Several years ago at the public
library, I stumbled across the book “No Opportunity Wasted: Creating a List for
Life” by Phil Keoghan.
This book really changed my philosophy
about goal setting. Like most of the
population, before reading this book I had a “bucket list.” I had a list of things I wanted to do someday,
before I die. Part of the problem with
that philosophy is I don’t know when I’m going to die, so it’s hard to plan
events leading up to it. The other part
of the problem – at least for me – is that putting anything in the context of
“someday” puts it too far out there for my nerd brain. I need more structure than that.
I changed my mind from a “bucket list”
to a “NOW list.” One of the goals that
came out of reading this book the first time was a cross-country bike
trip. When I say bike I mean bicycle,
not motorcycle. I put a five-year
timeline on that goal, not even owning a bicycle or knowing that two years into
that timeline I would be climbing back into a truck. So, no, I didn’t reach that goal; but I do
own a bike now, I’m working on increasing my endurance, and I’m in the
beginning stages of planning a bike trip next summer with my niece. One of the tricks to reaching a goal is
knowing when to be flexible. That
initial five-year timeline is out, but I’m still working towards accomplishing
that goal.
I bring this up because my first idea
for the bike trip was to ride US 50 from Sacramento to Washington D.C. I have run a portion of US 50 twice in the
past three weeks that I’d never been on before so I’ve been thinking about this
a lot lately. People think I’m crazy
when I tell them I want to do this. I
don’t remember which personal development coach said it, but I heard one say, “If
at least three people don’t tell you you’re crazy, then you’re not being
creative enough.”
I’m okay with people thinking I’m
crazy. After all, not every driver is
writing a blog for their company. If I
hadn’t had that “crazy” idea and acted on it, I wouldn’t be sitting here
right now, living out my dream of being a freelance writer.
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