Happy Wednesday!
Well friends, I buckled to peer pressure and finally made my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. The heart behind this new trend is to take ownership of your life; to stop talking about how you need to do things "one day" or "when you get around to it", but to actively take steps to actually accomplish those things. It's all about being proactive.
The dictionary defines proactive as an adjective for:
"Acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty; anticipatory."
It's a given: life is going to through us curve balls. We are going to have to deal with sucky situations that are difficult and unexpected. But if we cultivate the habit of preparing ourselves to the best of our ability before those situations arise, we will be better able to face them.
We shouldn't live in fear, but we should be alert. We shouldn't think that we can have difficult situations all figured out because nothing will ever go as planned, but we should take whatever steps we can in the hear and now so that we can be wise stewards of the life we have been given. How awful to reach the end of life and realize that we had wasted so much of it! To realize that there were so many opportunities we let slip by because we just "didn't get around to it"!
"Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. ~ Matthew 24:42 ~
Okay, here's my Bucket List for the next year and a half:
1. Learn to play guitar
2. Make homemade pizza
3. Run the Boston Marathon
4. Tell someone about Christ
5. Ride a motorcycle
6. Read all the Harry Potter books
7. Choreograph my own dance…and perform it
8. Make a scrapbook
9. Go to the Bahamas
10. Change the oil in my car
11. French braid my hair
12. Memorize my bank account number
13. Go rock climbing
14. Fly in a noncommercial plane
15. Have a picnic
16. Ride the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier
17. Lie on a blanket outside and star gaze
18. Buy coffee for someone in line behind me
19. Get my AAAI PFI certification
20. Go to a spa
21. Hold a newborn baby
22. Drink a 5-hour Energy
23. Watch a sunrise and sunset in one setting
24. Snow ski in Colorado
25. Learn a magic trick
26. Dance in the rain
27. Go to a County Fair
28. Memorize a book of the Bible
29. Get my gun permit
30. Buy a meal for someone who’s homeless
31. Write a poem
32. Play laser tag
33. Paint a room
34. Go swimming at midnight
35. Eat Dim Sum
36. Get my spinning certification
37. Volunteer at Montgomery Village
38. Paintball
39. Go to Paris, France
40. Have a granola party with my sister
41. Ride Superman
42. Visit an orphanage and play with babies
43. Cross stitch something
44. Go to Puppy Zone
45. Ring in the New Year in Times Square
46. Skype a friend
47. Paint a canvas
48. Ride a horse
49. Volunteer at Lost Sheep
50. Watch a UT vs. FL game in the Swamp
51. Be in a wedding
52. Give someone a hug
53. Make pancakes with my roommates
54. Ride a scary roller coaster with my hands up the entire time
55. Send someone a handwritten letter
56. Have a Disney movie marathon
57. Go to the Grand Canyon
58. Call an old friend
59. Swing Dance
60. Go snorkeling
61. Drink a homemade milkshake
62. Go through Ayres Hall
63. Graduate college
64. Go to Niagara Falls
65. Do a triathlon
66. Go scuba diving
67. Take a back road with my car windows down
68. Change a tire
69. Learn the dance routine for Thriller
70. Drive a stick shift
71. Jet ski at Tablerock Lake
72. Bring a friend breakfast in bed
73. Go to a Lady Antebellum concert
74. Give someone a back massage
75. Laugh until I cry and start to hyperventilate
76. Play in the fountains at World’s Fair Park
78. Bake bread
79. Take ballroom dancing classes
80. Go white water rafting
81. Surprise someone at work
82. Have a photo-shoot
83. Make cheesecake
84. Watch Forest Gump in its entirety
85. Mattress surf
86. Write a book
87. Play a round of golf
88. Watch fireworks over water
89. Slide down a banister
90. Watch all the Lord of the Rings movies
91. Tie-Dye a t-shirt
92. Travel to Washington, D.C. and NYC on the Megabus
93. Buy a pair of chacos
94. Go to a Zumba class
95. Play Ultimate Frisbee
96. Take a cooking class
97. Rock on the front porch with a good friend
98. Tell someone she’s beautiful
99. Throw a surprise party
100. Play hide-and-seek outside
101. Learn Jesus Loves Me in Creole
This list begins today, August 10 2011 and will hopefully be completed by May 6, 2014! Proactivity has to start somewhere, and for me it might as well begin with this list. Updates will be posted as they are completed, so stay tuned. :)
~Amber Noel
