Life's Things-To-Do List

I remember reading, many, many years ago, an article in Life magazine about a man who, early in his adult life, had made a list of all the different things that he wanted to do in life and all of the different places he wanted to visit. By the time that the article came out, he had accomplished much of what he had set out to do. Due to various factors, though, cold war politics being one of them, he still hadn’t done everything or visited everywhere. But that was all right, because this man’s list was deliberately made so that he would have to spend a lifetime in order to fulfill it. I think I was somewhere in my teens when that Life issue came out, but I didn’t make a list then, even though I thought what that guy did was pretty cool. But “now” is always a good time to start, isn’t it? Actually, it’s the ONLY time to start anything! And my goals nowadays probably wouldn’t necessarily coincide with what I would have set out to accomplish thirty years ago. On the other hand, some of the goals I may have set for myself back then may have already been fulfilled by now anyway. For example, I’ve graduated college, I’m married to a wonderful woman, I have two great kids, I’ve finally ridden in a plane, and a few other things as well. But what are some things that I haven’t done yet that I’d like to do?


--Visit another country. I have yet to be outside of the U.S., not even for one second! Naturally, there are a few countries I’d like to visit, chief among them China, Germany, France, and Russia. Of course, to accomplish this as a goal would demand time and money that I am currently investing in other areas of my life, but if visiting these places were made lifetime goals, then whatever is going on right now should not limit me from realizing these goals at some time in the future.

--Play a musical instrument well. I already own a piano, and my two children have been taking piano lessons for years. But not me. Until now! Last week was my first piano lesson, and I’m not going to stop until I am competent enough to play from written music in any key and to play any song that I have ever heard that I can remember the tune to (numbering in the thousands), written music or not.

--Write a novel, get it published, and make a generous amount of money from it. There is an intermediary goal to this, which is to write anything, get it published, and make any amount of money from it! Like other things, I’m just going to have to keep plugging away at it. But first I need to START plugging away at it!

--Run and finish a marathon. And not by walking part of the way, either. I have resumed running again, but at a very gradual, measured buildup. I don’t see running marathons as my main focus in running, but finishing one does represent a great milestone to aim at.

--Speak a foreign language fluently. Although I’ve had an off and on interest in studying foreign languages, I never did achieve fluency in any of the several that I have taken an interest in over the years. But I believe that there now is a lot of good language-learning material, especially from computer software, and many more opportunities to practice my comprehension and expression because of the World Wide Web.

--Star gaze the Southern sky in person. To accomplish this goal, I need to travel to the Southern Hemisphere to some place that has cloudless nights and little interference from city lights or other man-made sources. Places like Peru, Australia, and Namibia come to mind because of their arid climates, southern location, and availability of areas far from cities. I do need to be far enough south of the equator, though, so that I can observe a larger section of the Southern Circumpolar sky. And, of course, I would need time to explore the sky as well.

--Sky dive. If “Daddy” Bush (former President George H.W. Bush) has the guts to do it, then so should I! Of course, he did fly on bomber planes during World War II and he also survived one that was shot down, so maybe I should just scratch that comparison. But I would like this experience anyway, even if it were only a “tandem” jump with a more experienced jumper in charge of pulling the chord and giving timely instructions to me (like “jump”!). This is something that I’m just going to have to get up and do someday, but when I do I think I’m going to want to have a video recording made of my experience.

Are there other worthwhile goals to pursue in life? Of course! Some of them are a little more mundane than others, and I’ll pursue those goals as part of my ordinary day to day living. Perhaps if I come up with some other goals, I’ll collect them and present them another time.