A List, List Here and A List, List There

I once made one of those 101 in 1001 lists. You remember those, don’t you? They were all the rage a few years ago. Make a list of 101 goals you want to accomplish in 1001 days or less.

I was behind the trend. I always am. But I made one. And I attempted to complete it. At least in the beginning.

It was such a quaint concept. You might even say I was excited about it. And I joyfully checked off the items as I accomplished them throughout at least the first six months or so. And then the enthusiasm waned. And the deadline loomed — very distantly on the horizon, but loomed no less. And I just grew weary of it.

It was like every other list in my life — and there are a lot of them — everything on it needing to be done and by a certain date. I’d had — and still have — enough of that. So, I abandoned the list. And eschewed every other exercise even remotely of the type. What a waste of time!

But yesterday, I clicked over to Chookooloonks to catch up on Karen’s beautiful pictures and words — it’d been a while — and the most recent post was this one on curating your life. And reading it just kind of stopped me dead in my tracks. My god, the woman is onto something here!

As regular readers know by now I’ve spent the better portion of the past seven months trying to live, work and play by one principle: knowing the difference between what works ideally and what works realistically, for me. And doing so has enacted so many positive changes in my life that it’s something I sort of cling to these days. It’s become my rock to lean on, my safe place in a storm, so to speak. I can go back to it whenever I’m struggling to be effective, in whatever area of my life I am working in and I can reapply it and things always change; they always improve.

It’s a very simple concept, but one that in my life has been profound in application. And perhaps that’s part of the reason I was so captivated by Karen’s post yesterday. Near the beginning she says, of the gallery director having completely rearranged the layout of an exhibit:

“There’s something to be said for having a critical eye for what works and what doesn’t.”

And I just thought Yes! Yes! That’s exactly what I’ve found. That is exactly what I’m living!

But then, further into the post, she goes on to begin to tie the concept into her Life List and I’m not going to lie. At first mention I may or may not have rolled my eyes a bit. Not the damned lists again!

I may or may not have rolled my eyes, but I kept reading and I’m going to admit something; something that, a couple of years ago on the heels of that 101 in 1001 list incident, I never would have believed I would say, but there may be something to this list making thing. There may be something to it, if in no other way, perhaps at least in the way Karen looks at it:

“I sort of think of the act of creating a life list similar to creating a palette of paint colours: I pick the paint colours that appeal to me, and then from the palette, I use specific paints to make my art, or, more metaphorically, my life. And yes, I may not use all the paints or do all the items on the list, and the events I pick aren’t the only things that will happen to me in my life; nonetheless, they sure as hell can help make life more interesting, more vibrant. They help balance the tedium. In other words, a life list isn’t so much a to-do list as a curated selection of possibilities, from which to pick and choose to help create my life.”

I may have to jump back on the bandwagon. I may have to make another list. I may.

What do you think? How do you look at life lists, goal lists?