New Years 2009 (101 Things)

Over the past few years I have made New Years resolutions and stuck with them.  

(I know, it's supposed to be unheard of, right?)

But in the past few years my resolutions have always been things I wanted to do, not things I thought I should want to do.  Learn how to knit hats, open my Etsy shop: they were all things I was going to do anyway, but putting a time frame on them helped me focus my free time towards my goals.  This year, my resolution was going to be to knit a blanket.  I will knit a blanket this year (in fact, I have already started) but I am taking a different approach to the whole New Years resolution idea.

I found an online challenge called "101 Things to Do in 1001 Days."  The idea is that you make a list of 101 things you want to do, then give yourself a little less than three years to accomplish those tasks.  I immediately liked the idea.  I started making my list and imagined how accomplished I would feel when I reported back with 101 blog posts and 101 fantastic pictures of my completed tasks.  I felt very sunny and happy about myself, life, my list, and all the productive-ness that would happen within the next 1001 days.

I listed about 50 things, then hit a wall when I realized that 1001 days is just shy of three years.  Three years is not long in the grand scheme of a lifetime, but when you are a few weeks shy of 26 and everything about your life changes every few months- from residence, to career aspirations, to whether or not you want to have children someday (and when that day might be)- it is a considerable amount of time.  I don't even really know what I want to get out of today, how am I supposed to know what I will want to be doing in two years?

So I made my list with this quote (and my motto for 2009 and beyond) in mind:



Life changes.  What I want to do with my life changes.  While I want to use my 101 in 1001 list as a guide for the next "almost three years" of my life, I want to allow room for life to bring unexpected things to me.  I want to grant myself permission to twist and turn into new directions.  Heck, I don't want to even have to "give myself permission" for adventures and surprises, I want to invite them!

But, I still like the idea of giving myself a wee bit of direction, so I finished my list.  Here it is.  Anyone want to embark on the adventure with me?  Grab your backpacks and boots, heels and clutches, sandals and towels, clogs and totes, and let's go...