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This morning I was reviewing my Internet links and noticed I had several lists of 100 things: 100 best movies as rated by the AFI (American Film Institute) ; 100 best novels of all time; 100 places to visit before you die. The number varies from 1 to 1000 or greater; the "thing" to do before you die may be a place to travel, a daredevil event to try such as skydiving, a personal goal such as completing a marathon, or to watch the 100 best movies or read the 100 best novels. Limits to accomplishing items on these lists include time, money, desire, and that unknown date in the future when you will die. Have you ever created a list of 100 things to do before you die for yourself? If you have, congratulations! If you have not, it is as simple as pulling out a piece of paper or notebook, numbering from 1 to 100, and filling up the list with anything you can think of. If you get struck there are plenty of website with ideas for items to add to your list, but it is much more engaging to create the list by yourself on paper. You may run out of things after 15 items, or you may want to go well past 100. The bigger you dream, the quicker you will get to 100. Once you complete the list you will notice that some items will be much easy to accomplish than others (run a marathon is much more feasible than visit the moon). Becoming a millionaire is achievable but it will most likely take years of commitment, persistence, and some luck. Becoming a professional athlete will take years of hard work but will also depend on the talents that God provided for you. This list can be a great motivator. When you look at your own list you will find items that take a lot of money (travel to another country), items that take a lot of thought (writing a book), and items that take a lot of time (read the 100 best novels of all time - by the way, there are plenty of lists and the books are all different). Select one item on the list for starters. List all the steps you can take starting today that will get you to accomplishing that item on your list. What if you focused for one hour every single day (seven days a week) until you accomplished that item? How long would it take? Days? Weeks? Years? Your entire lifetime? Or never? What will your list of 100 items look like once you have crossed one item off? Do you keep the list at 99 or do you add another to bring the item back to 100? Do you create a separate list for "things I have done in my lifetime" and keep adding to that list? Back to the movie topic. A few years ago I decided to print out the AFI list of the 100 best movies with the goal of watching them all. The number one ranked movie from this list is Citizen Kane (1941), directed by Orson Welles, and the second is Casablanca (1942), directed by Michael Curtiz. I had already seen several movies from the list growing up to include Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Jaws (1975), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and The Sound of Music (1965), so once I marked off every movie I had seen from the list were only about 51 to go. I quickly found out that the library is a great place to find these movies, and by requesting the movies on-line through the library I would receive an email when the movie was available to pick up. It is amazing when you finally see some of these movies that you hear the famous lines in their context, and you can forever put the phrase to the movie whenever you hear it. Can I cross off my list that I have watched the top 100 movies? Not yet. But every time I watch one of these movies I am getting closer to the goal of crossing it off of my list. I am finding great enjoyment in watching these movies, so the driving force is more to add to my life experience than to cross it off my list. Getting back to the motivation tricks, there are a great number of things you can do to keep yourself motivated. Having this list of 100 things to do before you die and having a plan for the small steps you can take each day will allow you variety in what you can focus on when you are completely stuck. Not every item on your list will be about making money or travel. Have some relaxing, enjoyable goals as well. I can watch a movie for relaxation that will get me closer to one of my life-time goals, and enjoy a classic in the process.
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