A List of Creative Goals for the New Year
NEIRAD enilno edition
So, here we are. Another year older, hopefully another year wiser and the weight of obligations and goals for this New Year already are pressing down. Getting better grades; getting into a good college; eating healthier, exercising more…the list goes on and on. But for those of you who have no goals and ambitions (you know who you are), I have found the perfect book for you called “Dream It. List It. Do It.” The book is a guide to more than 5,000 things for the reader to do with their life to make them feel more productive/creative/helpful to society.
The book is derived from the Web site 43things.com, a site designed to help people improve their lives by allowing them to make lists of things they would like to do before it is too late. Each goal can be commented on by other users, allowing people to receive feedback and moral support while trying to complete their dreams.
While there aren’t as many goals in the book as there are on the Web site, there are definitely enough to keep people busy. In order to really get a feel for the book, I decided to try and complete one goal from each chapter. Ok, not every chapter. I had to skip the “Become a Superhero” one…for practical reasons.
I opened to the first section entitled, “Understand Myself.” This caused me great self-doubt. I had been naive enough to think that after 17 years I understood myself pretty well, but had I never really thought about “finding my purpose in life” or “soul searching” or “redefining, reconnecting, and embracing the person I’m becoming.” If anything, this whole section freaked me out a little.
The next few sections were a little easier. After opening to a random page and haphazardly picking bullet points, I learned “the art of bonsai”, decided to “pick up trash for a day”, “quit gambling”, and “leave happy messages under people’s windshield wipers.” If that’s not living a bigger, bolder life, than I don’t know what is.
All in all, I’d have to say I was a little disappointed with “Dream It. List It. Do It.”. It throws ideas at you, but doesn’t offer any practical advice how to complete the goals. For example, how would you even begin to go about “completing three consecutive toe-ups on a trapeze with no spotter.” Now that sounds like fun, but where do I get a trapeze, how do I do toe-ups, and who’s willing to spot me? Anyone…? Well, let me know.
We have this book on the front counter at Barrett Bookstore and I think that’s a very good spot for it. It doesn’t really fall under any category and it gets a few amused chuckles out of the customers. No one’s actually bought it yet…but starting January 2, when people are feeling tired, lazy, and ambitionless from holiday snacking and festivities, I expect these books to fly off the shelves.
