Do you know what type you are? If you're an N you probably know exactly what I'm talking about, but if you're an S you probably can't see the point in this nonsense. I'm one of those types with a J at the end, which means that I'm into making lists.
I have been working on this 100 things to do before I die list for ages now (eh ... years in fact. That's why some items have already been crossed off) but I'm still only up to number 33.
But I do find that every crossed-off list item generates ideas for more new things to do. And though I know you're meant to introduce false panic into this exercise by imagining that you've been given only months to live, I prefer to assume that I've got a bit of time ahead of me. I suppose mine's more like 100 things to do if I live.
1. Travel outside of Australia
2. Contribute to a published book. It doesn't matter in what capacity - writer, editor, helper, contributor
3. Work on a remote site
4. Work as a writer
5. Raise at least one child
6. Design a large garden and watch it grow
7. Write a childrens' book - either a story or non-fiction
8. Get back into music one way or another
9. Help out in the community in a creative capacity
10. Live in a country in which English is not the first language
11. Grow a large crop of something - fruit in an orchard? a commercial quantity of herbs? - to harvest and sell
12. Own a house and 'customise' it a bit
13. Study garden design or landscape design
14. Design a garden for someone else - one that I think is beautiful and they're really happy with too
15. Learn another language to the point where I can have a conversation
16. Sew some curtains specifically for the place where we're living - especially if it is another rented property
17. Set foot on Africa
18. Do something about my fascination with middle-eastern tiles
19. Get more of my creative thoughts out of my head and into the world
20. Set foot in the US
21. Write a novel
22. Publish a novel
23. Get our photos off the computer and onto our walls, into books and albums, onto archive storage.
24. Work somewhere where English isn't the first language
25. Visit India
26. Visit Morocco
27. Make a picture book out of fabric - make one for children, and then think about making one for grown-ups?
28. Make a set of cut-out felt animals, and a felt storyboard for them to cling to
29. Make a home movie
30. Drive from Townsville to Brisbane with Hayden
31. Make myself a mousepad that works
32. Go on safari in Africa
33. Poetry. Write some poetry.
I have already started on number 28. I made a cut-out giraffe from brown felt, and it lead me to add numbers 17, 32 and 27 to the list. You see how this works?
Let me know if you do up a list of your own; I'd love to hear what you imagine for your future.
2 comments:
No list for me. If I don't set any goals I can never disappoint myself.
So when those "I should write a children's book / film script / comic" thoughts do appear (and they do) I can embrace them, give them a full lunch hour or two of intense head-scratching, then move on to the next fleeting idea without any sense of failure.
Ah, lucky you!
This list-making thing is pretty much a curse. I found out that most of the world's great writers are happy-go-lucky non-list-making types, so I set myself a goal to become more like them.
But Hayden told me that it doesn't work like that.
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