I am a natural list maker, organizer, and planner. I’ve literally been this way for as long as I can remember. My mother tells a story about how I alphabetized our refrigerator when I was about three or four years old. I have continued along this list making path for all milestones, goals, dreams, events, and plans for my life ranging from planning my childhood birthday parties, listing what characteristics I hoped to find in a husband (it must have been fate that Judd met all of the items on the list when I compared him to it years after making it), planning our wedding, etc.
Due to my list making nature it seems only natural to join my friends and family by partaking in the 101 list fun. I believe the concept of creating a list of 101 things to accomplish in 1,001 days was originally derived by the Day Zero Project as a way to encourage people to live their lives now instead of putting things off and to help them to meet their goals. I think it was started as a way for an online community of people to make their lists public and hold each other accountable. I didn’t feel the need to register my list with Day Zero because I am making it public here on The Langham Project to all of you lovely bloggy folks. I look forward to sharing my progress and struggles with you. This blogging community is really such a special thing. Mwwah! You guys rock. I can’t wait to get started.
I first saw a 101 List on my friend Marcie’s blog and then on my sister-in-law, Brenna’s, blog. At the time that I first saw their lists I was intrigued by the concept. I looked forward to watching their dreams and goals become realities; however, I was just starting the journey towards my Ph.D. in a four year program at the time and knew that with my school and work commitments that I would not be doing anything “extra” other than school or work for a couple of years. I am still working on my Ph.D. Although, now I am in the last semester of my coursework and quickly progressing towards the dissertation phase. I am finally able to dream about a future 1,001 days (approximately 2 years and 7 months) that involves things I enjoy doing like spending time with my husband and family, taking up new hobbies, helping others, renewing myself spiritually, and becoming a happier person again. I have learned so much from working on my Ph.D. full-time while also working full-time but it has been a constant drain (and still is) on me. I am grateful for the opportunity to pursue this degree. I have just GOT to get out of school. Obviously, a large part of my list consists of objectives to help me get there.
Judd and I always revisit our 10 year plan in January. Does that make us weird? Do any of you do that? We have been doing so for the past four or five years. I used our plan to help me pick some items for my 101 list. I was a little hesitant to share all of the things included below at first. Some just seem shallow, others too personal to share, and other list items I just wasn’t sure anyone but me would really care about. However, since this list is for personal and public use I mustered up the courage to share it. I do realize that there is an ultimate planner who already has my life mapped out and that I need to first put my trust in Him before all else.
How do those of you who have published 101 lists feel about the process? What do those of you who do not have a list think about the whole concept?
I believe I have until Tuesday, October 28, 2014 to complete the tasks on my list. The clock starts now (January 31, 2012). Quick, cue the Jeopardy music.
(Update – I am striking through each goal as it is met. Below you can see my progress so far. I think I am doing pretty good.)
My 101 List
1. Purchase a new dress to wear to our FAB friend Susan's wedding
2. Attend/take lots of photos of our weekend in Seaside, FL for Susan's wedding
3. Attend/take lots of photos of our weekend in Mobile, AL for our friend Candice's wedding
4. Find a theory to use as my conceptual framework for my dissertation
5. Determine appropriate variables to analyze for my dissertation
6. Select a statistical method to analyze data for my dissertation
7. Have my prospectus meeting for my Ph.D.
8. Have my proposal (3 chapter) meeting for my Ph.D.
9. Take/pass my comprehensive exams
10. Get Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval
11. Collect data for my dissertation
12. Analyze data for my dissertation
13. Write chapter 4 of my dissertation
14. Write Chapter 5 of my dissertation
15. Have my private Ph.D. defense with my committee
16. Have my public Ph.D. defense
17. Graduate with my Ph.D. in Educational Leadership (higher education administration)
18. Have my dissertation printed and bound and my Ph.D. degree framed
19. While I am still in school, use each lunch hour to work on some aspect of my dissertation
20. After I graduate, resume lunch hour workouts in my office
21. Have a party to celebrate earning my Ph.D. and to honor my family and friends with their Ph.T. (the pushing her through degree)
22. Attain a position that requires a Ph.D. or terminal degree or one that is equivalent in pay and responsibility to a Ph.D. level position. (I think I need to say that I hope this can occur within the office where I work now.)
23. Attend Southern Association of Institutional Research (SAIR) Annual Conference in Orlando, FL. (Ask Judd to tag-along to go to Disney)
24. Save the full 20% of a down payment towards a house
25. Buy a house
26. Begin studying French with Judd
27. Travel to Europe with Judd
28. Travel with Judd to somewhere else in the U.S. besides Orlando that we've never been
29. Get a shellac (gel) manicure
30. Whiten my teeth (again)
31. Attend my high school reunion (Hoover High School, Hoover, AL - Class of 2002)
32. Launch our DIY printable invitation/stationary business (The Langham Project) on Etsy
33. Get The Langham Project (TLP) DIY Invitations/Stationary business approved with the Collegiate Licensing Company
34. Get our blog professionally designed (and potentially switched over to Wordpress if needed)
35. Offer advertising on our blog
36. Set up an email address for our TLP invitations/stationary business
37. Stop drinking dark soft drinks and stick to it
38. Get back to my high school weight and shape before having a baby (approximately 5 to 10 lbs. to lose)
39. Eat at home 5 nights in one week
40. Start a family
41. Have maternity pictures taken
42. Lose baby weight
43. Begin work on a book/article regarding the dissertation process with my peer group (The Divas)
44. Publish at least one journal article
45. Present my research at a professional conference
46. Read a book for pleasure (Not something that has anything to do with work or school)
47. Find a couples Sunday school class and attend regularly either at Shades Mountain Baptist or another church that is a better fit for us
48. Begin reading the Bible in a systematic way (so that eventually I read it from start to finish)
49. Help to organize a project with our church
50. Get life insurance
51. Get a Roth-IRA set up in my name
52. Sign up for the benefit of a flexible spending account with my employer
53. Get a new pair of eyeglasses
54. Take my mother on a Mom-and-Daughter trip
55. Take a photography class
56. Ask Judd to teach me how to use Photoshop and learn from him
57. Get a stylish camera bag
58. Purchase a sewing machine/embroidery machine
59. Ask Mom to teach me how to smock and learn from her
60. Sew a garment entirely on my own
61. Host a party at the Langham farm
62. Help my mother to update her kitchen
63. Help my mother to freshen up her front porch (new chair cushions, new door handle, paint front door, new door mat, new plants)
64. Help my mother-in-law to find bedding for the cabin at the Langham farm
65. Help my mother-in-law to find living room furniture for the cabin at the Langham farm
66. Help my in-law's to clean out the barn at the Langham farm
67. Help my father-in-law to clean out his shed and tear the old one down
68. Label, with my Grandmother's help, as many family photos as possible on my next visit to her house
69. Visit Grandmother and leave her with a week's worth of home cooked meals in her fridge/freezer
70. Visit Grandmother and leave her with a full tank of gas in her vehicle
71. Visit Grandmother and clean her whole house from top to bottom before I leave
72. Help my mother by spending an entire weekend deep cleaning her house
73. Print photos from previous travels/adventures: Judd's trip to Portugal
74. Print photos from previous travels/adventures: Charleston, SC
75. Print photos from previous travels/adventures: Boston, MA
76. Print photos from previous travels/adventures: New Orleans, LA
77. Print photos from previous travels/adventures: Our Master's graduations
78. Print photos from previous travels/adventures: Judd's two trips to Canada
79. Print photos from previous travels/adventures: Philadelphia, PA
80. Print photos from previous travels/adventures: Mardi Gras, Mobile, AL
81. Print photos from previous travels/adventures: Phoenix, AZ
82. Print photos from previous travels/adventures: Denver, CO
83. Print photos from our family's Christmas 2011
84. Make a scrapbook from our wedding that was in May of 2005 (Yeah, I know I am really late on that one)
85. Purchase a new sofa
86. Purchase bedding for our guest bedrooms
87. Make pickled okra using my Uncle Frank's recipe
88. Use the canning equipment my Uncle Frank gave me to can something
89. Find a vintage inspired office chair for our home office (preferably two chairs)
90. Take Judd ice skating since he's never been
91. Give blood
92. Go camping
93. Take a beach trip alone with Judd
94. Take a beach trip with just my FAB girlfriends
95. Take our important documents to our safe deposit box for storage
96. Frame paintings given to us by Judd's Aunt Willoweise (she is a famous watercolor artist)
97. Frame our Auburn University 2010 season football tickets (AU won the national championship that year--WAR EAGLE!)
98. Help Judd to study for and pass his last two licensure exams for professional practice as a landscape architect
99. Prepare a better way/place for us to recycle and throw away our trash
100. Add to our crystal stemware collection
101. Get a couples massage
I added a component to my list. I wanted to include my general life goals. Consider this my mission. These are the things that really matter. Hopefully, by achieving many of the list items above I will be closer to fulfilling the general goals I continually strive towards and hope to achieve/maintain throughout my life.
General Life Goals:
· Be a loving wife--be someone with whom Judd can continually find true companionship.
· Be a mother who puts her children before herself. One who teaches by example.
· Be a Christian example to my friends, family, and colleagues.
· Be a gracious, thoughtful, and calm hostess/friend.
· Be a leader in my professional/academic life--someone who is reliable, trustworthy, hardworking, dedicated, and capable.
