Friday, May 8, 2009

105 Goals in 1001 days




Actually it is suppose to be 101 Goals, but I had a hard enough time getting it down to 105 much less cutting four more off! I saw this on LovingMom2Boys and since I'm all about goals, I decided this would be good :). I googled the concept and found that many people out there in the inter-tubes are doing this. You can find the main site for this at Day Zero.

Basically the rational is that 1001 is just a little bit shy of three years, which is a much more reasonable time to complete some longer term goals than a normal one year set. Also, it is not tied to an arbitrary date, but is a date of your own choosing. The rules are: (copied from the Day Zero Site):


The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.



I had a few lists floating around including Baby Bucket List, New Years Goals, and Birthday Goals which I combined into this master list. I hope people aren't sick of reading about my goals! But these aren't new ones, just a way to get myself to be motivated to stick to them.

Goals change, and that is totally okay. If I decide to stop pursuing a goal I have to replace it with a different goal. Every goal that I do not complete in 1001 days I will donate $10 to charity, but since I have four extra goals, I get four wiggle rooms on both those statements (in other words, I can drop four or be off by four--or a combo of that--and have no penalty). So if I am starting today I need to be done by February 3, 2012.

Every Friday I will blog about my progress and state the goals I will be actively pursuing for the next week. I thought about making that a goal in and of itself, but I feel as if that is just part of the process verses a goal. This will force me to make constant progress on my goals and hopefully have some fun life experiences along the way!



For the next week I will be working on:
# 38 Graduate from college: I will be studying and taking my finals for this semester.
# 85 Finish writing three novels: because I will be submitting the next section in my WiP to my lovely beta readers.
# 4 Burlesque for three sessions: because I will sign up for a burlesque class.
# 53 Refinance condo: because I have delegated that to Pete and he is working on getting the details worked out.



Classes/Learn
# 1 Ballroom Dancing Class (0/1)
# 2 Get a piano and learn/Re-learn 10 piano songs (at level I used to be at) (0/11)
# 3 Spanish Class (0/1)
# 4 Burlesque class for five sessions (0/5)
# 5 Three different art-related classes (pottery, woodworking?, something else) (0/3)
# 6 PMP classes taken and credit granted (0/24)
# 7 Photography (with new camera) (0/2)
# 8 Wine Class (0/1)
# 9 Horse riding lessons (0/1)
# 10 Motorcycle class with Pete (0/1)
# 11 Martial Arts of some form (0/1)
# 12 Belly Dance Class (0/1)

Things I'd like to do
# 13 Be in a play (0/1)
# 14 Send out holiday cards (0/1)
# 15 Participate in a book club (0/1)
# 16 Join two non-profit Boards (one can be jr) (0/1)
# 17 Get a leadership position in JLC (0/1)
# 18 Go to ten Chicago-area street fairs (0/10)
# 19 Go to a concert at Ravinia (0/1)
# 20 Go to a Cubs, Bears, Fire and Blackhawks game (0/4)
# 21 Ice skate outside (0/1)
# 22 Knit something (0/1)
# 23 Timeshare a sailboat for a summer (0/1)
# 24 Complete a marathon (0/1)
# 25 Be an egg donor (0/1)
# 26 Volunteer with Pete five times (0/5)
# 27 Give three different people a "just because" gift (0/3)
# 28 Make three things with my sewing machine (0/3)
# 29 Go to Medieval Times (0/1)
# 30 Send a care package to a solider (0/1)
# 31 Put change in someone's expired meter (0/1)
# 32 Teach Sadie three new tricks (0/3)
# 33 Have a picnic (0/1)
# 34 Have clothes, coffee and lunch ready before bed for two consecutive weeks (0/2)
# 35 Throw a surprise party for a friend (0/1)
# 36 Mystery Dinner Theater (0/1)

Things I ought to be doing
# 37 Drive a stick shift car by myself ten times (0/10)
# 38 Graduate from college (0/1)
# 39 Get life insurance (0/1)
# 40 Get caught up on dental work (0/1)
# 41 Get back to my wedding day weight and maintain it for three months (0/1)
# 42 Keep house tidy every day for a full month (0/30)
# 43 Join a Catholic YA Group and go to ten meetings (0/10)
# 44 Recycle everything for a month (0/30)
# 45 Dress up nicely everyday for a month on two different occasions (0/60)

Around the Condo
# 46 Get a grill (0/1)
# 47 Remodel the downstairs (0/1)
# 48 Get the bedroom, den and media room decorated nicely (0/3)
# 49 Winterize the condo (0/1)
# 50 Get some form of art for every room of the condo currently without art--plus two to grow on (0/7)
# 51 Put up more places for Skittles to enjoy around the house (above fridge, in media room, in bedroom, ?, ?) (0/5)
# 52 Finish up decorating the main room (chandelier, lights above bar, recessed lights, paint, kitchen backsplash, blank wall) (0/7)

Financial
# 53 Refinance condo (0/1)
# 54 Create a budget and stick to it for three months (doesn't have to be consecutive) (0/3)
# 55 Out from PMI (0/1)
# 56 Save three, six and nine months of living expenses (0/1)
# 57 Get three different stocks that yield dividends (0/3)
# 58 Get a financial adviser (0/1)
# 59 Save money according to baby bucket list goals (0/5)
# 60 Go one month with no unnecessary purchases (0/30)

Travel/Adventure (many of these will be concurrent with each other)
# 61 Go windsurfing (0/1)
# 62 Go on an Adventure trip (0/1)
# 63 Go skiing (0/1)
# 64 Visit fifteen states (0/15)
# 65 Visit to Central America, Mexico, Africa, Europe, Caribbean (0/5)
# 66 Take a trip involving biking or horse back riding through somewhere out west (0/1)
# 67 Girls Only Trip (0/1)
# 68 Go white water rafting (0/1)
# 69 Hot air balloon ride (0/1)
# 70 SCUBA with Pete (0/1)
# 71 Attend a Broadway show (0/1)
# 72 Go camping three times (0/3)
# 73 Go geocaching around Chicago (0/1)
# 74 Swim with Dolphins (0/1)
# 75 See the northern lights (0/1)
# 76 Take an African Safari (0/1)
# 77 ATV somewhere while on vacation (0/1)
# 78 Surf class (0/1)
# 79 Kite surfing (0/1)
# 80 Go sail the little sail boats (0/5)
# 81 Train for and then go rock climbing somewhere outside (0/2)
# 82 Go horse back riding on the beach (0/1)
# 83 Kayak in the Everglades (0/1)

Career
# 84 Get my PMP (0/1)
# 85 Finish writing three novels (0/3)
# 86 Create the Any Gift Site (0/1)
# 87 Put everything on hold for two months and actively pursue making Any Gift a reality (0/2)
# 88 Submit a novel for publication (0/1)
# 89 Write 1k words a day every day for a full month (0/30)
# 90 Get a project management job (0/1)
# 91 Publish three articles in the software or PM fields (0/3)
# 92 Do a consulting job on the side (0/1)

Marriage and Family
# 93 Write snail mail to the kiddos ten times (0/10)
# 94 Make a wedding album for us and for parents (0/3)
# 95 Take each kid out to something just them and us two times (0/6)
# 96 Surprise Pete with something nice and unexpected five times (0/5)
# 97 Make a doll for each of the girls (0/2)
# 98 Write a book for the girls in at least ten installments (0/10)
# 99 Do twenty things in the heart box (0/20)
# 100 Surprise Pete with a three day trip Gallena or the Dells (0/1)

Friends
# 101 See five different plays that friends are in (0/5)
# 102 Host thirty dinner parties with food from various cultures (0/30)
# 103 Host a poker night (0/1)
# 104 Spend a day doing something with a friend they have never done five times (0/5)
# 105 For one month be busy five nights a week with something purely social (0/20)

13 tidbits:

PJ Hoover said...

Wow, you have some serious goals! These are fantastic!

Robyn Campbell said...

WOW! Lauren, you have got some SERIOUS busy times ahead! Good luck! :)

Anonymous said...

Great goals. This sounds like a lot of fun. Maybe I'll try.

Charles Gramlich said...

An ambitious list. Good luck.

stu said...

You really like lists. I can tell.

Leigh Russell said...

Oh my goodness, you are so busy! I thought I wrote a lot of lists... It will be great to look back at this in a year's time and see how much you've achieved. Sometimes we're so fixated on what needs to be done, we forget to celebrate how far we've travelled.

One more task to add to your lists, if you'd be kind enough. I wonder if you'd email amazon.com to enquire why they can't dispatch my book before October when it's published in June... (readers in the USA 5 months behind the rest of the world? surely not!)

Andrea Coulter said...

burlesque class sounds like fun :)

good luck on finals!

Lauren said...

@PJ- Thanks! We will see how they go :)

@Robyn- Thanks :) But I like to be busy so it should be good :)

@Paul- I think it will be fun. I kept it heavy on "experiences", but I think that everyone could find a list of 101 things, either big or small, to accomplish. :)

@Charles- Thanks, hopefully it is the right amount of ambitious to be a stretch, but realistic enough to get the vast majority done!

@Stu- Hah! Yes, I do like lists :) Hopefully I will keep with this one for awhile, especially since I've allowed for swapping of items.

@Leigh- I think it will be fun to see how far I've traveled over the next 1001 days :). I have the list in the right margin of my blog and will cross them off as I go (with stikethrough). should be interesting to see how much I can do. I'm not expecting to do all. I think that if I could get all of them then the list wasn't much of a stretch. I hope to get almost all of them :)

I will for sure email Amazon. That's *crazy* they are waiting so long to pick it up!!

@Lynn- I went to two classes before and it was surprisingly a really great workout, but they were just pick-up classes. I hope this summer to have some time to take a few of the four week sessions that are offered. The place nearby really tries to keep up the fun factor so you forget it's a workout! :)

Unknown said...

I am somewhere between in awe and overwhelmed ... and feeling like the world's greatest underachiever.

This is fabulous ; )

Lauren said...

@KLo- Setting goals is one thing and very easy to do. Achieving them is quite another :) We shall see how I do on the second point :)

LoveRundle said...

I think I'm going to need to steal a few things off your list. At first I was thinking, "105 Goals? I don't think I know 105 I'd like to do," but then I read your goals and so now, I realized, there are a lot of things I'd like to do too.

I'm going to make my list too!

Lauren said...

@Christina- Awesome! Good luck with your list :) Are you going to put it on your blog too?

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