Episode 91: Stop Saying Someday with Ravi GuptaEpisode 91: Stop Saying Someday with Ravi Gupta
The Well-Tended Life
Ravi Gupta shares his one-passion-a-year approach and stories from his book *The Invisible List*, showing how focusing on a single dream can reshape a life. The conversation offers practical ways to uncover long-buried interests and make space for them, even in busy or challenging seasons.
49:53•11 Nov 2026
Stop Saying Someday: Ravi Gupta on One Passion a Year
Episode Overview
- Write out your invisible list by giving yourself a permission slip and spending at least an hour noting everything you’ve ever wanted to try, even the “weird” or ambitious ideas.
- Start with a passion you’re likely to enjoy or have some natural momentum with, then gradually choose harder, more identity-shifting goals in later years.
- Match your yearly passion to your actual resources—time, money and energy—whether it’s a small daily practice or a full “skillbatical” season.
- Expect a mid-year slump and see setbacks, injuries or life changes as reasons to adjust the goal rather than abandon the year altogether.
- Remember that pursuing your own passions can model lifelong learning for children, deepen relationships and make you more engaged and interesting in every area of life.
“"Someday has to be today. You have to give yourself permission to pursue these passions because the clock is ticking."”
What drives someone to seek a life where their passions finally get centre stage? This conversation on The Well-Tended Life sits down with Ravi Gupta, author of *The Invisible List: All About One Passion a Year Every Year*, to talk about the dreams and interests that quietly sit at the back of your mind marked “someday”.
Ravi shares how, after years of intense work and burnout, he decided to treat himself as his “only student” and give each year a single focus: one passion, one skill, one subject. Since 2018, that’s meant years devoted to things like surfing, powerlifting, tennis, writing and, most recently, cooking in Tuscany and Naples. His idea is simple but challenging: choose fewer seeds so they can actually grow.
You’ll hear how his mother modelled lifelong learning by becoming a history professor later in life, and how that example shaped his belief that “someday has to be today”. He talks about people he profiles in his book—such as a woman with lupus who paints at home, a widower who learns to cook in honour of his wife, and a “pull-up posse” formed by a woman who reached her ten pull-up goal right before breast cancer surgery.
Ravi and host Keri Wilt chat through practical steps for building your own “invisible list”: giving yourself a permission slip, spending at least an hour writing everything down, sitting with the list past the obvious items, and even using tools like the “five whys” to uncover what you really want. They also tackle resistance, beginner fears and the guilt many carers and parents feel about pursuing their own passions.
If you’ve ever caught yourself saying “someday” about a hobby, dream or creative itch, this episode gently asks: what would change if you gave one of those passions a whole year of your life?
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