By way of introduction...

Hello. I am a mostly average person. I work in marketing. I live in London. I have lots of close friends and a great family. I like the usual things, more or less to the same extent as anyone else really.

Recently I have noticed that I far too often pin my happiness and wellbeing on the thoughts and actions of others. I'm sure we've all done it. Last night I found myself hauling myself over the coals over yet another guy who picked the other girl. And then a very wise friend pointed out that if the same thing was happening each time, the only common factor in the situations was me. I need to change.

So, with a landmark birthday staring me in the face, I made a list. A list of 52 things that make me happy, or scare me, or will give me a sense of doing something good for the world, or my friends, or my family. Some of them are easy (baking bread, dipping my toes in the sea). Some I will find harder (make an item of clothing, speak to a room of people). Some will be downright expensive (eat salt beef in New York, see puffins), so may have to be edited later. In fact, I am saving my list now and going back to it tomorrow, as I always like room to edit.

The idea is that from my 30th birthday on the 19th April to my 31st birthday in 2010, I will try to complete as many of these things as I can - one a week if possible. And I want to do it for charity. How to work this out, I am not sure, but it may be that people sponsor me for each one I complete, or I just put several charitable items in the list. I am not sure anyone will sponsor me to take a tango class, for instance, but they may sponsor me to do a skydive. I will record my experiences each week, and maybe someone will want to read about them - who knows? Stranger things have happened.

I will add the list tomorrow once I have ascertained that there are enough realistic ones to counterbalance the ones that will make a real difference.