List 1: 30 Reasons Why I’m Writing 30 Lists of 30

30 Lists of 30 to Celebrate my 30th Birthday

6 min readAug 2, 2021

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The What & Why Behind This Project:

This year I turn 30. And my gosh, I have been thinking about it a lot. I don’t know if it’s the pandemic, or the fact that this milestone is loaded with many societal expectations, but my mind has inundated me with reflections and memories from the past, with questions arising about my life choices and lesson learnt, about my expectations of being a human and about my desires for the future. And this combined with pandemic reflections has meant there has been a lot on my mind….🤔

I started writing a series of questions and lists of all the elements I wanted to capture and articulate. There were a lot, unsurprisingly; 30 years is a long time really! So I gave up on the 1 list idea that I normally write (30 reflections/lessons turning 30) and decided to write 30 lists.

30 Lists of 30, for my 30th Birthday.

Who are these lists for, you might wonder? I started writing reflections many years ago to get to know myself better. And when I shared these raw and real accounts with friends I discovered that what I wrote about my individual journey, touched upon something universally human. Beyond the masks and labels we wear is a messy, beautifully complex life, with highs and lows. And more similar to others than we might think.

So I share them in the hope that you too might feel something — intrigue, joy, resonance or maybe even difference — as you reflect on what it means to be a human. I recognise that my experiences are my own, that some come from a place of privilege and that they may not all be relatable or interesting to you. I know I can’t please everyone, so take what you can…(and let me know what lands!).

So, Back to Lists…

The Why Behind List #1 (deliciously meta!):

Why do we do the things we do? When asked this question it’s often easy to come up with a reason, a rationale. But I feel that it’s never just one thing that drives us — there are often multiple factors involved, and some of them we identify with (because they’re the things society celebrates, like learning) and some we perhaps feel some shame admitting (for instance because they are purely hedonistic). And when one asks oneself for 30 reasons why, you end up moving beyond the expected, surface level, known motivations and end up discovering a lot more surprising drivers.

List #1 — 30 Reasons Why I’m Writing 30 Lists of 30

To tell the ‘real’ truth about the journey of life and what it means to be human, without the sugar-coating
To help me reflect, make sense of and articulate what I’ve learnt from life so far
To instal a ritual of pausing and reflecting at milestones , appreciating the past and present before I race into the future
To celebrate who I have become
To let go and close the door of the past
To identify what beliefs & experiences served me, so I can direct my life towards creating more of them
To capture the stories from my first 30 years, before I forget them
To practice giving, and not just receiving on my birthday
For the pure joy of it! Because writing lists is really fun & so-doable
Because once I get an idea in my mind that won’t go away, I find it very difficult to hold back from creating it
To invite you to see me as an equal. So you can see my imperfections and anxieties and take me and my achievements off any pedestals
To discover parts of my inner world that I have not yet accessed
To discover what other people want me to write about
To find a way or a reason to reexamine and compile all the thousands of thoughts I’ve written on my digital notes app (7,509 to date — and not even filed properly!)
To share what my inner world looks like
To practice shipping work that is 80% good enough
To stretch my creative brain with a fresh challenge, and see whether I can come up with 30 answers that are both unique and high quality
To build my ideas muscle (as James Altucher says - if you can’t write 10 ideas, write 20)
To enjoy the challenge of discovering the most interesting questions to ask
To discover what beautiful serendipity might happen when I publish these lists to the world
To get you thinking about your journey of life and what it might mean for you to turn 30
To reconnect with friends in a novel way, creating new stimuli for us to explore and relate with
To start a conversation with someone who I don’t know (yet)
Because it’s a neat way to capture all the incomplete blog post notes that I have been procrastinating on for years
Because I wanted to write a mini-memoir, but then felt self-conscious about doing this at 30, and this feels like a creative way of sharing a memoir without it technically being one
Because I keep being told by my ‘Conversations with Georgie’ newsletter readers that I should write a book
Because I might die tomorrow and I feel all the intense learning experiences I’ve had might be wasted
To experience the sensation of the vulnerability hangover, as I explore the edges of what I feel comfortable sharing about myself
To grow as a writer
Because I have a voice that wants to be heard. And to invite you to share your voice too

☕ If you enjoyed reading this list and want to support my writing I would love a coffee!

👉 https://www.buymeacoffee.com/30Listsof30 👈

Your support will help me fund my PhD starting in October 2021 at the School of Design Engineering, Imperial College, London. The subject: Human Connection & Conversation Design. This research lab > interactionfoundry.com

Want To Read More Lists?

I’m publishing one list every day in August (and will add the hyperlinks below).

Want To Read More Lists?

I’m publishing one list every day in August (and will add the hyperlinks below).

Follow me on Medium to read them.

Still Curious?!

💬 Watch my TEDx talk: Talking to Strangers: Having a Meaningful Conversation

📖 Read about some of my work recently published in Entrepreneur.com How to Become a Master at Talking to Strangers

✍️ Stay connected through Conversations With Georgie: The Home of My Thoughts as a Life-Long Learner. Curious. Deep. Exploratory. Real and Raw.

📧 Contact Me: Georgie@Triggerconversations.co.uk

List 1: 30 Reasons Why I’m Writing 30 Lists of 30

30 Lists of 30 to Celebrate my 30th Birthday

So, Back to Lists…

Written by Georgie Nightingall