OK, once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away I had to have my kidney taken out and it was bad enough that I thought I'd probably croak. (Obviously, I didn't, but the surgeon did say it was "the worst kidney I've taken out of a living human being.") This is a long and boring story all by itself, which I'll skip for now. ANYWAY, I had a long recovery time and a lot of time to think. One of the things I thought about was if I have 100 things I want to do/accomplish before I die, and I live the average lifespan (estimated by me at that point to be about 75) then I would need to do 2 per year to get everything done before I was pushing up daisies. So I made "THE LIST." 100 Things I Want to Do Before I Die. And I started ticking them off.
I have not done 2 per year. Some years I've knocked off whole bunches. Sometimes I've gone for years without doing anything I wanted. (The Dark Ages which we also won't talk about).
But an interesting thing has happened. My 100 things keep changing. Things that looked spectacularly cool to a 25 year old have NO appeal to a 45 year old. Things I wouldn't have even considered suddenly come to mind.
Another interesting thing (at least to me). Listing my 100 things made me THINK about what I actually want, got the juices flowing, and got me moving in the right direction.
In listening to my motivational CDs (I do this quite a bit when I start getting tired and/or depressed) they said that a study was done of a particular generation of Harvard graduates comparing those with written goals to those without. Apparently only 10% had written goals. Fair enough. But interestingly some years later (I think 20) they followed up with the guys from the study. Those with written goals had mostly achieved them and moved on, AND (drum roll) the ten percent with written goals were financially worth more than the other 90% combined. The theory is that writing things down has power and tells your mind that you mean business.
Cool. Glad my mind was discerning enough to realize that some of the goals weren't as serious as others. (I.e., that partying backstage with my favorite hair metal band did not rate the same level of energy as becoming a multi-published author of book length fiction. ;) )
Anyway, going to Mardi Gras was one of the things on my goal list that I haven't done yet. (Jim, I'm a little jealous here, but maybe next year). But it made me think that perhaps, at this stage of the game, it's time for me to make my new list and start checking those puppies off. Yolanda, since one of my wishes is to go to Australia, will you at least have lunch with me when I do?
Toodles. I'm off to write and make my lists.
Cie
PS. I got rested, I read a bit, and wrote a bit. Taxes, alas, will have to wait until this Saturday. (SIGH) Thanks to those of you who asked.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Sorry to hear about your kidney, Cie. But at the same time I'm really happy to see that you're doing so well now. Congratulations on making it through the dark times in your life and even back then, having the courage to put together a list of 100 things you want to accomplish in your life! That takes a lot of courage and motivation when you're in a situation like the one you were in.
It's also very interesting, that people who actually write things down get them done. I love having TO-DO-LISTS because it actually reminds me of what needs to be done. It keeps staring at me and can't be ignored. I also did that for my NEW YEAR GOALS and it worked last year, here's hoping for this year!
Oh, and of course I'll have lunch with you! Are you planning to do this in the near future? That would be sooooooo cool!
Ok Cie, have a GREAT day and I'll speak to you soon.
Post a Comment