Back in November of 2008, I wrote a post where I set myself a challenge.   I was going to pursue 40 goals in my 40th year and hopefully in pursuing and achieving these goals, I would change my life.   It was a sound plan, if maybe a trifle ambitious.   Truth be told, I wasn’t ready for that much change in one year.  I could cite the pressures of work, the insane hours I work, health problems and a lot of other reasons why I didn’t accomplish everything on the list in a year, and they’d all be true, but the real reason is simply this:  I wasn’t ready.

Despite my lack of readiness, I still believe in the list, and I still think the goals on it are good ones for me to pursue.  I also know I don’t want the list to turn into yet another thing with which I can beat myself for not being good enough, not completing the list in the time frame I set, or whatever other transgression I can pin on myself.  If the list becomes an obligation instead of a privilege, then I’ll never get it done.

Probably one of the largest unwritten and unspoken items on the list is changing the way I think and giving myself a break on occasion.   I never specifically wrote either of those goals on the list in those words, but if you read between the lines, those goals are there.  Given that, I’ve decided to change the way I think and  give myself a break.  I’m expanding the time frame on the list.  Instead of a year, I’m giving myself a decade.

A decade will probably be more time than I need, and I may find that just taking the pressure of a shorter time frame off my shoulders will help me get back to working on the list on a more regular basis.  The goal here is to get some momentum going and hopefully once movement starts it will pick up speed as it continues.

I hope you guys will stick around with me as I work through my list.  I certainly need the encouragement, as well as people to keep me honest and on track.

As we all can see, I have a lot of things to do.