100 Things To Do Before You Die - Vol. 2
Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans
- John Lennon
Last year I made a List of 100 Things To do Before you Die. Actually, there aren't a 100 things on the list. It is easy to come up with a sexy, catchy title like that, but it's much harder to actually do these things. Over the past year, I have earnestly tried to get to some of the items on the list and it takes a lot more planning, effort and persistence than I initially thought. Mere enthusiasm can take you only so far. Many of the items on the 100 List will take a year each to complete.
One of the things that I have really wanted to do is to complete a marathon. So last year, after finishing the Dexter-Ann Arbor half-marathon I started preparing for the Chicago marathon. My enthusiasm did get better of me. A running style might not matter much for short runs but when you run for more than hour, couple of days a week an improper technique can really hurt you. Mine wasn't right and I had hang up my running shoes and bury marathon hopes late in August. This older and wiser I shall try again.
Among other items, I thought that going through the AFI's Top 100 Movies of All Time would be easy. I checked this morning and I still have 25 movies left and I see how the Pareto principle applies - the last few i.e. older and more obscure movies are going to be difficult to track down. While seeing a movie is an investment of only 2-3 hours, a book takes lot more time but then books are more rewarding. I look at the Guardian reading list and I know that it will probably take a couple of years to complete.
While John Lennon might be right and life is short, having a list has made my life more interesting and I know it will be without any regret.
3 comments:
You're doing better than me .. when I checked out the list, I had more than 30 to see, but I'm also working my way through them .. good luck!
Well, what do I say? I started the top 100 movies thingie, deciding to stop at the first movie I haven't seen... and stopped at Wizard of Oz. These (and other Sound of Music-ish stories) are skeletons that are better left in the cupboard.
Best of luck on your Marathon, though.
Having a list is good. The challenges are character building. I find the longer to create ones are more difficult than the "skydive/scubadive" ones, though. I mean, jumping out of a plane only takes a few minutes. Learning the piano takes years.
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