Life Ticket

 I challenge you to make your life the masterpiece you want to paint, the novel you want to read, the day you want to wake to ― Toni Sorenson

I’ve spent some time discovering all sorts of personal development/health lifestyle websites.  A few of them have been really helpful, others not so but one thing that has always interested me is this idea of having a list of ideas and plans of things you really want to achieve in life and ticking those things off one by one by one…

Because lets be honest life is too short and there are loads of places to see, people to meet and projects to try out.

You can find loads of lists on the web, just search on ‘bucket-list’ or  ‘list challenge’ or 1001 things’ but one guy that really stuck a chord was Joel Runyon.  I’ll save you the details – much better to go and view his site. Its pretty impressive though and I thought, hell I’m not into the whole sky diving, Everest climbing feats but I have a few big deals I’d like to work on, in my life and I do like lists!

There is one main point about my Life Ticket

It’s not just a tick list.

It’s not an inventory of things I feel I have to see and do.  It’s a ticket that will make me a better person.  One that will give me new skills, meet new people and lead me towards a richer life.  It will also hopefully go towards making the world a better place too as it’s as much about me giving as it is just taking from the world.

A life list, such as the one below, is deliberately on the high end of challenging and it should never have a time frame (unless the goal is made completely time specific).

It also means there is no pressure to complete the list, right?  

Wrong!

I don’t like pressure but I don’t want to stand still so that is what this ticket list is for.  To keep pushing me forward, leading me to all sorts of new people, new ideas and new places while achieving specific goals.

Above all the final rule of my list is – it has to be fun.  My list is made up of things I’m passionate about doing (or helping other to do), or want to have a go at trying out.  In other words to stop me wondering ‘what if?’

Planet Saving:

• Get an article published in a magazine/website on why G’ingYO is so important
• Participate in a Protest March for a cause I feel strongly about (Completed 17th October 2012)
• Create a beautiful, functioning, sustainable green garden (Completed August 2014)
• Support 25 people to start growing their own veggies (Completed February 2015)
• Support 50 people to start growing their own veggies
• Support 100 people to start growing their own veggies
• Invest £750 in a socially responsible, non-profitable business
• Plant a 150 trees
• Plant 500 trees
• Don’t purchase anything new for 1 year straight
• Start a social movement
• Write and publish a free eBook on ‘How to Start GYO’ (Completed 30th March 2015)

Experiencing Fitness:

• Do 50 push-ups (completed Spet 2012)
• Do 75 push-ups
• Do 100 push-ups
• Do 100 consecutive squats (Completed)
• Do 150 consecutive squats (Completed 10th November 2012)
• Lose two stone (28lbs) in weight (Completed 19th August 2013)
• Complete a 5k run (Completed 3rd September 2013)
• Complete a 10k run (Completed 21st September 2013)
• Complete a half-marathon run (Completed 21st September 2014)
• Complete a half century bike ride
• Complete a century bike ride

Getting to know the World – Travel:

• Visit every type of (known) habitat in the world
• Go to New York City (Completed 16th to 26th January 2014)
• Live in the USA for 3 months
• Visit the Amazon rain-forest
• Pick Ceylon tea leaves in Sri Lanka (my favourite tea), and see how it’s grown.
• Travel to all 48 English counties using only public transport/feet (currently 19 completed)
• Flick through an atlas with my eyes closed – which ever country my finger lands on I have to visit within 10 days for at least 12 hours.
• Live in Germany for 3 months
• Live in Greece for 3 months

Zen Life:

• Visit a Tibetan monastery
• Own less than 300 things
• Achieve 100% debt freedom
• Become completely self-sufficient (off grid) for three months
• Reduce meat intake by 50% (Completed 30th April 2015)
• Become 100% vegetarian
• Complete Veganuary – Completed 31st January 2015
• Train to become a Mental Health First Aider (Completed December 2014)
• Become an early riser (5:30am) (Achieved Nov 2014)
• Buy a drink for a stranger
• Learn to master mindfulness

Exciting Challenges:

• Walk the C2C (Coast to Coast)
• Climb the highest fell in the Lakes (Scafell Pike)
• Go hurricane chasing in tornado alley, USA
• Go on an African safari and camp out
• Complete in a chilli eating competition
• Go and visit a live volcano
• Complete the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge
• Walk the Viking Way (solo)

Must See Events:

• San Francisco Pride
• Gay pride Amsterdam
• Oktoberfest fest in Munich, Germany
• Attend London’s Flare (LGBT) film festival
• Watch a Super Bowl live, in America
• Mexico for Day of the Dead
• Get up and outside, into the countryside for the dawn
• chorus(Completed 13th April 2014)
• Watch a murmation (starlings)
• Follow the journey of an African wildebeest herd

Renaissance Woman:

• Finish a novel for NaNoWriMo (Completed 30th November 2012)
• Write a screenplay from a favourite novel
• Learn to sing well enough to sing a solo song
• Become fluent in two languages (German, and BSL)
• Learn to play the piano/keyboard well enough to play Comptine d’un autre ete by Yann Tiersen
• Act in a movie
• Read 500 novels (Completed May 2015)
• Read a 1000 novels
• Be part of a web series, in front or behind camera
• Complete 30 different writing challenges in 30 days
• Learn to play a strategic game
• Create a video for You Tube
• Complete a fanfic novel (Finished 30th November 2014)
• Help teach my JRT Mouse to complete an agility course

Livelihood:

• Start my own business (Completed 12th February 2015)
• Grow the worlds ten hottest chillies
• Create a blog charting my creative works and crazy feats and blog for one year straight (completed Oct 2013)
• Get 250  FmN followers (Boom! 29th September 2013 mar-ve-llous)
• Get 750 FmN followers (Ka-boom! 28th April 2015.  Thank you)
• Get 1,000 followers
• Design a line of apparel
• Try out a new profession for 6 weeks
• Learn to create a passive income

So that’s the list, my incredible – achievable –  list.

Its not numbered because I’ll keep adding and changing it as I develop (it’s already at version 2 as at Aug 14).

It’s my life ticket and now it’s out there in the public domain, so I better go and get some of these things done and ticked off.

Wanna come and help me with any of this?   If you can then please get in touch.

If anyone is doing anything similar, get in touch – we can share woes, frustrations and most importantly achievements!