For those of you who don’t know Sean Ogle, you’re missing out. He runs a brilliant site called Location180 which deals with topics similar to those of WSR — lifestyle design, location independence, productivity, entrepreneurship. If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend it.
Sean is famous for his list. This list contains 67 experiences he has to have before he dies. Lots of people have these kinds of ideas and maybe even some of those people compile them into an official list, but Sean has gone one step further by publishing his list. This keeps him accountable to his readership. If people know your goals you are more likely to accomplish them for fear of looking like an absolute failure.
This accountability has worked for Sean as many of his items have been crossed off already. Just last week he tackled number sixteen — climb a mountain! He has an excellent post up describing the experience and how it felt to hike the South Sister, which is the third highest peak in Oregon. This post was particularly inspiring to me.
I think we would all do good to take a lesson from Sean and formalize our ideas, make them official and make them public. By letting others know what we intend to do, not only do we feel more motivated to do them, but we can also build a support community where we can share advice and help each other out.
I’m proposing that we all make a list and commit to it, starting today.
How It Works
First you need to choose a title. Sean’s is “Things To Do Before I Die.” I’ve decided mine will be “Fifty Things To Do Before I Turn 30.” You can use any number of things — fifty, twenty five, ten, three, whatever — and any timeframe you choose. I’m currently 22 years old. Thirty feels far enough away that these things can be reasonably accomplished without being rushed and close enough that I don’t get overwhelmed by the length of the commitment.
After you compile your list, make sure to publicize it. Publish it in the comments here, on your blog, put it on the refrigerator, tell all your friends. The more people who know about it, the better. Accountability!
So, without further ado…
Fifty Things I’m Going To Do Before I Turn Thirty
- Experience zero gravity
- Take part in No Pants Day
- Write a novel
- Build a blog with 10,000+ subscribers
- Create a low-maintenance online business
- Eliminate all debt
- Sell/give away everything I don’t need
- Write an ebook
- Become location independent
- View the Mona Lisa in person
- Master the art of drawing
- Learn PHP
- Learn Ruby on Rails
- Take an improv/acting class
- Climb the pyramid at Chichen Itza and take a photograph… again… without letting the film camera go through the X-Ray machine at the airport on the way back
- Visit Machu Picchu
- Start a non-profit organization
- Cycle through Europe
- Go to WordCamp (Anywhere)
- Become fluent in portuguese
- Develop the habit of a regular work schedule
- Play 10 live shows (music)
- Write and record a 6-song EP
- See the Avett Brothers in concert
- Work for 6 months from Rio de Janeiro
- Lose 50 pounds
- Create an iPhone app
- Create an open source software project
- Hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
- Ride on a San Francisco cable car
- Visit the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin
- Attend a World Cup game
- Attend the Olympics
- Create a photography portfolio/sell a photo
- Go to Burning Man
- Attend a lecture by Stephen Hawking
- Attend a Rob Bell sermon
- Learn to dance
- Publish a book of poetry
- Sail on the Mediterranean
- Visit important landmarks in the Holy Land
- Visit Borgund stave church in Norway
- Sell a painting
- Go on an African safari
- See the Sphinx/Pyramids up close
- Visit the Taj Mahal
- Tour the Colosseum
- Start a podcast/video podcast
- See the Church of the Sacred Family up close
- Learn to play Mandolin
So, there it is. The fifty things I’ll be doing in the next eight years. What are yours? Tell everyone!
—
Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxypar4/ / CC BY 2.0
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- Bullshit with Bullets
Hey, I'm JD. Last year, I started Wage Slave Rebel as a resource for those who are dying to escape from conformity and design the lifestyles they dream of! I write about online entrepreneurship, productivity, and lifestyle design.
Great idea!! I've got a list 'To Do – Long Term Goals' in my laptop, I'm gonna work on it, compile a proper one and share it.
By the way there's a social network for that http://www.43things.com/
We should all do it!
I love 43things. Should have mentioned it in the post but I never even thought about how perfectly it would fit this concept. I've tried it before but I have a hard time tying my list to anything. Still it's definitely something everyone should check out! It might work out quite nicely for most people!
Done! http://www.43things.com/person/Gure
"To spend more time by the sea."
That goal is really sums up this experiment. It's inexpensive, minimalist and, at the same time, priceless. I was trying to be specific as possible with a lot of my goals, but something like "spend more time by the sea" really makes me wish I had focused on a few more broadly defined goals. Love your list. Good luck with everything and thanks for sharing!
Well I'm about to turn 32 soon so I suppose I've had more time to do stuff and you know age gives you perspective and all that
Just had a look at yours. Sagrada Familia in Barcelona you can do, let's organise a 'Location Independent Free Wage Slave Rebels' meeting there! I'll be your official local guide. I know the geek community there so maybe we can do some sort of international geek gathering or something XD And the Mona Lisa in Paris should be fairly easy too..
Good luck to you too!
Hey JD!
Awesome, I drafted something similar after watching the movie The Bucket List, but I find it is hard to list 100 things I want to do before I die. There are so many more, I can't just choose.
Many are also variations of the same thing, especially when traveling, I want to see like every country in the world, I want to race every hot sports car available, I want a brunette,blonde,redhead,asian,latina,french and all other types of sexy girls
Im gonna try work out a list just like yours
Good work!
Its def possible just gonna cost quite a bit 
I like most of your goals, good luck on zero gravity
Diggy
Yeah I've looked into the zero gravity and it's like $5000 I think to join one of those flights. What I'm really looking forward to is Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. If I experience zero gravity, it'd be way better to do so in space. The reason I didn't list "Visit Outer Space" is because I can't see these tickets becoming more affordable by the time I'm 30. I think now they are at $200,000 per person now and they haven't even taken the first crew yet. I would guess they'll come down quite a bit in my life time, probably not enough by 30 though.
But yeah, I can relate to your problem with the list. I think mine might just keep growing and I'll just give priority to 50 at a time. I'm thinking of new things to add to it already.
Hi J.D.
I have been thinking about a bucket list for a while, but still haven't gotten around to it. Maybe this will be the inspiration I need. I like the idea behind 43things.com. Sharing your experiences with people going after the same goals might help with motivation.
BTW, What instrument do you play?
I play guitar mostly, also some banjo and mandolin. Guitar is the only one I would publicly claim to be "fluent" in though. I'd really love to play classical, jazz, and celtic mandolin. I'm not so great with it right now.
Sweet list, JD! You'll have a boatload of stories to tell your grandkids… or at the very least be like that crazy, wanderlusting uncle a lot of people would love to have
What do you want to learn to dance by the way?
I haven't decided yet, but something ballroom. I'm really open to anything though. It's something I've never done (or at least never done well) so if it ends up being tap or hip hop or whatever, fine. It'd just be cool to do.
Hey J.D. –
For inspiration, check out Heath's blog at http://www.project183.com — what a list you got here! I am looking for favorites, but they all look like impressive choices to me. Best of luck, look forward to following along!
I hadn't seen Heath's blog before, but I unintentionally copied his idea. He is much more ambitious though and has much less time to do it so, wow. I have to keep following this. Thanks for sharing, Alan. Really cool blog. On the about page he also mentions "101 things to do in 1001 days." That's a really cool concept, too. Know of anyone attempting something like that?
Ambitious! When you get to the Guiness Storehouse, make sure to go to the top sky bar! A lot of people miss it!
So you've been to the Guinness Storehouse… this is kind of what I was talking about. I probably would have missed the sky bar if it wasn't for sharing my goals. Do you have any photos from your trip or any posts about it? I'd love to hear about your experiences.
I've officially started my list. Thanks for pushing me into this J. D.! Number one…. Work on a Maine lobster boat for one day. I've always wanted to do that. Great post!
Man, this sucks. I have these first 50 and I've already started planning the second 50 without getting through one day let alone one goal! Working on a Maine lobster boat for one day actually sounds like something that would be cool. BUT… just for one day. I'm not sure I'd be man enough to do it for any longer than that.
Jd –
I have my own list as well but I think sharing it with the world at large is a great way to hold yourself accountable. Putting yourself out there can be a little nerve wracking but I hope your post will help motivate others to develop their own lists. I'm thinking you will see me include my "50" very soon. Thanks for sharing.
Paul
I had to go back over some items and think "Do I really want to include this?" In the end I included them all anyway. There is something a little intimidating about sharing your aspirations with people. Fear of being rejected or made fun of, fear of failing. In the end, I'm glad everyone knows. Now I can focus on getting things done!
Hey JD,
You're only 22?!?! Wow, I thought you were closer to 30! That's awesome though, now you have more time.
I love Sean's idea… and have thought about making my own, but haven't done it. Your list is awesome though!! I really think that by displaying your goals publicly you make it easier to achieve them. Writing them down, and making the first step to get them out of your head makes them all that more attainable. Awesome List… I need to start working on mine now!
Karen
I am just 22! That's what I have to remind myself when I get frustrated about things not moving fast enough! I look more like 12 without the beard though. (Which is why I will never stop having a beard.)
I hope to see your list soon! More likely than not it will make me second guess my list and end up adding more things.
I need to make a list ASAP. I have seen this twice now. Time jump on it.
Dave
LifeExucrsion
At least you've only seen it twice! I've been reminded time and time again for the last several months and only now acted on it. You are a better man than me… haha. Researching all the things I want to do has actually been really fun and motivational, though. I'm thinking about starting a "motivation folder" maybe using Evernote… whenever I see an image that motivates me or an article that motivates me I'll clip it to Evernote so on the tough days I can be reminded of what I'm aiming for.
Wow, that would be awesome. I'd like to do WSR meetups… especially internationally. Maybe one in Paris, one in Barcelona. I need to get a business going first, but yeah if there's an interest I'd love to do that. It'd be pretty bad ass.
Count me in! I was actually thinking the other day how cool it'd be to do a meetup here in the UK one of these days… I hope we end up doing this one day.
I'm there too! Just need a little bit of an advanced warning, but that would be awesome!
So, there's two interested in a meetup. I'd never seriously considered it before but now its starting sound, not only awesome, but realistic. When we do this I'll give you a heads up.
I'd love to have a "world tour" of WSR meetups once I'm location independent. Thanks for the awesome idea. As soon as I get things situated I think it would be cool for WSR to host regular meetups. I'm pretty sure we will do this fairly soon!
Sweet list you got there JD. Some of the above are what i had in mind. Starting a non-profit organization is definitely high on my priority list among the many
Yeah, I can relate. I've always wanted to do something that feels truly meaningful. An organization that doesn't work for profit, to me, seems much more authentic and effective than one that does. I just want to help people, somehow. I don't have any real ideas about how to start one or what it would be for, but I'll be thinking.
Thanks for the comment! Glad to see you here again!
Hiya again!
Have you guys considered social entrepreneurship rather than non for profit? It's just using the ability to make money to do social good beats asking for funds which is not the most sustainable of systems.. Anyway, I know it's bad to use this to pitch my project but it fits with what you guys are talking about, I'm looking for stories/examples of the project's spirit. Have a look http://www.inurhands.com/about Let me know what you think!!
No problem promoting something relevant… don't sweat it! inurhands looks awesome and it's something I would definitely use once I'm on the road. I don't think I have any stories to offer up, but I hope to have some soon enough.
I have considered social entrepreneurship. I had written about it on my old blog (before I had converted it). I like what TOMS Shoes is doing and Skreened and Ben & Jerry's. I heard it somewhere and since then I've used the title "more-than-profit" for companies like that. I have no problem with people who do that and I plan on doing some form of it once I launch some of my bigger business ideas.
Still I think I'd like to have a non-profit that's maybe even tied to the more-than-profit so that it can be supported without asking for funds. Like a side project of whatever business I end up entering into. Maybe something similar to the open source model that Automattic has with WordPress or Canonical has with Ubuntu where it's not even a non-profit, but just a really useful, freely available resource that really benefits the community while also helping to support the people who make it. I don't know exactly. I have a lot of thinking to do about it.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I look forward to dealing more with inurhands in the future!
Thanks so much JD. What a nice guy you are!! I've only started the project this past few weeks, it will be a month on the 10th of Sept, still a lot to do… But I really believe in this idea, I surely hope it works.. Thanks again for the feedback, it can get a bit lonely and weird trying to get a project out, feedback like yours really really helps to keep motivation and spirits up!
You'll have to explain it in more detail. I get the general gist of what inurhands is about, but I'd like to know your grander vision. I'd like to know why you created it and where it's going. Feel free to email me at jbentley [at] ideaanarchy.com (make sure you put JBentley.. not JDbentley)
Great idea! We have quite a few things-to-do in common. I think this might be my first post for a future blog.
Let me know when it launches. I look forward to checking out your goals!
JD,
Thanks for the kind words about me and my site! And CONGRATS on finally making your list!! I know you have been talking about doing it for awhile, and this is the first step towards doing some really cool things in life.
Definitely let me know when you head to Machu Picchu I am there! Really excited to see you start making some progress on this!
It's great that you missed when this was originally posted Friday because you were out knocking more stuff off your list! I'm ashamed to be so far behind.
And about Machu Picchu, will do. Hopefully within the next couple of years.
Great list! I love reading other peoples lists, and I always see cool things to add to mine but I also see a lot of similarities in people's lists too. I think the list makers need to band together and make a group trip to Oktoberfest next year!