On August 20, 2020, we visited the beautiful Turning Point Park in Rochester, New York, walked their 3572 ft-long footbridge, and started our Lists of 100 Things.
The List of 100 Things isn’t a bucket list or a wish list, but it also kind of is. It’s more of a list of experiences we want to ensure we have, and it serves as both a source of accountability and a method of motivation. It’s certainly helpful to have something to consult when we can’t come up with our next adventure, so the existence of the list reminds us we can choose to do the things we say we want to do while also meeting the needs and desires we cared enough about to put down in writing.
The List of 100 Things is not a new concept, and everyone puts their own spin on the model. Jen Panaro from Honestly Modern credits the idea to Laura Vanderkam, who describes her “List of 100 Dreams” in the book, 168 Hours, as a way “to encourage readers to be more intentional about how we spend our time.” Panaro, who has been keeping these lists for years now, provides many suggestions for creating them on her website.
When we set out to make our lists that day, what we learned right away was it’s harder than it sounds to come up with a List of 100 Things. One reason may be because we’ve been lucky to have had many life experiences and travel opportunities, and another might be because we’re past the age of adrenaline-fueled yearnings (if there is such a thing). Even after sharing ideas with each other and looking up suggestions on the internet, it still took us several weeks before we had a hundred items each, but the lists have been well worth that initial time and effort.
Twenty-seven of the items on one of our lists and 33 on the other involve travel or visiting somewhere new, and, despite the pandemic, we’ve been able to see a few of those destinations together. Glamping at Seneca Sol in October was a fun, but chilly, adventure, the Sandra Frankl Nature Walk was an anti-climactic short and straight stroll, and kayaking in Black Creek is best done early in the season before the water becomes too shallow. Ithaca is a great town to visit, and the Finger Lakes Wine Tours are worth the trip every single time.
Thanks to the lists, we’ve been able to mindfully remember to send more thank you notes, ask our parents about their childhoods, donate consistently, and declutter regularly. We’ve created our own business, started a blog, and read more books, but neither one of us has yet to plan our funeral, clean out our basements, or dye our hair a funky color, although we just might do so any minute now.
Of course, there are many things on the lists we can’t plan for, but we can arrange the circumstances to increase our odds of seeing a bear in the wild, staying up all night engrossed in conversation, developing muscle definition, and playing more board games. We can also seek out opportunities to take a cooking or cocktail-making class, learn about flora and fauna, pass something down to somebody, and participate in a cultural ceremony.
In fact, putting the energy and desire out there in the universe may very well help bring about the conditions necessary to turn those dreams into reality. Thanks to our lists, we may right now be on the verge of inventing something revolutionary, writing the next best-seller, and increasing our net worth to a level worthy of tracking, or we may also be getting ready to check out drag show bingo, take a bicycle bar tour, or repaint our bathrooms instead.
Every List of 100 Things is as individual as its creator. Connect with us to share what you’re putting on yours.
Author: Terry Shamblin
Mindful Life Connections 