Karen Amster-Young - The 52 Weeks: Two Women and Their Quest to Get Unstuck, with Stories and Ideas to Jumpstart Your Year of Discovery

Copyright 2013 by Karen Amster-Young and Pam Godwin

The 52 Weeks is a registered trademark of Karen Amster-Young and Pamela Godwin. Some of the material in this book originally appeared in the blog http://the52weeks.com.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
ISBN: 978-1-62636-502-5

Printed in China

And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!

Dr. Seuss

The 52 Weeks Experts & Contributors

Trying Something New

Alex Lickerman, M.D., author of The Undefeated Mind: On the Science of Constructing an Indestructible Self

Ellen Leikind, founder, PokerprimaDivas

Wellness

Jennifer H. Mieres, M.D., nuclear cardiologist, author, and leading expert in womens heart health Lisa Lillien, best selling author and creator of The Hungry Girl brand

Just for Fun

Michele Balan, comedian and finalist of NBCs Last Comic Standing Nadia Stieglitz, founder, Mice at Play

Enda Junkins, LCSW, motivational speaker, Laughter Therapy expert

Arts & Culture

Daniella Ohad Smith, Ph.D., design historian, critic on 20th Century art and art advisor Andrea Blanch, award-winning photographer and founder of Muse Magazine

Relationships

Debbie Magids, Ph.D., counseling psychologist, author Helen Fisher, Ph.D., biological anthropologist, journalist, and author

Facing Fears

Lauren Kantor Gorman, M.D., psychiatrist, faculty member at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine

Giving Back

Joi Gordon, CEO, Dress for Success Worldwide Marie-Yolaine Eusebe, CEO, Community2Comunity (C2C) Julie Weiss, Marathon Goddess, 52 Marathons in 52 Weeks

Changing Course

Pamela Weinberg, author, career coach, and co-founder of MYOBMoms, (Mind Your Own Business Moms)

Vivian Steir Rabin, author and co-founder, iRelaunch

Flying Solo, with Jami Kelmenson

Helen Fisher, Ph.D., biological anthropologist, journalist and author Robin Gorman Newman, founder of Motherhood LaterThan Sooner; author of How to Meet a Mensch in NY and How to Marry a Mensch

Jennifer Gardner Trulson, author of the award-winning memoir, Where You Left Me

For full biographies see page 253

FOR BEN, KEN, ALISON, JULIET, AND ALLIE
THANKS FOR BEING SO PATIENT LONG AFTER THE FIRST 52 WEEKS

How crazy is it that we get to write an Acknowledgments page? Where are we supposed to start?

We probably should thank the waitress who served us our three drinks the night the52weeks.com was born. She continued to smile long after we overstayed our welcome!

Thanks to everyone who always saw the potential in our blog and supported us a million weeks ago when the book was just an idea between two friends.

To Shelley Sadler Kenney, an old family friend of Karens. She saw a book long before we did. A big thanks for her encouragement, her foresight, and for putting us in touch with some great people.

To Karen Lewis, our amazing blog designer who has been with us from the outset and helped us launch the52weeks.com.

To Leigh Goldman, who interviewed us about our blog for Urbanbaby.com. Her inspiring July 2010 article fueled Karens passion for writing a book and made Pam wonder what she was getting herself into!

To Sue Shapiro, author and generous writing teacher. It was at one of Sues great events where we first met our future editor.

To Ellen Neuborne, an amazing writer who helped shape our proposal and bring it all together.

Our deepest gratitude to Abigail Gehring of Skyhorse Publishing, who believed in sharing the message of The 52 Weeks and was inspired by our idea from the beginning. She has been a calm force and great editor.

To Jessica Papin, our agent from Dystel and Goderich, who was there to help us navigate the world of publishing. She was a cheerleader, voice of reason, and infallible guide throughout the process.

To Ella, graphic designer extraordinaire, an early 52 follower, who generously offered her talent and time.

To Betsy Kent for helping us get our social media sea legs.

To Jami Kelmenson, for her unwavering support of 52 from day one and for bringing her always optimistic, unstuck, single and loving it perspective to the table. She shares her insights in the Flying Solo chapter and is a contributing author for our Giving Back chapter.

To all of our experts and contributors: your knowledge, advice, and words of wisdom are an invaluable part of the book.

To Piper Hoffman, for her help with editing, formatting and other invaluable late night finishing touches on our manuscript.

To Shani R. Friedman, for helping us with all of those lists!

To our doormen for smiling as we went in and out of one anothers buildings!

To our blog followers, thank you for your comments, support, and encouragement.

Thanks to our husbands, Ben and Ken, who put up with our questions, mood swings, and each of us talking, shouting, or coordinating 52 while multitasking and promising to get off the phone in two minutes!

Finally, to our beautiful daughters who always had input, questions, and criticism to keep us on track. We hope you never stop growing, learning, and trying new things.

By Barbara Hannah Grufferman

Author, The Best of Everything After 50:

The Experts Guide to Style, Sex, Health, Money, and More

Heres a little experiment: imagine youre under a spellor really, a curse. You arent asleep or even hurt. You arent imprisoned in a tower or turned into a toad. No, under this spell you are not only alive, but able to live your life exactly the same way you did yesterday. That is the curse. Youre going to do exactly the same things every day from now until the end of your life. Youre going to eat the same breakfast and the same dinner, wear the same pants with the same shirt, take the same route to work, have the same discussions with the same people about the same topics, and end up with the same results. Youre never going to change anything about your life ever again. You cant. Because youre cursed.

Its the Inertia Curse.

Scary, no? I love my little routines (dont we all?), and my comfort zone is very comfortable, but the idea of doing everything just as Ive always done it, without anything new ever? Terrifying. Even thinking about it, I feel claustrophobic. Like Im being buried alive.

And yet, theres something kind of familiar about that feeling. As if maybe Ive been there before.

When I was in my twenties, change was constant. I was young, and it seemed like everything was new. New apartments, new jobs, new boyfriends. I was always looking ahead, planning for the future, always confident and excited about what was coming next. In my thirties, I settled into a nice, humming groove, but it was a good kind of settlinglike finding my place. I was still planning, still making choices. I got married. I had kids. Still good! But sometime after that... It seemed like all the choices had already been made. As if Id quit planning and had switched to autopilot. I was zipping along and doing and doing and doing, but I wasnt looking ahead anymore or thinking about who I wanted to be. Of course, I had plenty of other things to think about, with a job and a wonderful husband and two fast-growing daughters.