Small Strokes Big Oaks

A little while ago, I began reading some of the blogs of the bloggers who had participated in the Mighty Summit retreat.  If you haven’t seen this page, check it out; it’s pretty cool.  These women make life lists of things they’d like to accomplish in their lifetimes, and then go on a retreat and talk and write and help each other accomplish things on their lists.  Then, they sometimes blog about things they do on their lists and receive feedback and encouragement.  No task is too big or too small, and their goals are sometimes lofty, sometimes concrete.  Heck, sometimes they’re just things that have been nagging them for such a long time and they just want to get them done, gosh darnit!

I’ve always seen the value in having concrete, written goals.  I love to-do lists because they keep my life organized and keep me on track.  However, I have never written down my life goals before, just my day-to-day ones.  So I’ve been thinking about this list for quite some time, and I thought it would be good to start with a 30 Before 30 list – 30 things I’d like to accomplish before I’m 30 years old.  Being 26.5, now’s the time to start checking some of these things off!  Maybe I’ll even write about a few of them as I go.  So, below you’ll find my list.  Do you have anything I should add?  Do you have a life list?  If so, post a link in the comments!  That way, we can all keep ourselves and each other accountable for achieving these goals.  And who knows, we may even be able to help each other out!

1. Write a book
2. Visit San Fransisco
3. Buy a house
4. Learn to scrapbook
5. Host a holiday meal
6. Listen to all of albums on my iPod
7. Visit Ireland
8. (Maybe a sub-goal of #7) Visit Dublin on Bloomsday
9. Visit France… again
10. Visit Barcelona, Spain
11. Publish a book (or at least give it a good try)
12. Get a dog
13. Teach a course at a university or community college
14. Attend another English conference
15. Read 50 books (for pleasure)*
16. Make it to State for Contest Play
17. Watch 20 films I’ve never seen before*
18. See 5 plays or musicals*
19. Take a creative writing class
20. Re-learn French.  Or learn Spanish.
21. Learn more about wine and wine and food pairings
22. Attend a multi-course wine dinner
23. Host a multi-course wine dinner
24. Clean out the guest room closet/boxes of files
25. Actually walk ALL 39.3 miles in the Avon Walk (and train for it!)
26. Get some artwork for the walls of our home
27. Buy a real couch
28. Get Tim to try Indian food (yummy!!!)
29. Begin to collect and edit personal essays for my second book
30. Organize my jewelry

*These may seem like small numbers to accomplish in 3.5 years to those of you reading 52 books a year or watching movies daily or seeing plays every month, but I have a lot of trouble reading for pleasure and watching full movies because my life is so busy.  So I set achievable goals.  Maybe I’ll even exceed them!