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I’m a big believer in having goals, doing things that challenge us, and trying new things. What I don’t like is waiting for a particular date, like making resolutions on January 1st, before I get started. All the major things I’ve done in my life were due to making a decision and going from there -- not because it was a Monday, or the first day of a month, or a milestone day like a birthday.
Some people use January 1st as a good time to do an assessment of where they are, and that’s great. I, too, like to look back at the past year -- the good times and the bad, what I didn’t accomplish that I really wanted to do or should have done. But I’ve made a commitment to myself to try new things on a regular basis, so I don’t feel like I need to start one particular thing on one particular date. I know they'll be happening throughout the year.
Having said that, I made a 101 Things in 1001 Days list in January of 2007. Yes, technically this is a list of things I told myself I’d do within a certain time frame. But the good thing is, they don’t have to be done in any particular order -- I do them when I want to do them.
So far, I’ve completed 74 tasks from my list. I still have 27 things to do, and about nine months remaining (my end date is October 2nd, 2009). Most of them won’t be too difficult to cross off, it’s just a matter of taking the time to do them.
The only negative I've found to completing this list is that sometimes the things you put down when you first start aren’t as applicable to your life a few years down the road. There are a number of things I put down two years ago that just don’t appeal to me as much anymore. (A good example is #85: Learn at least 50 signs in American Sign Language. I was working for a closed-captioning organization when I first started this list, so I thought it would be nice to learn more about the people we were providing this service for. I think sign language is cool, but I don’t know any deaf people and I have a short memory. So even if I learned 50 signs just to be able to cross this off my list, I doubt I’d retain many of them since I wouldn’t be using them on a regular basis.)
The thing I like best about my 101 Things list is that it’s challenged me to do a lot of things that I probably wouldn’t have done otherwise (I tried to choose a variety: some easy, some difficult, some that involved travel, some that were fitness-related, etc). On top of that, though, a number of people have told me over the past few years that my list inspired them to start one of their own -- and I never get tired of hearing that. It's an awesome feeling.
Since I’ve been doing this for a few years, I’ve identified several things that might help people who are thinking about starting their own list:
What kinds of things should you choose? I spent several weeks preparing my list before I finally published it on my blog. After I sat down and listed everything I had in mind that I’d like to do, I used other people’s lists for ideas (just do an internet search for "101 Things in 1001 Days"). I skimmed through dozens, if not hundreds, of lists, and copied down anything that seemed interesting. Once I identified 101, I separated them into categories (they’re a lot easier to keep track of that way).
Another way to go about it (and this is most likely what I’d do if I decided to undertake a second list) is to fill in only 50 or 75 things in the beginning, and leave a certain number of things to fill in within a year, or two, or whatever time period you decide. Like I said, the only downside to my list are the things I no longer feel strongly about completing. If I’d left those things blank to begin with, I’d feel much better about filling them in once my interests changed.
Avoid: adding a lot of things to your list that
