halfway there.
John Paul's Life List
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1. help advance progressive causes
1 entry . 17 cheers17 people -
2. live in the moment
8 cheers1,925 people -
3. Learn MySQL
1 entry . 7 cheers383 people -
4. be more compassionate
4 cheers210 people -
5. find a spiritual community
1 entry . 9 cheers14 people -
6. Make new friends
1 entry . 9 cheers12,717 people -
7. become a gay rights activist
23 cheers10 people -
8. live simply
10 cheers3,258 people -
9. see more live music
7 cheers658 people -
10. work for myself
3 cheers455 people -
11. write a book
1 entry . 1 cheer25,992 people -
12. get married
1 entry . 5 cheers18,538 people -
13. travel to europe
4 cheers2,216 people -
14. play the piano more
1 entry . 4 cheers232 people -
15. paint my foyer and all upstairs rooms
2 entries . 1 cheer1 person -
16. convert the world to macintosh
6 cheers14 people -
17. learn yoga or Zen sitting
1 entry . 3 cheers1 person -
18. Save money
2 cheers14,676 people -
19. Give a guy a bouquet of flowers
1 entry . 6 cheers8 people -
20. read Henry James
2 entries . 1 cheer2 people -
21. Read Proust's Remembrance of Things Past
1 entry . 4 cheers84 people -
22. drink absinthe
1 entry . 3 cheers702 people -
23. Take more photos
3 cheers3,465 people -
24. become a Wikipedia contributor
4 cheers217 people -
25. Remember that "There is no spoon"
1 entry . 4 cheers55 people -
26. Quit my job
1 entry . 1 cheer1,199 people -
27. live passionately
3 cheers5,592 people -
28. Visit San Francisco
7 cheers321 people -
29. Live on the beach
3 cheers545 people -
30. Rollerblade more
1 entry . 5 cheers54 people -
31. get in better shape
2 cheers832 people -
32. see the beauty in others
7 cheers2 people -
33. perform at an open mic night
6 cheers50 people -
34. Learn Actionscript 2.0
5 entries . 1 cheer85 people -
35. speak truth to power
3 entries . 5 cheers8 people -
36. build a wooden bed frame
1 entry . 1 cheer240 people -
37. join a team
17 team members . 5 entries . 1 cheer18 people -
38. compose my own music
4 cheers90 people -
39. carpe diem
6 cheers568 people -
40. teach my cat, Rufus, NOT to type
1 entry . 9 cheers1 person -
41. Give 1000 cheers
1 entry . 3 cheers183 people -
42. keep in touch with old friends
3 cheers1,556 people
Goals that seek to define my life and purpose are personally valuable beyond measure. For such goals, I would love to find time to write little entries on a regular basis about how I have lived up to this goal—lived by my values.
The initial attractiveness of listing goals is the potential for checking them off as done. “Buy a can of paint.” “Check.”
“Be more compassionate,” on the other hand, is a goal for striving, and for checking myself to see how I’m doing with that. I expect never to check it off of my list, until I, myself, am done.
I suspect the dual nature of goals points out a structural issue for the Robots (I’m starting to really like those guys), but I don’t have any better suggestions for them than what I’ve seen already. A “not achieved,” “progress,” “partially achieved” way to retire a goal is a good start. Being able to say “a little bit worth it,” however that’s stated, would also be helpful.
It’s often hard to just delete a goal, whatever it’s status, but to be able to change focus onto new goals, and also keep the site dynamic, the ability to move things to the “completed” column, at whatever state of completion would be a good thing.
It’s November and the few weeds remaining seem puny and shriveled. Now the problem will be next season when those that were allowed to set seed come back with a vengeance!
In the metaphorical sense of the goal, I’ve still got some work to do.
