64. Become an above-average pool player - NOTES

• I've played pool infrequently throughout my teens and adult life but over that time I've played hundreds of times. Not once have I sought information on how to play it better.
• There must be advice on basic technique and strategy on-line - I'll find it if there is.
• I'll practise at a local pub with my wife or whoever happens to be there.

63. Write your 25-year life plan - NOTES

• It's said that the best way to predict your future is to create it. I don't have any firm plans for my life beyond the usual desire to have children, get a house in the country and find a job I love. I think a plan will focus my mind a little and cause me to think more deeply about what I want from my life.
• To start I would like to consider the different ambitions or desires I have for the different areas of my life - family, fun, knowledge, career, health, spiritual etc.
• I think the first step is to write a rough plan doing the best I can given the limited focus I've had on this idea so far. Then I should revise it and, hopefully, since it's now on my mind my subconscious will come up with a few ides.

62. Make £1000 in a month on forex (or similar) trades

• There's an almost fantasy aspect to the desire to log on, do a few lucrative on-line trades before having breakfast and then spending the rest of the day at leisure. In reality I'd be glad to be able to make a few quid on a part-time basis just for some variety in life.
• There are all sorts of trading courses available - the Dummies series covers forex amongst others - so paper resources are available. Courses are usually expensive but I will investigate them.
• Next step then is to find a training course or decent book plus a supportive trading website.
• Attaching a timescale to this one is difficult - I'll have to play it by ear initially.

53. Write a personal elevator pitch - NOTES

• An elevator pitch is something you can say or present in a short space of time - about the duration of an elevator (or lift) ride. It could be your product or service that you describe, a business proposition or - in my case - it can be the opening pitch in a job interview.
• I want to be able to tell a potential employer enough good stuff about me in about 45 seconds that he's falling over himself to employ me.
• First step is to list my qualities and strengths and then render them into some halfway decent language.  then need to piece things together in a way that is compelling and flows naturally.
• I need to do this quickly.

58. Attend a plumbing course - NOTES

• I want to be proficient at some area of home maintenance and plumbing is my preferred activity.
• I want a basic course just so that I can do the main work at home.
• Adult education courses start up again in September so I need to get cracking on this...

51. Successfully use self-hypnosis - NOTES

• I believe the sub-conscious can be directed to a person's advantage although I have never tried to do it. I am certain self-hypnosis would be effective.
• I already have information on self-hypnosis - it's just a question of putting it into practise.
• I don't know how long it takes for the practice to start taking effect - I imagine it varies from person to person so I may have to estimate the timescale for this task in the light of experience.

50. Identify 12 creativity techniques - NOTES

• I would like to have have a number of creativity tools or strategies at my disposal to use not only for problem solving but to assist in improving my imaginative skills. This will make me a better writer and creator and give me a choice of approaches to different situations.
• I have books on creativity and there are lots of web resources so there is no shortage of information.
• The key is to have at my disposal a number of different techniques that I can confidently apply to different situations. I will have to experiment with techniques to find out what I like best.
• I should aim to discover the first 6 techniques in the first month and then find the others as and when.

49. Help Mrs Dashed lose 5kgs - NOTES

• She doesn't need to lose it but she won't be told. So I will help her achieve it.Mostly my assistance will be in ensuring she works out daily and gets a sweat up.
•  I will introduce her to some new weights exercises and also go running with her.
• She wants to lose the weight by the end of December so that's our target.
• The next step: print off a monthly calendar and plan out our workouts.

48. Learn how to speed read - NOTES

• There is a couple of things that throughout life I spend a fair amount of time doing and being able to do them more quickly would be useful. Reading is one of them.
• Speed-reading material abounds on the net - I will find resources there.
• My next step then is to identify a web-site that will teach me effective speed-reading skills

47. Pass a grade exam for piano - NOTES

• It's a primal thing, I feel, to want to make music. Like many people I am one of those who says that if I had time I'd love to learn an instrument. I'll make the time.
• My daughter is a pianist and has a number of music books - and I have a basic keyboard - so all the necessary resources are in place
• I reckon I will need a teacher only for the 6 weeks prior to the exam; the first grade exam is easy enough that I can learn the basics from the books.
• My next step is to acquire the books and start the first lesson.

45. Identify 6 British birds and know something about each of them - NOTES

• I pay no attention to native wildlife yet it is part of the character of this island. I want to know more about our natural heritage - this is a good place to start. We have lovely parks nearby to watch them.
• The local library has plenty of books - there's also the internet but I'd prefer a proper book.
• I'd like to photograph then although the zoom on my camera isn't great
• This would be nice to do on autumn mornings. Not sure why - it just would.
• My next step is to obtain a book on the subject and then to pick out some birds that I will start watching for.

32. Get this blog into the Technorati Top 1000 - NOTES

• Getting on Technorati's top 1000 means you've arrived. There are millions of blogs to beat to get there so it's a wonderful achievement.
• I do not know at the moment how many readers I need to make it onto the list. When I find out I will probably faint.
• To raise my readership I will research every possible way of publicising my blog, enticing people to sample its delights and then getting them to stay.
• I have no timescale on this. I suspect if I make it onto the list - an almost unimaginable feat in itself - I will be there for a fleeting few moments....

27. Devise - then live - the perfect day - NOTES

• Before you aim for a perfect life I feel it's useful to know what a perfect day feels like. If you can do it for a day then it's just a matter of repeating it.
• The perfect day will be determined by how you think about people and things, how you speak, what you do, how you organise yourself, your attitudes and so on. It's not about huge daily achievements.
• I have a lot of self-development material but I will try to distill what makes a perfect day into no more than a dozen general points.
• In reality the way to live the perfect day is to try to live a perfect week; you'll get better at it as the week wears on and should finally get it right.

26. Learn salsa - NOTES

• I did this some years ago with a friend of mine but I think my tushie wiggle has wiggled off...
• This one I will do with Mrs Dashed - she loves dancing so it will be a pleasure shared
• There are salsa places all over my home town - finding one will be easy
• I'll consider myself to have learnt salsa when I can dance well with dancers of all levels

14. Fast for 5 days - NOTES

• I have fasted - ie consumed water only - for 3 whole days but that was a few years ago. I believe water fasting allows your body the time time to cleanse and do some basic spring cleaning without having to do the hard work of digestion.
• It's best to work up to it - single days followed by double days then treble until you reach the Big One.
• I don't need many resources - the support of my wife will be enough - but I may read some stuff I used to read as inspiration.

12. Help a local charity on Christmas Day - NOTES

• We don't do anything special for Christmas. Doing something for others would be special.
• Right now I do not know what local charities do Christmas day but it will not be difficult to find out
• In terms of The Challenge I only have this coming Christmas (December 2010) to do this so I cannot miss the opportunity
  

9. Meditate for 3 hours - NOTES

• I believe in the benefits of meditation and have practiced it from time to time. For it to be seriously beneficial though my practice has to be serious. You get out what you put in.
• By meditating daily and adding a minute to the session every day or two I can reach the 3-hour target (180 minutes) in less than a year - even if I start with just a 10-minute session.
• I will refer to various sources of meditation teaching I have at home but also to a couple of Buddhism websites I look at occasionally.
• I will almost certainly want to increase meditation durations by more than a minute a session. So the target date for this task is end of January 2011.

8. Host a cocktail party - NOTES

• Everyone I know enjoys cocktails (including me). I've never been to a cocktail party, let alone hosted one. Such an event would be challenging for me, fun for my guests (and wife!) and memorable for all.
• Ideally this would be a summer event but it's a bit too late now so I will aim for spring next year. I want to be able to make 15 alcoholic cocktails and 5 non-alcoholic so I should start learning soon.
• I will use recipes from the internet - there are many cocktail and bar-tending resources available. 
• The target date for this is May 2011

7. Learn Russian - NOTES

• I would like to know a second language really well. At this moment Russian is favourite because it's a little out of the ordinary but is spoken by one of the largest - and most powerful and influential - countries on earth. Once the country recovers from its post-Soviet turmoil I believe people with Russian language skills will be in demand. 
• This task would be on-going but, to meet the one-year deadline I should start now. To know that I have succeeded at this task I should be able to hold a reasonable conversation across a range of everyday topics with a native Russian speaker.
• I will make use of a Russian-language course (possibly Linguaphone or maybe a Teach Yourself product) and I will enrol in a class at an adult education institution.
• In the week leading up to the start of the one-year challenge I will review this task and consider other languages.

1. Write a blog for your 101 must-do items - NOTES

• I need a way of keeping track of my 101 must-dos and a blog is an effective way of doing it. It's a useful place to meet like-minded people as well to exchange ideas.
• To complete this task I need to settle on a layout style and colour-scheme for the blog. I also want to devise a simple post writing habit so that updates are regular and give rise to a coherent reading experience. Messy, disorganised blogging is a no-no.
• For each of the 101 tasks I need to write a Notes post - like this one - just outlining what the task is about and how I might go about fullfilling it. In the first instance I will write posts for the first 30 or so tasks then write the others as I begin them.
• This task must be complete by Monday 30th August - Day 1 of the one-year challenge.

The life list: 101 things to do

This is the list. It's raw and, at the time of writing, has 81 of the 101 items it needs. The other 20 will be added once I know what they are. Detailed descriptions of each will be posted seperately in this blog as I start to work on them. For now, here's the list in plain form.

1. Start a blog on your 101 must-do items DONE!

2. Write your life-story, create your family-tree

3. Camp out overnight*

4. Practise 5 survival skills*

5. Plant a tree or a hedge*

6. Go away for a week with just carry-on luggage

7. Learn Russian

8. Host a cocktail party offering 20 different cocktails

9. Meditate for 3 hours in one go

10. Spend a week at sea

11. Write a short screenplay

12. Help a charity on christmas day

13. Cruise the Norwegian fjords

14. Fast for 5 days

15. Write to your favourite celebrity

16. Ride an elephant

17. Learn to sail

18. Meet one of your favourite celebrities (a book-signing counts)

19. Fire a real gun

20. Attend the Olympics

21. Visit the birthplace of my ancestors*

22. Watch a space-shuttle launch*

23. Set up a reinvestment process that requires an hour per year's effort

24. Do a stand-up comedy act*

25. Learn to ballroom dance*

26. Learn salsa

27. Work out what constitutes a perfect day - then live it*

28. Read 12 Booker Prize novels that you haven't already read

29. Discover - and write down - what makes you truly happy

30. Write 20 poems

31. Be an extra in a film*

32. Get your blog into the Technorati top 1000

33. Earn £3000 in a month on-line

34. Have family rituals and traditions to celebrate holidays and important life events

35. Grow cactii

36. Attend the Grand National

37. Start a Celtic/Anglo-Saxon cultural organisation

38. Do a 365-day challenge (meditate, 30-minute yoga, read a poem...)

39. Make money in a property deal

40. Know your digital camera and your MP3 player inside out

41. Create a website: 500 places you HAVE to see or do in England

42. Time yourself 3 times swimming 10 lengths; then reduce the average time by 20%

43. As 42 but for the 100-metre sprint

44. Learn the proper way to press a shirt and trousers

45. Properly identify the 6 most common British birds and know something about each of them

46. Make a new friend (exchange email/phone number) every month for a year

47. Pass a grade exam for piano

48. Learn how to speed read*

49. Help Mrs Dashed lose those 5 kgs

50. Identify 12 highly effective creativity techniques

51. Successfully use self-hypnosis

52. Place in top 10% of a 5km run*

53. Be able to sell yourself in a 60-second elevator-pitch about YOU

54. Devise 6 planning and time management rules then field-test them for 30 days*

55. Spend a day naked at a nudist beach

56. Collect 50 real-life interesting/funny anecdotes

57. Compete in a triathlon (Maybe)

58. Take a course in domestic plumbing

59. Host a party or gathering yourself once a weekend for 4 weekends

60. Create a club - eg a mastermind team, bookreading club - with at least 8 regular attendees

61. Learn how to change a wheel

62. Make £1000 in one month trading foreign exchange or similar

63. Write your 25-year life plan

64. Become an above-average pool player

65. Learn how to make 5 traditional British puddings

66. Own a piece of original art that I truly love

67. Visit Stonehenge for the summer solstice

68. Compile a list of items that would be on this list if I hadn't already done them

69. Develop an obviously athletic physique - before and after photos required

70. Create a list of 10 ways you can shift your mood out of lethargy or unhappiness

71. Find 25 things you can do with Mrs D that are fun or romantic

72. Attend a cookery course

73. Write your novel

74. Explore a cave

75. Learn to surf

76. Choose your ultimate 6 books and 100 articles on self-development

77. Learn how to fight

78. Improve your reading speed by 33%

79. Double your typing speed

80. Do an Outward Bound (or similar) holiday

81. Build an igloo
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82. Learn to throw a shuriken

83. Watch a trial

84. Learn how to work a room.

85. Select your favourite 50 blogs, add them to your Readers and then do not read any other blog

86. Put on a 15-minute magic show for friends

87. Reconstruct your clapped-out computer

88. Mine for gold - and go home with some
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