I'm doing 42 things
This means filtered tap water, homemade seltzer, bottled mineral water, unsweetened coffee and tea, both hot and cold. The goal is to eliminate artificial sweeteners. I eliminated sugar-sweetened beverages, except on rare occasions, years ago.
John Paul's Life List
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1. help advance progressive causes
1 entry . 12 cheers16 people -
2. live in the moment
8 cheers2,081 people -
3. Learn MySQL
1 entry . 6 cheers375 people -
4. be more compassionate
4 cheers223 people -
5. find a spiritual community
1 entry . 7 cheers15 people -
6. Make new friends
1 entry . 9 cheers13,822 people -
7. become a gay rights activist
21 cheers12 people -
8. live simply
11 cheers3,287 people -
9. see more live music
5 cheers680 people -
10. work for myself
3 cheers473 people -
11. write a book
1 entry . 1 cheer30,184 people -
12. get married
1 entry . 2 cheers20,985 people -
13. travel to europe
4 cheers2,497 people -
14. play the piano more
1 entry . 4 cheers256 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
1 cheer16,111 people -
19. Give a guy a bouquet of flowers
1 entry . 5 cheers7 people -
20. read Henry James
2 entries . 1 cheer3 people -
21. Read Proust's Remembrance of Things Past
1 entry . 4 cheers81 people -
22. drink absinthe
1 entry . 3 cheers649 people -
23. Take more photos
3 cheers3,730 people -
24. become a Wikipedia contributor
4 cheers207 people -
25. Remember that "There is no spoon"
1 entry . 4 cheers52 people -
26. Quit my job
1 entry . 1 cheer1,217 people -
27. live passionately
3 cheers5,717 people -
28. Visit San Francisco
6 cheers329 people -
29. Live on the beach
3 cheers591 people -
30. Rollerblade more
1 entry . 5 cheers53 people -
31. get in better shape
2 cheers913 people -
32. see the beauty in others
7 cheers3 people -
33. perform at an open mic night
6 cheers63 people -
34. speak truth to power
3 entries . 5 cheers6 people -
35. build a wooden bed frame
1 entry . 1 cheer250 people -
36. join a team
15 team members . 5 entries . 1 cheer19 people -
37. carpe diem
6 cheers573 people -
38. keep in touch with old friends
3 cheers1,621 people -
39. Give 1000 cheers
1 entry . 3 cheers122 people -
40. teach my cat, Rufus, NOT to type
1 entry . 9 cheers1 person -
41. compose my own music
4 cheers96 people -
42. drink only water and unsweetened beverages
1 entry1 person
Recent entries
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.
