Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Things to do before I'm dead.

If you’re reading this, you probably already know what this is all about, but if not.  Hi! Can I ask you a question? Do you like corn? Before you answer that. Hi!

Anyway. This is a project I’m doing. I just turned this week and want to get some things done before I turn 30 in a year. This is my list of 30 things. In the next post I’ll elaborate on some things and discuss my game plan. Spoiler alert: It involves spreadsheets. 

It was difficult to make this list. Most of the ones I could find online (and I looked at *dozens*) heavily featured either stuff I’ve already done or stuff I have no interest in doing or ability to do so. I don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on a purse and I can in no way, shape, or form afford to spend a year living abroad or visit 30 different countries or things like that. So, this was mostly something I pulled together on my own.

I tried to pick things that will be both challenging and easy (with some effort!) Some will require additional followup.

Some of these are specific, some of these are a little more general. Please feel free to provide me with any input or advice you might have. :)

1.       Travel Overseas - already have designs on going to Amsterdam next year! Need to sit down and figure out a game plan.
2.       Make health a priority (vague, yes.) While I would like to lose weight, I don’t want to focus on that too much. Eat less junk food, more fruits and vegetables, exercise more, eat out less, etc. I won’t be weighing myself for awhile (I know what I weighed a few months ago) but I’ll probably do that on a monthly or so basis.
3.       Save money! Like… really save money. And don’t spend it! – I have some plans already in mind to reduce my spending each month.
4.       Take some sort of class. Anything, really. Learn a new skill! Improve a current one! The world is my oyster. – This will probably be a single session type thing, as opposed to a college course or something along those lines.
5.      {redacted} ~ for british eyes only ~ (it’s safe for work, but private!)
6.       Watch every movie on the AFI Top 100 list. – Some of these have already been accomplished. I need to make a list.
7.       Finish my duolingo French lessons - I got a decent way through and then kind of stopped. Time to start again!
8.       Watch The X-Files.  – I watched this off and on when it originally aired. I was only 9 when it started and 18 when it ended. I saw episodes on a scattered basis, but due to a) not having a dvr and b) being either in bed or out of the house, I missed a lot of episodes, and didn’t see any of the ones from probably 1999 until the end.
9.       Cook one semi elaborate meal a week. - Doesn’t have to be fancy, per se, just more involved than throwing pasta in a pot. I eat a lot of meals out, frozen stuff, or easily prepared things like tortillas + protein + cheese and the like. Goal: to use stove and oven more!
10.   Go to the gym 150 times. - That’s roughly 3x a week. Ties into #2!
11.   Start doing writing exercises. - This isn’t fully fleshed out. I’m not sure what process this will take, rather it’s finding a program to follow online or buy a book or something like that? Find writing prompts? Maybe one short story a month? This will require further elaboration/thought.
12.   Similar to the previous, do the same with photography exercises. Practice my skills! Will develop a more thought out plan.
13.   Volunteer – again a vague, nebulous thing. But I would like to start SOMEWHERE. Even if it’s just an hour handing out flyers. Do something for nothing. More research
14.   Start therapy – this is way totally long overdue and boy do they have their work cut out for them! They have generations of irish stoicism to work through. Hope you like corn, doctor! And by corn I mean crippling emotional neurosis
15.   Do one new thing a month – I tend to go to the same places, eat the same restaurants, shop at the same stores. Once a month I’d like to step outside my comfort zone and go somewhere/do something I’ve never done before. That weird looking bar on the corner I’ve always side-eyed but never gone in? Done. That small art museum I’ve never made time to visit? Doin’ it.
16.   {redacted} ~ for british eyes only ~ (it’s safe for work, but private!)
17.   Travel domestically more - Visit somewhere new. Resist urge to spend all your vacation time in Chicago. I hope to visit Seattle this year. Next year? Portland, Maybe Boston? Who knows.
18.   Talk to my family more - Call one of them at least once a month, which is a fair bit more than I do currently. We aren’t a close knit bunch!
19.   Go to at least one BIG concert - There are a lot of musical acts that I would like to see before they shuffle off this mortal coil. I keep putting it off because “there’s always next year” or “It’s too expensive” or whatever. Bands like Rolling Stones, The Who, stuff like that.
20.   Learn a lot about one thing. I mostly know a little about a lot. I’d like to become fairly knowledgeable about something that isn’t serial killers, forensic pathology, or horror movies. Wow. I’m weird. I’m not sure what, yet? Any ideas?
21.   Read more. A lot more - I haven’t been reading nearly as much. I used to spend about an hour a day on the bus and would get a lot of my reading done then. Not so much now! Goal is 24 books in a year which should be easily doable. I used to knock that out in a few months!
22.   Start a club of some sort. Book club? Movie club? Underwater basket weavers club?
23.   Have a real life, honest to god picnic. With red checkered blanket and brown wicker basket.
24.   Get a tattoo. I’ve been wanting to do this for years. I know what I want, I just near to decide where to get it done and where it’s going to go.
25.   Attend a significant cultural event. Opera, play, ballet, symphony performance. Something that involves getting very fancy and trying not to loudly curse too much.
26.   Send letters of thanks. To friends, family, or even celebrities, whatever! I think one a month is a good place to start.
27.   Send a weekend alone, but not at home. On the weekends I am usually oot and aboot with friends, OR I hole up the entire weekend by myself. I would like to take a weekend and spend it by myself, but out of my apartment. This could easily tie into #17, #25, #15, etc etc.
28.   {redacted} ~ for british eyes only ~ (it’s safe for work, but private!)
29.   Adopt another kitty. I’ve wanted to do this for awhile!
30.   Give up something for one month. Not necessarily a calendar month, but for at least a period of 31 days. Something I will actually miss. 



There’s a lot of ambitious stuff on here to do in even one year! I’m really going to have to stay on my own ass to make sure things don’t fall off the radar. If I can accomplish even *half* of these things though I will consider myself a success. Life moves quickly, man!

0 comments:

 
design by suckmylolly.com