Summer ‘09 To-Do List: Concluding Ruminations

As promised, I would like to offer a few concluding thoughts on my Summer ’09 To-Do List.

Biggest Successes

While I only accomplished 30% of the list, much of what I managed to complete was not simply coincidental. The effort that has gone into Shufflingdead, and that I hope continues even now that the list’s deadline has passed, has very much been in response to the Shufflingdead-related goals of the list, like #64, expand the Shufflingdead empire.

Even some goals that were left incomplete still managed to be a positive force. I’m thinking specifically of #11, get in good enough shape to fuck with impunity. I didn’t get quite that ripped, but I did work out a lot more than ever before.

I also consider the list itself to have been incredibly successful and enjoyable. I liked having a little something to blog about each week, I liked having a convenient list to refer to when I was bored, and I especially liked the list as a motivating force in actually doing things other than lying on the couch. The summer of 2010 will certainly feature another such list.

Biggest Failures

Although I can write off a lot of the missed goals as simply being unreasonable, there were several completely doable goals that I just didn’t get around to, and that would have been incredibly fun and satisfying. I’m disappointed that I didn’t even look into #45, perform stand-up comedy, for example. I consider those kinds of missed goals to have been my biggest failures relating to the list, not the broader 70% incompletion rate.

Lessons for Next Year

I’ve learned that it’s vital to set realistic goals with clearly defined finish lines. While some of my goals were as simple as #98, see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, others lacked clarity, like #46, avenge my childhood. Some goals were virtually impossible, like #94, attend the real Olympic games. Well, there were no Olympic games going on in the summer of 2009. Granted, I had declared the summer of ’09 to end whenever I say it ended, and so I only say virtually impossible, because I could have stretched the summer all the way until the winter of 2010. That reminds me of another important lesson: have deadlines for your goals.

Even when goals are not unrealistic, I’ve learned that they still need to take into account my life as it is. #32 declared “buy more Magic cards than there are cells in my body.” I think I meant that goal to be metaphorical; I just wanted to buy lots of Magic cards. Having said that, I simply did not have the money to be buying large numbers of Magic cards this summer, and so the goal was a poor one. Additionally, buying Magic cards is not much of an ambition, and completing the goal would have been more depressing than satisfying.

For next year’s list, I certainly plan on including some of the more reasonable missed goals of this summer, but it will mostly be new material. Finally, I want to be able to actually complete the full list in a four month window, even if that means not declaring my intention to conquer death, as per #67.