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I’m still in the process of putting together my 101 in 1001 Days list. It has been interesting so far, looking at other people’s ideas and deciding which ones I want to “steal.” I want to take enough time to ensure that I do it right, so that it’ll be something I look forward to doing. I don’t want it to seem like a chore. After looking at a lot of other lists, I’ve seen a few that don’t look like a lot of fun. Some people fill their lists with things like “Organize the hall closet,” and “Vacuum the carpet twice a week.” And then there are others who impress me with their ambitiousness: “Hike in a rain forest.” “Climb Mount Everest.” I think I’ll fall somewhere in-between those extremes.

I want to do things that will challenge me, but they also have to be feasible. That’s why I won’t add something vague like “find a boyfriend” to my list, because everything has to be something that I have personal control over. I refuse to feel like a failure if I get to the end of this and the only thing I wasn’t able to accomplish was something that hinged on another person being involved. That’s also why I won’t add something else that I’d like to do, which is “buy a town-/house/condo.” Depending on where I choose to live, that might not be feasible due the price of real estate.

The reason this will be good for me is because it will not only motivate me, but it will also hold me accountable. Rather than simply thinking about something I might want to do and telling myself that I’ll do it sometime in the future, I will only be able to put it off for so long. 1001 days is less than three years (about 2 years and 9 months). And even though I’m “only” 26 (I say “only” because it depends on who you ask, whether they think you’re old or not), I know how quickly that time will go by if I don’t keep up a constant pace of knocking items off my list.

It will also give me something tangible to look back on and say, “These are the things I accomplished during this specific period of time.” Other than the big things that have happened in my life the past few years that would be impossible to forget, I don’t keep track of these smaller things in any organized fashion (some of them might be on this website, but they’re scattered around and hard to find).

I realized when I did the calculation for my 1001 day-deadline (which would fall sometime in early October 2009, depending on the day I specify as my start date—I used this calculator), that I’ll have completed my list about four months after my 29th birthday. Since that will be well in advance of the “Big 3-0″ birthday, that gave me the idea of looking at some “Things To Do Before You Turn 30″ lists and I gleaned a few ideas from there as well.

I will hold myself accountable to the completion of this list by posting, at a minimum, a monthly update of my status. I say “at a minimum” because I’ll probably end up posting entries and pictures when I do some of the things, and those will be posted whenever they happen. The monthly update will give a rundown of how many goals I’ve accomplished, how much time remains, and which ones I’m thinking of taking up next. It’s pretty close to the beginning of January, so my first update will fall at the end of this month or the beginning of the next.

There are about 33 months during the 1001 days, and there will be 101 things to do, which means I’ll have to keep up an average pace of 3 goals per month. (There are actually a lot more involved than that if you figure some of the goals require multiple steps, like “Exercise at least three times a week for a month.” That only counts for one goal. But we won’t think about that for right now.) Some of them will be easier to accomplish than others, of course; some will be things that I was already planning to do but hadn’t gotten around to yet; some will be things that I’ve wanted to do but never seriously looked into.

I think that I’ll add some rules of my own to the general guidelines. Something along the lines of, if I don’t finish them all before the end, I’ll have to do something really big and/or scary. And if I rock ‘n roll and finish with more than a month or two to spare, there should be a reward involved.

If anyone is interested in participating in this challenge, let me know. You don’t have to have your own blog; you can look up ideas and keep a list on your computer. It will be nice to have some mutual support and encouragement.