The Life List Kickoff — 100 things to do before you go
I’m currently flying back to DC from my first business trip in Denver. It’s a relatively short flight (4hrs), and it will be accompanied by an even shorter train ride. But it’s giving me some much needed introspection time. I need it because I’m having to contemplate my whole life.
22:05.12.1.16 | touching ground in #DC as #POTUS @barackobama delivers his last #SOTU …8 years ago today I had yet to graduate high school — to experience hope and change transcend the limits of thought barely touches the surface for why I’m able to stand today as a proud American
As I draft this post, I just finished reading the book Americanah by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi and President Obama is delivering his final State of the Union. Why does this matter you may wonder? I don’t fully know (ha), but those are the facts and it’s a moment in time I’m feeling strongly vulnerable yet very much daring. I’ve been dizzying myself with doubts, despite the many indicators that point to resilience and progress yet I wonder if and when I will truly be free, when I fully allow myself to be spun into being, so I take up a particular exercise which has me go through: making a Life List.
In practical terms, a Life List is similar to a bucket list, only less morbid. In it, you outline things you want to accomplish in life, but there are particular parameters around Life Lists that make them special. Parameters like it can’t contain any guilt-driven things (“Lose 10 pounds.”) It has to be fun.
And the list shouldn’t be set in stone – it’s a living, breathing constitution for your life goals. If in a few years things change, and one doesn’t seem right anymore, strike it with no guilt.
Of course I have seen others make such a list, and was familiar with the concept. But I had never gone through the exercise myself. Here and now, on a plane flying somewhere over Phoenix for all I know, as President Obama delivers his final State of the Union, I’m doing it. I’m writing down everything I’ve ever wanted to do in life. It’s simultaneously scary and exhilarating.
So far, I’ve put down a little over 50 items on my list (the goal is 100). Here’s what I’m working with so far, in no particular order. And I ask you to withhold your judgements about both how lofty and how simple some of them are:
Fight in a kickboxing match
Learn to speak conversational French + Spanish + Portuguese
Bungee jump
Visit the Great Wall
Scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef
Drive a convertible down Route 66
Restore an old muscle car
Write a memoir
Write a novel
Hike down the Grand Canyon (and back up)
Invent something
Run a Tough Mudder
Compete in a triathlon
Be invited to the White House
Pilot a plane
Sky dive
Own my own art studio
Do a studio photography shoot
Design my own menswear line
Travel back to Kinshasa, DRC
Own a family business (with food)
Become a CEO
Pick grapes in Tuscany
Go on an African safari
Go on a silent retreat
Speak at a TED conference
Visit Robben Island
Meet Desmond Tutu
Meet Kofi Anan
Visit all 50 states
Visit all 7 continents
Hunt for my food
Take a yearlong sabbatical
Paint a beautiful painting
Learn to sail
Fall in love and build an empire
Marry and have children
Organize a sold out art mixer
Release an album
Own a coffeehouse
Be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
See Mount Rushmore
Attend a Hollywood movie premier
Act in a movie
See the Pyramids
See Stone Hinge
Run a verified account on Twitter
Bet on a winning horse
Hold political office
Sail around the Tierra del Fuego
Be a featured LinkedIn Influencer
Teach a college class
Learn to cook
Write for the New Yorker
Be on a Gimlet media podcast
Tell a story for This American Life
Earn a PHD
Start a million dollar company
One thing this exercise has done that I wasn’t expecting was to help me realize how much I didn’t have to put on the list. I’ve already stepped foot inside the White House. I’ve already earned a Master’s degree. I’ve experienced international travel and study abroad. I’ve visited several Museums in DC, New York and other intercontinental U.S. cities. In short, I think I’ve done a damn good job with my non-written Life List so far. Now thanks to the mighty certified Life List, I can just make the rest “official.”
And you know what, who says I can’t do this stuff? The more I wrote down, the more ridiculous it felt. But at the same time, I thought, Why not? Why can’t this kid from a semi-underdeveloped Congo town accomplish most if not all of this stuff? I’m not expecting to do it all, but I’d rather lean towards Yes, I will do this rather than I could never do that.
What would be on your list? I bet you could think of five things off the top of your head, just like I did. The things that always linger towards the surface, gnawing at you. What’s something scary that you haven’t wanted to voice?
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