the dream. Even as I go through a massive personal transition, my life is perfect in so many ways. I recently engaged a life coach to help ease the transition. She’d challenge me, asking, “What is perfect about your life right now?” I love this question because it turns on all kinds of light bulbs for me! Try it out for yourself.

1. My job is secure
2. I have options
3. My friends are beautiful, interesting, and big hearted
4. Life is full of joy
5. I ran today (and I’m grateful that I’m able to run…)
6. I live by these incredible mountains
7. There are Japanese orchids blooming in the trees
8. My family cares about me
9. My little boy is healthy
10. I have free time
11. I can create
12. There’s more to explore

I think you get the idea. 

I hope this inspires you to get out a pen and paper yourself– or at least the notes app on your phone!

I’m sending encouragement your way. As you march through life in a male-dominated field, don’t forget to dream. 

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