Long story short, it's been a rough couple of years and I need a mental change. I want to create a life worth living and writing about.
I found Joel Runyon's Impossible Blog a few months ago and his sometimes outrageous ideas are always hovering on the edges of my consciousness. Cold shower therapy? Adventure roulette? How badly do I want it? (Answer: Badly, but never enough to stick to a program) What crazy ideas are these!?
Frankly, I would do all of those things (run an Ironman, obtain 8% bodyfat, stick my perpetually cold limbs in freezing water, travel to a random place for no reason at all) BUT I don't have the time. Or the money. Or the stones.
I am fearful all the time, sometimes for no good reason at all. I walk around with a perpetually worried look on my face, droopy eyes and a startle reflex that would put Bambi to shame. I put on 45 pounds since the beginning of dental school because I shove my feelings and my stress down my throat.
You know what?
NO MORE.
I am tired of being fearful. I am tired of the stress. I am tired of not being able to spring out of bed with joy in my eyes and music in my ears. I am tired of all of the excuses and the fogginess that comes with lack of sleep, insufficient nutrition and sitting on my ass all day and all night.
So I created my own Impossible List. This is a short summary of how Joel Runyon defines the impossible list:
The impossible list is different [from a bucket list]. It’s a fluid, updating status of what’s coming, what’s next and where you’ve come from. It’s always changing, always updating and always evolving. The impossible list isn’t just a piece of paper, it’s a commentary to yourself on how you’re living. The impossible list expands what you’re capable of doing. You should be constantly checking things off the list, but you should be adding items as well. With the impossible list, your limits expand, your horizons get bigger, your dreams become larger. The impossible list is focused on telling as good of a story as possible. Sure that involves doing some great things to enrich your own life, but it also involves actively helping and enriching the lives of others as much as possible, in order to help them tell a good story of their own.
A bucket list expires, the impossible list aspires.
I created another tab at the top of my blog for accountability. I want to be actively crossing stuff off, adding new items and making lives a little bit better, starting with my own.
This is what I have so far:
Life
1.
Do a talk on TED
2.
Write a story, get it published
3.
Write a novel
4.
Run a successful blog
5.
Compete in archery competition
Fitness
1.
Squat 200 lbs
2.
Deadlift 200 lbs
3.
Run 5k
4.
10 consecutive pullups
5.
Compete in a powerlifting competition
Travel
1.
Road trip across US
Renaissance Man
1.
Finish a Chatelaine
2.
Teach anywhere
a.
Continuing ed for dentists
b.
Students
c.
Even in library courses
3.
Volunteer for a crisis hotline
4.
Learn photography – specifically architecture,
portraits
5.
Learn ballet
1.
Adrenaline Rush
1.
Go bungee jumping
2.
Go sky diving
3.
Go parasailing
4.
Go scubadiving
Fluency
1.
Spanish
2.
ASL
3.
French
Career
1.
Work in a mobile dental unit
3.
Volunteer for dental service trip within US
4.
Volunteer for dental service trip internationally
What's on YOUR Impossible List?
No comments:
Post a Comment