I love the mundane sense of purpose and organization that checklists can give to my everyday life - it's the only way I can remember every minute but necessary task, like paying my bills on time, getting an oil change, buying gel shoe inserts, etc. But what I appreciate the most is the sense of satisfaction that follows checking each item off. If I feel that level of satisfaction from checking off "buy paper towel", imagine the euphoria and sense of pride that I'd derive after achieving and subsequently checking off my more ambitious life goals, if formalized as a "to-do" list. There's something about writing a list that makes you feel accountable for completing those items - instead of only sporadically considering them as fleeting thoughts that are ultimately deferred to the back of your head, and filed away for future reference (when the time is right, when I turn 30, when I get a raise, etc.). So with thes fresh motivation provided by this article in today's NY Times, here's an initial list of some things I'd like to do during my lifetime, in no particular order - more to come.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/fashion/26list.html?pagewanted=2&ref=fashion
1. Earn a second Master's degree - an MFA in Communications - from a highly accredited University
2. Become a published writer - have a piece published in at least one of the publications I most admire
3. Fall in love with someone that loves to travel as much as I do (and who's spontaneous enough to plan a trip with me with 1 week's - or less - notice). That shared love of travel might ultimately include an equally spontaneous, little planned destination wedding.
4. Own or co-own my own condo or townhouse
5. Have an exposed brick wall designed or already built into said condo or townhouse
6. Travel to Hawaii
7. Learn to snowboard
8. Take my nieces on a trip
9. Buy my parents a house to retire in, or at least help finance it
10. Treat my parents to post-retirement trips
11. Contribute a sizeable chunk of change to fund children's cancer research and treatment
12. Find opportunities to physically help or do something nice for someone every day (vs. just cutting a check) - for instance, ceding the right of way to someone that doesn't have it, talking to an older person at the grocery store, going out of my way to help someone pick something off the floor, etc.)
13. Find a job (or have it find me) that allows me to spend a significant amount of time in NYC regularly - say, 3-6 months out of the year, or once every couple of months.
14. Be promoted to at least Account Director in my current job
15. Collaborate in a creative project or business of some sort - a restaurant, a shop, a film, or music of some sort
.....
