Lists

"God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die." ~Bill Watterson

I have always been a list-maker. I come by it honestly— when I was a kid I considered it a great privilege when Mom would let me cross off something on her list (there was a special technique to it). When I was 14, I heard the head of a department at a tech school explain his way of scheduling: “I have a list of things to do, but they’re in order of priority. Something that was #37 yesterday might be #1 today. It’s constantly fluctuating.” His statement opened my eyes, and made me realize that someone else thought about tasks in the same way I did.

On any given day, I have a list of 10-15 things that I want to accomplish. I order them by priority and see how many I can get done. If I only finish three items, as long as they were priorities, I still consider the day a productive one. That’s the key to list-making: you can’t stress out about finishing everything. Otherwise, you’ll just drive yourself mad.

Growing a mustache is also on my bucket list.

I have quite the bucket list for life— leave footprints on all 50 states, raise a family, do a book tour, become an established travel writer, build a haven for travelers, and visit the seven continents, to name a few— but if at the end of my years I haven’t accomplished all of them, I won’t feel too disappointed. Doing something is better than nothing, and I make a conscious effort to do something every day. If you set your sights high, even if you fail you’ll still be further up than if you didn’t try at all.

~Lisa Shafter