Start Here
On April 27, 2009, I launched both a new blog and a major life project. My metagoal is to complete 100 other goals over the next 1000 days.
This list includes a wide variety of small, medium, and large targets that I intent to finish before January 22, 2012. These 100 goals included things I want to see, experience, read, try, own, taste, learn, visit, and become; however, some can be done in a single day while others will require dedication and regular practice over months.
A few of these goals I have been considering a long time, such as number 76, which I first imagined when I was seven years old while others I conceived much more recently. Some items have been included exclusively for my own enjoyment; yet, a number of much more significant plans will impact my self-growth and\or enrich the community-at-large.
This is not my “Life List” (also known as a Dash List, Legacy List, and Bucket List) as I do have a different set of 101 goals (private) for my entire lifespan including several that have a time horizons of 30 to 50 years; nevertheless, when crafting this new list, I did indeed transfer some items from my Life List if I thought they could reasonably be accomplished within the 2.75 year deadline.
I do plan to track my progress online as often as possible. Additionally, over the first few weeks, the blog itself will likely be upgraded in style and format as I find better ways to record the status of various goals.
Also, this is not a ranked list. The numbers were assigned randomly for the first 97 items, so the first goal should not be thought as the most important than the last one.
Here is my
- Go Zorbing
- File for a US Trademark
- Attend a 10-day silent Vipassana Meditation Retreat
- Go snowshoeing
- Fly in a one of the following: balloon, blimp, or zeppelin
- Learn to juggle
- Walk on fire (firewalking)
- Spend a weekend within a rare Futuro House
- Visit Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
- Undergo a comprehensive “Executive” medical physical
- Study Philosophy
- Start a Non-profit organization
- Achieve and maintain a BMI of 21
- Craft a 50 Year Plan
- Publish an article/essay within a professional magazine or academic journal
- Explore Vanuatu (attend a traditional Kava ceremony)
- Attend all four Opera within Der Ring des Nibelungen (Wagner’s Ring Cycle)
- Attend a renaissance faire donning full Elizabethan era regalia
- Become PADI Scuba Certification
- Open a Swiss bank account
- Create a List of 500 Vital Questions
- Drive an Aston Martin
- Host a Large Party on 11-11-11 (Friday, November 11, 2011)
- Define Phytotarian
- Interview 10 best-selling authors (by phone, email, or face-to-face)
- Take an overnight trip on a train
- Donate, sell, trade, or toss 100 possessions
- Buy a new bike
- Run a 5K
- Classical Weekend in the Twin Cities: attend concert of Minnesota Symphony Orchestra (Saturday) and concert of Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Concert (Sunday)
- Visit Napa Valley
- Stop Drinking caffeinated beverages (coffee, soda) on a daily basis
- South Dakota trip: visit Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Bad Lands, Wall Drug, and the Corn Palace
- Attend my high school class reunion in 2010
- Raft down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon
- Complete my Essay on the Law of Tens
- See the following four William Shakespeare tragedies ‘live’: Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, & King Lear.
- Project ‘Cool Yule’: send 500 custom Winter Solstice\Christmas cards
- Build a snowman like Frosty (corncob pipe, button nose, two eyes made out of coal, old silk hat, and a broomstick in his hand)
- Take two-week “Technology Sabbatical” and do not use anything invented after my birth year (car = yes; mp3 player = no).
- Start a second business.
- Take a Yoga Class
- Learn a second language (conversational level)
- Go on a mind expanding weekend in Chicago: visit The Field Museum (Saturday), Shedd Aquarium (Sunday Morning), and Adler Planetarium (Sunday Afternoon). Enjoy dinner at the Custom House on Saturday evening.
- Interview 10 successful entrepreneurs (by phone, email, or face-to-face)
- Get my first manicure/pedicure
- Outline the basics of the ‘Brassica Diet’ online.
- Host 10 dinner parties
- Play Baccarat in Las Vegas or Monte Carlo
- Publish my first book
- Entomophagy: Dine on Pan Asian/Insect Cuisine (Ants, Crickets, Scorpions) at Typhoon in Santa Monica, CA
- Watch a movie at old drive-in theater
- Plant 100 trees
- Listen to the top 100 ‘Best Jazz Ever Released on CD’ (recorded before January 1, 1996)
- Send 10 ‘kudos’ or ‘thank you’ cards once a month
- Visit a Quaker Meeting House, Sihk Gurdwara, Baha’i House of Worship, and Jain Temple
- Donate 10% of my current wardrobe to charity.
- Read 100 Non-fiction books
- Walk 1,000,000+ steps in 100 Days
- Eat 100% Vegan for six months
- Write a short story or comic script
- Give a speech to 1000 people
- Learn to fly fish and spend an afternoon angling for trout.
- Read all of Stephen Jay Gould’s 300 consecutive essays (Jan 1974 to Jan 2001) from his monthly column “This View of Life” in Natural History
- Master Idea Mapping (Mind Mapping, Concept Mapping)
- Attend the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
- Take an Outward Bound course.
- Learn Aikido
- Attend Adult Space Academy (yes, Space Camp)
- Visit Hawaii
- Wear a stylish black tuxedo with a hand-tied bowtie for an entire regular day (grocery shopping, afternoon walk, out to eat, etc.)
- Dive in a submarine
- Afternoon Tea in The Lobby at the Peninsula Hotel, Chicago (Yes, a Tea Party)
- Teach a class
- Search for ‘Charismatic Microflora’ and extreme prokaryotes within several different habitats using Dyer’s A Field Guide to Bacteria
- Build a robot
- Design the prototype for the ‘100 stratagems and strategies’ tool.
- Cruise Vacation with interesting people and exotic places
- Pick Apples from an Orchard
- Visit Redwood National Park in CA, United States
- Take DJ lessons
- Collect 100 unique vegetarian\vegan recipes
- Compose my Will and Living Will
- Read Robert Fagle’s Translations of The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid
- Pay for the next ten people behind me in line at a movie
- Learn one of these Massage Techniques: Lomi Lomi, Swedish, Thai Yoga, or Shiatsu.
- Perform 200 sit-ups, 100 push-ups, and 50 pull-ups
- Conduct an Original Experiment
- Raise a Cephalopod
- Plant a vegetable garden
- Take the Ferry across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee, WI to Muskegon, MI. Explore Muskegon.
- Trust Fate: Make a decision (when considering two very attractive options) with a coin toss
- Start a Mastermind Group
- Lose 25 Pounds
- Ride at least three of the following: Elephant, Camel, Ostrich, Horse, Mule, Llama, and Tortoise.
- Rent a Houseboat
- Visit San Francisco
- Save $3.00 a day for each of the each of the 1000 days; monthly deposits into a ’100 Goals’ account to accrue interest too.
- For every unfinished goal on this list as of December 31, 2010, I will donate $10 to a charity (TBA).
- Inspire at least 100 others to create their own personal ’100 Goals in 1000 Days’ list.
tom said
What a super blog!! Keep up the good work