Run a Marathon, Write a Book, Build a House

Run a marathon.
Get a degree. Write a book. Build a house. Every man has goals.
Sometimes our goals are lofty aspirations (make a difference, change
the world), sometimes they are simply tasks we need to achieve in
order to function better (sleep more, quit smoking). Too often in
life we get caught up in our day to day business and time just slips
right past us. At the end of each year, we habitually look back
and sum up the events of that year, taking stock of what we really
accomplished. Many of us could probably sum up 2008 in a few words,
something along the lines of I worked a lot, made some money,
spent some money, paid off some bills. Now that is all well
and good, but did you have childhood dreams about working a lot
to pay off bills, and nothing more? No. If that was all you dreamed
about as a kid, you probably had a lot of alone time at the playground
to think about it. As kids we dreamed about doing something amazing,
about having grand adventures. We dreamed about one day becoming
men of action, who seized every day as our own and made the most
of it. So what has changed? Age is just a number. Sure, you have
more responsibility now than when you were a kid, but you also have
far more capability. The things you once could only dream of are
now within your reach; why not take hold of them?

No matter how
grand or trivial our goals, it always feels good to achieve them,
and there is a very simple tool that can help you do just that-the
bucket list. It has been scientifically proven that if you write
down your goals, you are far more likely to actually accomplish
them. When you physically record your goals, your mind creates a
sort of contract with itself, and nobody likes to let themselves
down. Plus, having a physical list lying around that you see on
a regular basis serves as a constant reminder of your aspirations,
and keeps you goal oriented. So where to start?

The Materials
Needed

To start off
with, you are going to need a proper medium to record your list
on. DonÂ’t just scribble it down on a scrap of paper thatÂ’s
going to get mixed up with old mail and thrown out. Make this something
special, something that you will take care of and look back on years
down the road, the roadmap of your success. Keep in mind that your
list can potentially be fairly long, and will likely have many additions
as you check off items and your priorities change. You also want
to remember that for a bucket list to be effective, you need to
be aware of it, so buying a bulky leather bound journal that looks
like a shipÂ’s log, as appealing as that may be, is really a
poor choice since youÂ’re unlikely to have it with you very
often. You want something that you can keep in your pocket, or at
your workspace, not something that will be gathering dust at the
bottom of your bookshelf. While you may consider something like
the Moleskine too pricey for your day to day pocket
notebook, its durability makes it an excellent choice for storing
your bucket list. You need something that will potentially last
for decades. Finally, and this the next part goes without sayingÂ…write
in pen. DonÂ’t afford yourself the opportunity to erase a goal
later just because it is proving too difficult to accomplish.

The List
Itself

This is the
simplest part of an already simple process. The contents of the
list are totally up to you. The idea is to put to paper all the
things you ever said you wanted to do. Then think ahead, to the
end of your life, and imagine all the things you will be saying
you wish you had done, and write those down too. Some argue that
having too many things on your list makes you less likely to accomplish
as many goals, but I couldnÂ’t disagree more. If the goals you
put on the list are truly important to you, as every goal that makes
the cut should be, then it does not matter how many there are. Life
is short, but not short enough that you canÂ’t get a lot done
before the final buzzer. Nothing is too insignificant, as we can
take pleasure from even the smallest accomplishments, so donÂ’t
leave anything out that is important to you. Want to quit biting
your nails? Put it in there. Entertaining the idea of losing a few
pounds? Make it official.

Read
the rest of the article

January
27, 2012