Uncle Roger's Notebooks of Daily Life

Uncle Roger's Life List

I have always been a fan of setting goals, even if I don't always (or ever) get around to setting them for myself and even if I don't always achieve them when I do. I saw, recently, that my friends Susan and Karen had created life lists -- list of things they want do in their lives. I figure, if I have my whole life to work on them, I might be able to accomplish some similar goals.

In researching the idea, I found Mighty Girl whose Mighty Life List seems to have inspired a lot of people as well as John Goddard, whose list, written when he 15 and mostly checked off, has led him to have an amazing life. If you're interested in making your own; check out Karen's tips. Most important, however, is to simply make your list and then start crossing things off it.

It wasn't easy coming up with a hundred items for my list. I got stalled around 70 and asking for suggestions of Facebook didn't get me much further. One the unexpected benefits of this exercise was realizing how much I have accomplished already -- another post in and of itself. Still, this is a big, wide world, and there are definitely a lot of things left to do. So, here is my list of 100+ things I plan to accomplish in my life.

1. Learn to play the guitar
2. Write and record an album
3. Learn to scuba dive
4. Kayak from the US to Russia (the former USSR)
5. Write a full-length novel
6. Eat Nigerian food in Nigeria
7. Explore the Kalahari
8. Lose 100 pounds
9. Visit my father's birthplace
10. Learn to surf
11. Visit Australia
12. See the Aurora Borealis
13. Open a restaurant
14. Buy a vacation/retirement home
15. Restore my Land Rover
16. Invent something
17. Design and build a house
18. Run for public office
19. See marriage equality become a universal reality
20. Hike the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail
21. Learn to waltz
22. Learn to salsa dance
23. Attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas
24. Visit Ten Thousand Waves
25. Take a vacation on a tropical island
26. Take a one-month vacation with only $100 and a small duffel bag.
27. Learn to drive a big rig
28. Learn to fly a helicopter
29. Find or design the perfect wallet
30. Take a photography class
31. Bake a wedding cake
32. Get a college degree
33. Learn to ride a motorcycle
34. Build a tree-less treehouse
35. Visit Iceland
36. Learn to play the steel drums
37. Visit the biggest waterfalls in the world: Angel, Victoria, Niagara, Iguazú, Tugela, Dettifoss, Shoshone Falls
38. Complete the Yosemite Ten Lakes/Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne/Tuolumne Meadows Backpacking loop
39. Go whitewater kayaking
40. Take an ocean-kayak camping trip
41. Take a canoeing camping trip in Maine (a la The Rover Boys)
42. Learn to swing dance
43. Learn to play bass guitar
44. Climb half dome again
45. Learn to speak German
46. Convert a series Land Rover to electric
47. Drive across the US without taking any freeways
48. Explore the Black Rock Desert more in depth
49. Learn electronics - to "program in solder"
50. Learn calculus
51. Get my ham license
52. Visit Greece (a la the Bobbsey Twins)
53. Get a book published
54. Play in a poker tournament
55. Eat Ethiopian food in Ethiopia
56. Listen to South African a cappella groups in South Africa
57. Do something worthy of a wikipedia page
58. Learn to cook beef tongue
59. Computerize Kessler's Fugio flowcharts into an online multimedia resource
60. Ride the slides at the Tate
61. Have a family portrait taken by Karen Walrond
62. Learn to knit
63. Write an interview/profile book
64. Visit the Galapagos Islands
65. Take a picture of myself every day for a year
66. Make a stop-motion animation short film
67. Get a job writing for a technology magazine
68. Publish a webcomic
69. Visit Cape Cod
70. Visit all 19 museums and galleries of the Smithsonian
71. Learn to swing dance
72. Climb Aconcagua in Peru
73. Make pasta from scratch -- without swearing
74. Eat fresh, homemade Peach Cobbler in Georgia
75. Climb the highest peaks in each of California's three major mountain ranges: Mount Whitney (Sierra Nevada, 14,505'), White Mountain Peak (White Mountains, 14,252'), Mount Shasta (Cascade Range, 14,179')
76. Host a series of genius dinners
77. Write and release, as freeware, an application that someone else would actually use
78. Witness the launch of a spacecraft
79. Visit a traditional Japanese Onsen
80. Obtain literary recognition for something I wrote
81. Take a train ride across the United States
82. Learn to snow-camp
83. Dive the great barrier reef
84. Build an igloo or other snow-shelter
85. Visit the Maldives before they disappear forever
86. Compete in an amateur practical shooting contest
87. Give a TED talk
88. Photograph 100 strangers making a funny face
89. Get paid to design someone else's bathroom
90. Design a house to fit in with nature a la fallingwater
91. Get paid to design a product for someone else
92. Hear a performance at Audium
93. Visit Uluru
94. Host a series of house concerts
95. Witness a tidal race (such as Horizontal Falls)
96. Have a secret room/staircase/passageway in my house
97. Visit all 58 National Parks in the US: Acadia, American Samoa, Arches, Badlands, Big Bend, Biscayne, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Carlsbad Caverns, Channel Islands, Congaree, Crater Lake, Cuyahoga Valley, Death Valley, Denali, Dry Tortugas, Everglades, Gates of the Arctic, Glacier, Glacier Bay, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Great Basin, Great Sand Dunes, Great Smoky Mountains, Guadalupe Mountains, Haleakala, Hawaii Volcanoes, Hot Springs, Isle Royale, Joshua Tree, Katmai, Kenai Fjords, Kings Canyon, Kobuk Valley, Lake Clark, Lassen Volcanic, Mammoth Cave, Mesa Verde, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Olympic, Petrified Forest, Redwood, Rocky Mountain, Saguaro, Sequoia, Shenandoah, Theodore Roosevelt, Virgin Islands, Voyageurs, Wind Cave, Wrangell Saint Elias, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion
98. Visit Fallingwater
99. Participate in (and complete) NaNoWriMo
100. Get re-certified in CPR
101. Take the NERT training
102. Go shopping for classic Land Rovers & parts in England
103. Buy a hammock; take a nap in it on a warm fall day

If you've got suggestions for something I've left off or have a question about one of these, please let me know. If you can help me accomplish one of them, by all means, get in touch! Likewise, if you'd like to join in on something, well, the more the merrier!

Related Links My goals for 2005 The Working Closet Chookooloonks Mighty Girl Mighty Life List John Goddard John Goddard's Life List Chookooloonks on creating a life list the US to Russia (the former USSR) Schönlanke, Germany (now Trzcianka in Poland) Indy and friends Consumer Electronics Show Ten Thousand Waves Angel Falls Victoria Falls Niagara Falls Iguazú Falls Tugela Falls Dettifoss, Iceland Shoshone Falls Wilde EVolutions' Lectro Rover The Bobbsey Twins and the Greek Hat Mystery Kessler's Fugio flowcharts Karen Walrond Aconcagua United States Practical Shooting Association Audium Uluru tidal race Horizontal Falls National Novel Writing Month San Francisco's Neighborhood Emergency Response Team

[ Posted: 04:15 | home | print ]