I was cruising through various blogs a few weeks ago and found on person who wrote a post about learning to drive a manual transmission car.  She mentioned that it was part of a project she was doing called 101 in 1001.  Out of curiosity I had to look it up.  This woman had committed to do 101 things in 1001 days.  What’s more, there is a whole bunch of people doing this.  Even better, there is a whole website dedicated to this.  I’ve been needing some kind of challenge in my life, an attainable goal.  The more I read about it the more I was hooked.  It is called the Day Zero Project.  The premise is that you create a list of 101 things you would like to accomplish in 1001 days (that’s roughly 2.75 years).  The trick is to be specific, creative, push yourself yet the tasks need to be attainable or somewhat attainable.

I set off to make my list and sped through the first 50.  The next 25 were more difficult.  I got stuck at 86.  I was hand writing them.  I sat down at the computer to type them out and added a few things as I went.  I got to 97.  The last 4 killed me.  It took longer to write the last 4 than it did to do the previous 97.  Mostly because I couldn’t think of stuff.  The most difficult one for me to put into words was lose 10 pounds.  Partly because I don’t own a scale so I don’t know what I weigh, but because I know what that means… exercise.  Although, putting down walk at least 5 miles a week wasn’t hard.   Funny.  Naturally if I walk 5 miles a week I would lose the 10 pounds.  Getting off my ass is pretty much all that stands in the way of that weight.

Ok, me losing 10 pounds isn’t the point.  The point is coming up with a list of 101 things I want to (and can) accomplish in 1001 days was hard.  Of course as soon as I finished I came up with 5 more.

You can check out the full list here.  There are supplemental pages that go along with the list (like a book list).  I’ll keep track of the recipes I try on it’s own page.  Of course I’ll do my best to write about the accomplishments.  Some are trivial, but some are more ambitious (like run 1 mile, I’ll explain another day).  The other one I feel will be a little more work will be the Master Gardener’s certificate.  The 2010 application process is currently closed so I have to wait until next year giving me less time to complete the coursework and internship.  However, it will give me time to hopefully save the money for it.