Just reading my fave money blog, where he relates second-hand the story of a teacher at a real estate seminar who asked her 40 students to create a list of 100 goals, that night, as homework. And the next day only one student had done it. (Clearly not a room full of overachieving type A poli sci graduate students.)
So... could you write a list of 100 goals in one night? I'll update you tomorrow and we'll see if I manage it.
Okay I'm back. I'm up to 47. One of the goals I accomplished right after listing it, but I'm leaving it on. Since putting it on the list made me remember to do it, I figure that counts.
This is hard. In part because I don't want this to become a List of Becoming a Perfect Human Being. You know... like a list of New Years resolutions that you later feel bad about because you just aren't living this perfect life you unrealistically outlined for yourself. I'm all for making specific goals with timelines, but you have to limit yourself to a certain number at a time--prioritize. Saving money for a new couch and retirement is more important right now than saving money for a second trip to London. I mean, I might go back to London in, like, 10-20 years. I'm not going to put a money goal on it right now! Ease.
Also... making this list is preventing me from working on Goal #5 - finish plotting my next novel. I should have done this while I was in school and desperate to procrastinate.
Gasp! I just realized I can't even fill up a couple spots with "finish MA paper" and "get degree." Man! Reaching goals sucks... you always have to find new ones to put on! I this week I reached two other goals, to make homemade stock for the first time, and homemade seitan. This isn't fair...
I don't think this should be a perpetual 100 Goals list. It ought to get shorter as I achieve them. Otherwise I'll be 80 years old and writing "Make supper tonight. Make breakfast tomorrow. Make lunch tomorrow..."
1 comment:
i'm happy with 50 - but I have a lot less time left than you do....
1. Finish MA Thesis
2. Move to Ann Arbor into a reasonably nice, affordable apartment.
3. Go to Ghana
4. Nigeria
5. Tanzania
6. Kenya
7. Cote d’Ivoire
8. Senegal
9. Burkina Faso
10. Jamaica
11. Trinidad
12. Guyana
13. Martinique (the Frantz Fanon tour…)
14. Write PhD dissertation on transnational black anti-colonial movements.
15. Turn it into a book.
16. Job at a decent research university.
17. Second book on the early African state and the failures of the anti-colonial ideal
18. Learn to fingerpick like Kelly Joe Phelps.
19. Read Joyce and understand him.
20. Read WAY more African lit.
21. And Caribbean lit.
22. Grow old with S.
23. And Indian lit.
24. Learn to draw halfway decent sketches with nice line work and crosshatching
25. Learn to play slide guitar as well as Martin Simpson.
26. Own all of Zappa’s oeuvre on vinyl.
27. Lose 30 lbs.
28. Do 10 chinups – in a row.
29. Something remarkably personal that I won’t sully this blog with.
30. Improve my chess game.
31. Run a half marathon.
32. And a full marathon the next year.
33. Brew really good beer.
34. Learn to bake.
35. Read the entire oeuvre of Foucault.
36. And then in French.
37. Read Lacan
38. And Slavoj.
39. Win an argument against Al.
40. You’re wondering about # 21, aren’t you? This is better…
41. Give S. a dog.
42. Watch a baseball game at Fenway
43. And Wrigley field.
44. And a hockey game at MSG.
45. Have a Maine Coon cat.
46. See a Ry Cooder concert.
47. Hiking in Newfoundland.
48. Learn to speak another language.
49. Be better at 50 than I was at 40.
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