Wednesday, January 19, 2005

What to do [the 2005 edition]

I recently loaded up a list of goals to a site that posts & lets you track your success, failure & the final value of accomplishment. The site is called 43 Things and is geek heavy (check out their zietgeist page if you think I'm fooling. Ex. #5, Learn Ruby [that's code folks, the latest code]). My goals are under the user name benne and are in no particular order.

The way I structure my goals has changed somewhat over the years. I didn't really start making goals until I was 22, late to the game I know, but prior to that I couldn't shake the idea that all I should focus on was the next thing. When I first started trying to figure out what engaged me, I had a template that I could fill in. It was like an excel sheet, with timelines on the top row & the intended group that the goals would affect, like this:


click for the whole picture.

Pretty heady stuff, plenty of options inside of those boxes. I enjoyed the fact that years after I made the goals from that first try, I had accomplished a lot of what I had set out to do (still working on that dynamic world peace for the next 100 years thing). Anyway, I'm hooked on the idea of charting a course for myself - but have largely abandoned the exercise of reminding myself that what I do has an effect on the world around me. That part I get.

2 comments:

Pam said...

I'm on 43Things too, though it turns out I'm having a little bit of a hard time getting 43 goals posted. Maybe one of my things should be "Become more goal oriented."

One of the things I like about 43Things - and there are many to like - is that it really makes me feel as though I have already accomplished a great deal. Sometimes when you sit outside the mainstream long enough, you get to feeling like you haven't really done anything. Then you see all the stuff that people WANT to do, and when you can say "Hey, I've done THAT!" to so many of those things, it makes you - I mean me - feel like an accomplished human being.

Caveat1 - I wouldn't say the participants in 43Things reflect the mainstream.

Caveat2 - 43Things is WAY addictive.

Lillian said...

Ok, I checked out your list & worth doings... very addictive as you say.

This one is for Sinical: Amit Gupta wants an underground lair. You do to, I just KNOW it!

Here: http://www.43things.com/people/view/amit