The Ultimate List

If you've never heard of John Goddard, allow me to initiate you. This guy is the ultimate list maker; starting when he was a teenager in 1940, he made a list of 127 life goals to achieve...and he's almost completed the whole list. So what, you may ask? Well, you need to see his list to fully appreciate the incredible accomplishment it already has been: view John Goddard's Life List.

So, of course this has inspired me to start my own life list. I already have something like it in the works, but I listened to a very good teaching about this tonight, and got some good advice for making my list from a local DC pastor: Mark Batterson's blog. (Scroll down to the entry from January 8th) I like how he categorizes his goals.

Borrowing some formatting (but not the details) of both these men, I'm in the process of formulating my own list. The categories might be as follows (and of course, are subject to change):

From John Goddard:
Explore
Study
Photograph
Visit
Accomplish

From Mark Batterson:
Experience
Influence
Maximize my potential
Enjoy
Family
Travel
Physical

I like what Mark says about his goals: notice there is no "spiritual" goals title...he emphasizes that, as you prayerfully consider your life goals, they will all be spiritual. It's ridiculous to try to separate spiritual from life, especially from a Christian perspective.

Another point Mark made me recall was the SMART way of making goals. He says, "Get in shape is not a goal, it's a wish!", and that you must be specific in your goal setting. This reminded me of the SMART plan. When setting goals, make sure they are:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely

I think that a few of these might require some adjustments from a spiritual perspective-mainly the last three. While one should be realistic, one also must allow room for Divine intervention that allows for dynamic results.

More to come...