Or, welcome to my new life.
Dawn over the I-5
Recently, and rather belatedly, I came across a goal-setting Internet meme called 101 Things in 1001 Days. 1001 days equates to about 2.75 years, which is a more substantial (and less daunting) time frame in which to get stuff done than the usual year of resolutions we set ourselves.
Since it was my birthday this weekend, and since I’ve got rather a big birthday coming up in 3 years time, I spent my birthday eve putting together my own list which I’m going to give myself 3 years to achieve. Putting the list together was fun - the site DayZeroProject is very useful, as it both gives you a place to put your own list and lets you search other peoples’ for ideas (I’m PaolaCT on there). Start Googling and there are also plenty of sites out there with other ideas.
I’ve tried to put together a list which includes a mixture of horrid stuff that needs to get done, self-improving stuff, things I’ve always wanted to do, downright treats and pie in the sky fantasies – a combination of ‘quick wins’ and stuff that currently seems totally impossible. Looking at it I feel inspired, excited and somewhat daunted, which I suppose is exactly the right mix of emotions.
I’m writing out the list here and will link to the full list somewhere on the blog in the coming days. I’ll give you periodic updates, especially when I’ve been able to tick something off.
Currently I’m working on the sock monkey challenge (of which more anon), have completed 1 out of 80 cryptic crosswords, did a new thing this month (visted Ballard Locks) and am about to embark on the power walking and peanut butter challenges. This latter one is putting me in a cold sweat already. I am a peanut butter ADDICT.
If anyone else is inspired to make their own 101 list, do let me know, and very many thanks to Lou at Happy Serendipity and Nicole at MakingItLovely for their initial inspiration.
This is going to be fun!
I was hoping to give this list as the first page on a newly-redesigned blog, but unfortunately the mirrormirror technical support team (aka the Husband) has been rather busy with his proper job this week. Which only goes to prove that goal-setting is a dangerous exercise. But whatevs. I’m hoping to be back to daily blogging now. I’ve missed you guys…
101 Things (In No Particular Order)
1. Get a little red dress (I don’t usually do dresses, let alone red ones)
2. Volunteer at a food bank at least once a year (0/3)
3. See Niagara Falls
4. Attend the 2012 London Olympics
5. Lose 50lbs (0/50)
6. FINALLY Get the ACL in my knee repaired (as so many of my fitness/weight loss goals depend on this oneI’ve got an appointment to see the specialist this week).
7. Get my missing tooth replaced (I want to get my body as perfect as it can possibly be)
8. Finish a Babette blanket. (Still working on finishing my other blanket first).
9. Go somewhere in South America
10. Visit the Grand Canyon
11. Go to Santa Fe
12. Open ‘mirrormirror’ US
13. Organise all the photos on my computer
14. Do 30 straight days of Bikram yoga
15. Do a triathlon
16. Win something. Anything!
17. Break 5,000 followers on Twitter
18. Sell some photos.
19. Knit a sock monkey (Have plans for that one that I’ll talk about soon).
20. Get a personal wardrobe/shopping consultation
21. Acquire a sewing machine
22. Complete a sewing project
23. Learn to cook Thai food
24. Build raised beds and grow veggies
25. Finish landscaping and planting the front garden
26. Get whole house painted inside and out
27. Go sugar-free for 30 days (0/30)
28. Go to 30 restaurants I’ve never been to before (0/30)
29. Get visible abs (ha ha ha ha ha! my abs don’t exist, I’ve NEVER seen them before)
30. Go to Hawaii
31. Visit Australia
32. Write up and catalogue all of my family tree research
33. Visit my aunt in Southern California
34. Eat 5 foodstuffs I’ve never tried before
35. Knit something in Fair Isle/stranded colourwork
36. Knit a complex lace shawl in silk lace
37. Get my blog professionally redesigned
38. Do one thing a month I’ve never done before (1/36) (yesterday I visited Ballard Locks in Seattle)
39. Organise at least 6 nights away with the Husband and without the Minx (0/6)
40. Get mirrormirror mentioned in at least 30 print (0/30) and 30 online publications (0/30)
41. Visit New England in the Fall
42. Go strawberry and apple picking
43. Continue learning Spanish in the car with the Minx
44. Get a professional photoshoot done of the whole family
45. Clear my email inbox
46. Get a piano or keyboard
47. Take piano lessons
48. Do the Susan B Komen 3 Day Walk for the Cure
49. Go away with just the Minx for 3 ‘Mummy & Daughter’ weekends (0/3)
50. Visit the upcoming Picasso exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum
51. Do the Theo Chocolate Tour
52. Get stock photos up on Getty Images or similar
53. Join a knitting group
54. Go razor clamming
55. Set up a mirrormirror fan page on Facebook and get over 1,000 fans
56. Make a felted handbag
57. Make a piece of jewellery
58. Go to ALT Summit and the International Food Blogger Conference
59. Start a compost bin
60. Go jetskiing
61. Listen to 10 albums by artists I’ve not listened to before (0/10)
62. Complete all 80 cryptic crosswords in the Times Cryptic Crossword Book 14 (1/80)
63. Be a vegan for a week
64. Tidy my office
65. Learn to make Italian ‘sott’olio’ preserves – melanzane and peperoncini
66. Learn a little Mandarin Chinese with the Minx in the car
67. Go the Maison & Objet and the New York International Gift Fair
68. Get eyes checked for feasibility of laser surgery
69. Attend 6 photography workshops (0/6)
70. Make ravioli from scratch without even a pasta machine
71. Take a flying trapeze class
72. Take a day OFF on my birthday every year (0/3)
73. Write a letter for the Minx to open when she’s 18
74. Get signed up with a Primary Care Provider and arrange for an all-over physical
75. See 6 bands live 0/6
76. Read 20 ‘classic’ books I haven’t read before (0/20)
77. Drink only water for one month
78. Watch 5 Oscar winners for Best Documentary (0/5)
79. Get basement finished and fully habitable
80. Don’t complain about anything for a week
81. Have a garage sale
82. Unplug for a whole weekend (not phone, Internet, TV etc.)
83. Go ice skating
84. See 10 ‘classic’ movies I’ve never seen (0/10)
85. Scuba dive/snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef
86. Go white water rafting
87. Go snowmobiling
88. Run a 5k
89. Go for a month without peanut butter
90. Get more of my photos mounted and displayed around the house
91. Workout for an hour a day, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks straight (0/4)
92. Powerwalk for 30 mins a day every day for a month (0/31)
93. Take a photo a day for a month
94. Get one utterly fabulous piece of personal PR (I’ll know it when I see it)
95. Eat at the French Laundry, the Herb Farm and Chez Panisse (0/3)
96. Take the Minx to Disneyland
97. Sign up for a spin class
98. Go swimming once a week for 3 consecutive months (0/12)
99. Get a photo on Flickr’s ‘Explore’ page again.
100. Put aside $50 for every I task I complete to buy myself a fabulous birthday present
101. Donate $50 to charity for every task I don’t complete
What a fantastic list! I share some of the same goals – number 95 for sure!
For number 23 (learn to cook Thai food) I highly recommend Red (or yellow or green) Thai Curry as a jumping off point. It is ridiculously easy (and tasty) and is sure to boost your confidence to try more difficult Thai dishes, at least it did for me! I’ve posted a recipe on my blog here: http://dohdums.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/making-dinner-recipes-for-aug-27-sep-2/
I think it’s the second recipe in that post.
Michelle
Good plan. On a very banal level, I found last year’s to do list, drawn up at exactly this time of year. Not sure what is more depressing – how many of the medium term items I haven’t done (eg paint and hang mirror – damn thing is painted but builders been dodging coming for 4 months), or how many I have done, but have to do all over again (photo sorting). Sigh
Making raviolis without a machine? There is a reason the italians invented the rolling machine. You can make them that way, but they will always be thinker and starchy tasting. I just made whole batch of raviolis the other night from scratch(they are up on my current post), and they are super easy, but really, you need the machine 🙂
I really hope you get to go to the French Laundry, and Chez Panisse. We went to French Laundry for our 25th wedding anniversary…..it was sublime. I go to Chez Panisse every year for my birthday dinner which will be in a couple weeks 🙂
Your list sounds fun and I hope you can do all of them!!!!!
Funny how goal 95 is the one that everyone wants on their list! Elizabeth, you’re lucky to have those restaurants comparatively on your doorstep, at the moment I have no clue how we’re going to manage going to them. (Though getting to California is the easy part, it’s organising the babysitting that’s hard!)
Re. the ravioli. That’s because my first ‘foodie’ memory is watching my Italian nonna make ravioli from scratch (I wrote about it here http://mirrormirror.typepad.com/mirror_mirror/2009/10/my-nonnas-lasagne-part-i—a-tale-of-two-sauces.html) and I really want to experience that whole process. I’m sure you’re right that it will be impossible to get the same consistency though. And currently we don’t even have kitchen worktop/table big enough, so I’m not sure how that’s going to happen either.
Lucy, thanks so much for those cheerful thoughts 🙂 Maybe you need to set ‘goals’ rather than ‘to dos’?
A lawyers eye has assessed that list…
Why does the Minx get weekends and the husband only nights? ( see 39 and 49)
Eat something in Fair Isle/stranded colourwork? (35) eh? I know you love your crafts and you’re giving up peanutbutter but EAT Fair Isle?
Learn a little mandarain with Lulu ( shurely the Minx?). OMG can I send you our redundant tapes and books? Ni Hao.
Why write a letter now to the Minx for when she is 18? Genuinely curious. I seriously thought I might have to do something like that once, when the children were already older than the Minx is now but I’m so glad I didn’t have to. Two have passed the age of 18 and I’m pretty sure that the things I would have wished for them/felt I needed to tell them when they were 11 and 13 respectively would have been well off the mark when they reached 18 and may even have caused some upset.
But it’s a fab idea and there are some really fun things on there ( bet you they get ticked off) By the way there’s lots of places I want to go/eat at too, if I write them in a list do they jump priority on the budgeting agenda?! *angelic expression*
God, lawyers *rolls eyes*
Though thanks for spotting the typos, all fixed now, though the Minx’s real name is forever immortalised in your comment.
As for your specific points
– Surely you can work out why the Minx gets weekend and the Husband gets NIGHTS? (And I have a feeling that Minx weekends will end up being rather curtailed).
– If I had a machine to play them on, you could definitely send me tapes
– I’m so glad you didn’t have to write those letters.
I saw the ‘writing the Minx a letter thing’ on someone else’s list and thought it might be fun, mostly as I’m going to have to project forward and imagine the sort of young woman she might become, which, as you say, will probably be way off the mark. I thought it would be a fun thing to read together with her and we can both laugh at how wrong I was. And, if I do get eaten by a shark when snorkelling the GBF I think it would be nice to have such a letter around. I was thinking about it yesterday though, and it’s going to be bloody difficult to write.
– A certain Natural Blonde (who was visiting in Seattle) and I were talking about you at the weekend. I’ll email…
This is very inspiring… I’ll think about doing this, too. I hope you’ll come visit and knit with me when you visit New England in the fall! I took the MondoBeyondo e-course this year and it really changed the things I was doing – there is something very compelling about seeing things in print.
love your list. you have some great goals i will write down. not on my list though but just because. it’s good to have goals and 3 years is a good time frame. and you’ll enjoy it everytime you’ll take something off your list. sometimes i forget about the list and have to check back what else needs to be “done”. it only took you one day to make up that list? you’re good. and congratulations again for your birthday. been gone that day.:-)
baci, lou
CasaP, I’d LOVE to come and knit with you in New England. I think this Fall is a bust though 🙂
Lou, there’s a ‘Someday’ tab on the http://www.dayzeroproject.com site which I’m already starting to fill. I think I might do this again when the three years are up. And yes, 3 years feels like a good time, not TOO much pressure now, and it works out to about 3 goals a month so it feels achievable. But ask me again when 2.5 years are up… I loved your list BTW, it was very inspirational to me…
i still have to determine the last day. still haven’t done that 🙂 “someday” sounds good. have to check that out. yeah reading other people’s list inspired me a lot, too. 101 things are many and sometimes you don’t know what is possible until someone else inspires you to. it took me a while until i had 101 things listed. let’s see what happens.
wow – love it!
Oh! I love this list! I particularly *LOVE* #37, 48, 54, 69, 95, and especially 99 (brilliant idea).
I can help with #27, 44, 63, and 69 (and probably some others). 🙂