Not To Be Trusted With Knives

Day 1001 – A Summary

July 9, 2014 by Beth

So, today is the last of the 1001 days in my allotted 1001 days to accomplish 101 things. It’s hard to believe that it was 1001 days ago that I wrote that list – it seems like only yesterday! Anyhoo, let’s check in on how I did with that list, shall we?

• Number of items accomplished: 27 (26.7%)
• Number of items partially accomplished: 3 (2.9%)
• Number of items not accomplished: 71 (70%)

That is absolutely abysmal! It’s even worse than my previous 101 list, where I accomplished a mere 39 items. In my defence, I wrote my last 101 list on Oct 10, 2011, at which point I didn’t yet know if I’d get into the MBA program and then once I got in, I spent the lion share of the past 1001 days in said program, which had to have interfered with me pursuing some of these 101 goals. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

OK, so now let’s look at the items I did – and did not – accomplish, in a little more detail.

Completed Items

I’ve broken this down into two categories: A. Stuff I did that I figured I’d be likely to do and B. Stuff I did that I was surprised I managed to accomplish.

A. Stuff I Did That I Figured I’d Be Likely To Do

1. pay off my student loans in full!
4. live above ground
10. write a blog posting with 101 footnotes in it.
12. re-read Momo
13. re-read Johnathan Livingstone Seagull
16. buy a pantsuit
17. visit a shooting range and shoot a gun!
25. bake at least one thing per month for 12 months in a row, without baking the same thing two months in a row
26. do some kind of exercise (anything really, even if it is just a set of pushups, as long as it is beyond just incidental stuff like taking the stairs or walking to a store) every day for a year!
36. incorporate the word “growlery” into my vocabulary
38. eat a Montreal smoked meat sandwich in Montreal, which I haven’t done since I was a kid
43. make homemade pasta
44. do the CN Tower Edgewalk
51. get my Credentialed Evaluator designation
52. cook a decent tasting Eggplant Parmesan
55. leave the continent
65. go to a Vancouver Canadians game
66. write in my journal every day for a month
81. participate in five research projects
87. do another 365 day photo challenge
91. run in a zombie obstacle course race
92. make Dark & Stormy cupcakes
99. make Baked Alaska
100. print eight photos and put them in the photo frame that I bought ages ago that has been handing on my wall with the stock photos in it, because that really looks quite ridiculous the way it is
101. publish 501 blog postings in this 1001 day period

B. Stuff I Did That I Was Surprised I Managed To Accomplish

5. get a cat
9. own property

C. Stuff That I Partially Accomplished

3. get a promotion at work – While I didn’t get a promotion per se, I did get an appointment as an Adjunct Professor.
8. run a destination marathon somewhere awesome – I ran a destination half marathon (in Hollywood), so I count this as half accomplished.
94. make homemade egg nog – While I didn’t actually make it myself, I told my sister I wanted to make it and we found a recipe and then she made it while I was doing other stuff (probably playing with the kids). So while I didn’t make it per se, I was involved in it being made!

Incomplete Items

I’ve broken this down into three categories: A. Abject failures, B. Stuff I never thought I’d do anyways, and C. Stuff I no longer even care about/couldn’t do because of outside forces.

A. Abject Failures

6. learn to juggle
7. go to an Abbotsford Heat hockey game
14. do a round of P90X
15. buy a red suit
19. run a triathlon
20. host a dinner party
23. go skydiving
24. write a will
30. publish a paper with Dan Gillis
31. publish a paper with Rick Chin
34. present at a conference at an international location13
25. taking singing lessons
37. get a ride on a zamboni
39. go scuba diving
40. go for a ride in a helicopter
41. go for a ride in a float plane
45. do a 30-day hot yoga challenge
46. learn to do a handstand
37. complete a good cartwheel
50. run a sub-2 hour half marathon
53. go to New York City
54. go to Chicago
56. go surfing & actually stay up on the board
57. learn to snowboard (or at least try it)
58. hike Black Task
59. hike the West Coast Trail
60. read something by Salman Rushdie
61. for one week, go to bed at 9 and read non-work related books
62. read The Last Spike by Pierre Berton
63. skate on the Rideau Canal
67. go kayaking
68. camp at Joffre Lakes
69. visit Galiano Island
70. visit Salt Spring Island
71. visit Bowen Island
72. save $500 in coins
73. visit Newfoundland
74. visit Nova Scotia
75. visit the Yukon
76. visit Nunavut
77. do 15 minutes of yoga every morning for a month
79. record a cooking show (at least 5 episodes)
80. publish said cooking show online
82. up my blog readership to an average of 200 readers a day
83. see Groove Coverage in concert
84. go zip cording
85. make homemade marshmallows
86. scan all the photos from my pre-digital camera days
88. watch salmon spawning
89. go to Fright Nights at the PNE
90. do the Stanley Park Christmas lights train ride
95. take photos of each of my important pieces of jewelry and write a blog posting about their backstories
96. mail a birthday card to each member of my immediate family and my closest friends in time for their birthdays during a one-year time span
97. memorize 10 people’s phone numbers

B. Stuff I Never Thought I’d Do Anyway

11. learn to speak French well enough to carry on a halfway decent conversation
18. be named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40
21. be an invited guest speaker at a TED conference11
22. meet a Prime Minister (past or present)
27. attend a taping of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart
28. attend a taping of the Colbert Report
29. be a guest on the Colbert Report
42. climb an active volcano
48. ride an elephant
49. ride a camel
61. visit Macchu Picchu

C. Stuff I No Longer Even Care About/Couldn’t Do Because of Outside Forces

2. host a lavish “I Paid Off My Student Loans” party [decided I just wasn’t into this idea]
32. take Dan and Rick to section 3 (a.k.a., the nerd bar) [Was foiled on this one, as section 3 closed down before Dan and Rick came out here. ]
33. be named the Nerd of the Month at section 3 [See above ]

So, before I get too depressed about my lack of getting stuff done on the list, I’d like to remind myself about what I wrote in the summary of my previous 101 list:

This all makes me think of Mintzberg’s work ((Dr. Henry Mintzberg of McGill University)) where he talked about how the most highly successful organizations do not implement 100% of their strategic plans; instead, successful organization are adaptive and take advantage of emerging opportunities that they couldn’t have foreseen when they wrote their plan – like, say, the opportunity to play hockey for 10 days to set a world record [or do an MBA!] –  and drop things that become less important as time goes on. So yeah, I think I did alright.

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