A good friend of mine told me about this exercise while he was doing it, having been prompted by a time tracking book. I’ve never been one for New Year’s Resolutions, but I do like using the turning of the year to think on ways to improve, so I thought this would be a nifty way to get at it. Below are (at least) 100 goals, from tiny, to huge, some accomplished, some unaccomplished, and some undoubtedly never to be accomplished. In the new year, and the new decade, I’ll hopefully knock some off the list!

Checked Off

1. Get into college
2. Get into Kobylka's SCOTUS research class
3. Study abroad in Oxford
4. Graduate undergrad with honors
5. Get into a T14 law school
6. End abusive relationship with mom

To Do

Career

1. Get on Law Review
2. Write and publish a respectable student note while on law review
3. Graduate law school in the top 10% of my class
4. Clerk at an appellate court
5. Be a Supreme Court clerk
6. Do a legal fellowship
7. Write and publish law review articles that become widely respected and read among criminal justice academics and students
8. Help to make the criminal justice system more just
9. Become a law professor at a university I like
10. Be a really good professor—the kind students love to take classes from
11. Head a sentencing reform project
12. Become a Supreme Court Justice
13. Be so prolific in my legal field that I get taught in intro and undergraduate courses
14. Be so influential in my legal field that I get tapped by the government for reform projects

Creating and Learning

1. Go to a poetry workshop
2. Get a poem published in a proper journal
3. Get a short story published
4. Learn to cook more recipes
5. Learn to bake a good berry pie
6. Learn to bridge shuffle cards
7. Learn more about coding
8. Never stop learning throughout life (i.e. don't become a useless old person)
9. Learn to sculpt/make ceramics
10. Learn how to make a few good cocktails
11. Get a (short) PhD at a British university
12. Learn basic sewing
13. Learn basic furniture restoration/alteration

Travel

1. Visit Japan
2. Visit China
3. Go back to England for an extended holiday
4. Go to Disney's Star Wars world
5. See the pyramids
6. See the Northern or Southern Lights
7. See Holi festival in India
8. See Day of the Dead in Mexico
9. See Japanese cherry blossom festival
10. Snorkel around the Great Barrier Reef
11. Travel consistently through adult life
12. Have tea made with the water that fed the tea plants in China
13. Have high tea in more places

Experiences

1. Get married
2. Have a non-regular, un-stressful wedding
3. Read all of Stephen King's works
4. See all of Shakespeare's plays performed
5. Have enough money to retire comfortably when/if I choose to do so
6. Remain un-addicted to caffeine
7. Ski again
8. Be able to do 50 push-ups
9. Get better at sketching flowers
10. See another production at The Globe
11. Eat at a Michelin star restaurant
12. Eat real wagyu beef
13. Get some nice photos taken, just for me
14. Properly ask a girl on a date
15. Be able to consistently touch my toes without pain
16. Take a martial arts class
17. Be an eco-conscious person
18. See John Mulaney perform again
19. Play more video games with good stories
20. Have a close knit network of friends I can rely on, who all rely on me
21. Keep a low sugar intake
22. Have a plant-heavy diet that isn't gross
23. Earn triple F badge
24. Never dye hair
25. Play a fun DnD campaign beginning to end
26. Keep swing dancing through adult life
27. Have kids?
28. Throw nice dinners/get-togethers as an adult
29. Walk and bike more than I drive
30. Stay below 120 pounds (healthy)
31. Make my own boba at home instead of buying out all the time
32. Be the kind of person who has a go-to cobbler and a tailor
33. Be able to jog a block without being winded
34. Try peyote or another (safe) hallucinogenic drug
35. Ride a horse not on a trail
36. Be passable in a couple romance languages (Spanish and French?)
37. Have a home that friends are always coming over to

Owning

1. Display an extensive tea collection prominently in home
2. Own soft, fitted leather gloves
3. Own a fitted suit I'm confident in
4. Own a cat
5. Own a dog
6. Fully furnish my home with stylings I love
7. Have a tailored wardrobe that I love
8. Have a windowsill garden
9. Keep fresh flowers in my home
10. Have matching jewelry that I'm confident wearing
11. Have nice nails consistently
12. Own a few beautiful (commissioned?) art pieces
13. Have a garden/greenhouse area I can sit in and read/write
14. Have a local or personal sauna I can relax in
15. Own a tea shop in later life
16. Legally own an ethically procured narwhal horn