Lift Up Your Hearts!

As promised in my Leon Project post, here is my list of 95 things to accomplish by my 65th birthday, which is approximately two and a half years away.  The list was extraordinarily difficult to create.  Others have told me they had trouble coming up with such a large list; for me the problem was to keep it from expanding exponentially.  I am terribly intimidated by both the apparent ambitiousness of the list—which includes many projects that have languished on my To Do list for years, even decades—and by knowing that I've left out far more of what I want to do than I've included, not to mention the activities that make up most of everyday life.  Many of the items on the list can be broken down into 95 items of their own.  A few are simple; I put those in to keep myself encouraged, though unfortunately I had to take many of them out to pare the list to 95.  When I think of the time and effort this list represents, and realize that it's but a sampling of what I want to accomplish, it's no wonder that "my work" fills my days and is never far from my thoughts.  But, to claim a cliché from our old favorite General Electric ride at EPCOT (Horizons), If we can dream it, we can do it.  At least I'm going to try.  Certainly it's a lot more likely to happen than if I don't dare to dream it.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to categorize my list items.  In the end, I shamelessly copied from Stephen Covey's To Live, To Learn, To Love, and To Leave a Legacy.  Live gets the items related to everyday life and to health, including organization and exercise.  Into the Love category I put spiritual exercises, anything for which I deem the primary purpose to be social (from watching movies to visiting friends to joining Twitter).  Learn gets reading and other cultural activities, mental exercises, and language learning. My genealogy work goes into the Legacy category, along with Grandma's Treasure Chest and other educational materials creation, and photo/audio/video work.  Some items could easily go into more than one category, but I made myself stop stressing about that:  this is a tool, not a master, and it doesn't need to be perfect.  It just needs to be.

I look forward to collaborating with Sarah in mutual support and encouragement.  And to having a list of accomplishments as a 65th birthday present for my inner Leon.

Here's is the original list.  If anyone wants to follow my progress, there's a link to the Google Sheet on the sidebar (under Links/Personal).

To Live

1. Create 95 by 65 list
2. Create the Leon Project
3. Create/tweak/finalize/codify 60 family recipes
4. Develop and sustain a system for making bread regularly
5. Develop and sustain a system for making yoghurt regularly
6. Experiment with making kefir
7. Finish Janet's birthday 2009 recipe book
8. Go through all recipe books, digitizing what looks good, getting rid of all but essentials/favorites
9. Complete a biking challenge (details to come)
10. Complete a swimming challenge (details to come)
11. Complete a walking challenge (details to come)
12. Design 5 Life Playground stations
13. Develop a stretching plan and execute at least 3x/week for a month
14. Execute 50 pushups nonstop on the higher bar at the park
15. Find a GPS distance tracker that works for me
16. Practice deliberate relaxation twice a day for a month
17. Reach desired weight goal
18. Run nonstop 3 times around the park trail then participate in a 5K race (any speed)
19. Declutter and organize phone
20. Declutter blog template files
21. Declutter computer
22. Declutter garage
23. Declutter marked items in Janet's room
24. Declutter my office
25. Declutter our filing cabinets (with Porter)
26. Declutter sewing supplies
27. Develop a quick system for travel prep and packing
28. Recycle collected ink cartridges
29. Research and purchase food processor
30. Set up identification system for files to grab in an emergency
31. Create another goal-oriented project for when this one is over
32. Create an herb garden
33. Get a working back porch sink

To Love

34. Attend 15 live performances (e.g. music, drama, lectures)
35. Convert our Christmas card system to postal + e-mail
36. Refrain from negative speech for 1 day. Do this 30 times. (Since sometimes negative things must be said, this will include recasting negative things in a neutral or positive tone.)
37. Share at least 20 meals with others (home or restaurant, but not counting multi-day visits or shared meals already in place)
38. Try at least 5 new restaurants
39. Visit Universal/IoA four times
40. Watch NCIS LA from the beginning
41. Watch Unbroken
42. Join in the choir trip to Austria
43. Visit a country I've never been to
44. Visit a state I've never been to
45. Visit all immediate family members at least once per year
46. Visit Arizona
47. Visit either Costa Rica or the Gambia
48. Visit King Arthur Flour
49. Keep up a two posts/week blogging schedule for 20 months (not necessarily consecutive)
50. Send at least 4 care packages to each of our freshman nephews
51. Write an encouraging note each month to someone other than family
52. Write at least 10 letters to political officeholders
53. Write at least 5 notes of encouragement to each nephew
54. Write at least 75 physical letters to children/grandchildren
55. Join Google+
56. Join Twitter

To Learn

57. Finish chronological Bible reading plan
58. Start and complete other daily Bible reading plans
59. Achieve 40,000 duolingo points (average 1,000/month, split between French and German)
60. Listen to all of Pimsleur German I
61. Complete George MaCDonald reading plan (49 books, 14 completed in 2014)
62. Read 130 books (new or old, print or audio, any level)
63. Read 26 existing but as yet unread books from my bookshevles
64. Read The History of the Renaissance World
65. Read the Koran
66. Complete 100 Great Courses lectures (Measured by lecture rather than course because some courses are longer than others, and so I can count free lectures they sometimes offer.)
67. Experience all 37 of Shakespeare's plays (attend, watch, and/or read)
68. Learn sufficient Javascript and/or jquery to know if it will work for creating my GTC website
69. Make 30 museum visits
70. Set and attain BrainHQ goal
71. Set and attain Khan Academy goal
72. Set and attain Memrise goal
73. Set and attain Sporcle goal

To Leave a Legacy

74. Copy LPs to CDs
75. Copy tapes to CDs
76. Convert WRL memorial PPT to video
77. Complete conversion of bits PPTs to videos
78. Create 20 new GTC shows
79. Create a form of GTC independent of YouTube and useable offline
80. Create scent bits
81. Make new family bits for Heather
82. Print bit back labels for Heather
83. Clean up, expand, and document the lines I currently have in my tree
84. Enter unentered genealogy data
85. Publish revised editions of Honor Enough volumes 1-4
86. Rocket boost genealogy work by end of January 2015 (40 hours of work in segments of 1 or more hours, over 2 weeks)
87. Update Phoebe's Quilt and print in "final" form
88. Create one photo album with Picaboo
89. Digitize photos
90. Digitize slides
91. Organize photos 2007-2011 (subgroups 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
92. Organize photos 2012-2016 (subgroups 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
93. Research and purchase scanner suitable for prints and slides
94. Rocket boost photo work (40 hours of work in segments of 1 or more hours, over 2 weeks)
95. Make (at least) 2 baby blankets