101 Things in 1001 Days

This is a cool exercise that I undertook yesterday. It's called "101 Things in 1001 Days" and it has little to do with what I typically talk about here. This is about setting realistic, but stretch, goals with a long, but not too long, timeline of 1001 days to accomplish them. That is about 2.75 years to do the things you want to do with your life. I made my list yesterday and I have until June 2nd, 2010 (today is my start day, so do the math accordingly) to complete all of the items on the list. I'm not going to share all of my things with you because some of the people that I am going to do things for might read them and be anticipating, but I will give you a few examples of things I've chosen as goals.

- Drive cross-country, avoiding Interstates. Eat only at local restaurants.
- Bike more miles than I drive 3 months in a row
- Clean out file cabinet
- Go White Water rafting
- Deadlift 2.5 times bodyweight
- Eat only grass-fed/pastured/wild meats and seafood (except when dining at family/friend's houses)
- Pay off school loan
- Help with Habitat for Humanity
- Read 30 books
- Take a surfing class
- Donate $5 to charity for each item not completed by Day 1001

I divided my goals into categories: Personal, De-clutter, Adventure/Travel/Outdoors, Business/Blog, Health/Fitness, Food-related, Financial, Random Kindness/Charity, and Self-Improvement. You don't necessarily have to come up with 101 things. The purpose is in the setting of and striving for goals, not in the absolute number of them. If you can come up with 25 things to do in the next 1001 days, that is more than most people do. It's really interesting to see the things that you'd like to do laid out on paper, having a solid record of them that you can tick off.

This is an exercise that I'd suggest everyone undertake. That link above has plenty of other people's lists that can be used for motivation, since coming up with 101 things on your own can be pretty difficult without something to spur some thinking. Feel free to post some of your goals for the next 2.75 years to the comments.

A Few Recent Posts and Articles

Here are a few posts from the past couple weeks that I've enjoyed:
Frank Forencich, the Exuberant Animal, discusses Who's Holistic? I really like the stuff Frank writes on his Animal Times site. I really like how he closes it out:

It doesn't matter whether you're working at a school, a gym or a studio. The age of specialization is waning; it no longer works to dig one hole, deeper and deeper while ignoring the rest of the world. The time for panoramic vision is upon us. It's time to train the whole animal.

Ross Enamait gave a link to an article showing that high intensity exercise improves learning. So go do some sprints before reading that textbook.

Here is a good read about the Mexican government educating Americans about real Mexican vs. Tex-Mex. I love the American version of Mexican food and would love to try the authentic stuff.

Shaun Boyd, at Life Reboot, has a post that focuses on a different area of health than I typically discuss: happiness (and by extension, stress). Check out his 10 Articles That Changed My Life. If you only have a few minutes or don't want to read them all, I suggest Steve Job's commencement address (#1) and Steve Pavlina's "Don't Die With Your Music Still In You" (#3).