25 Things to do before I turn 25

Well I'm getting to be an old man it's true. In a mere week from now I will turn 23, which happens to be my favorite number, I hope that's a sign of a good year to come. If you know me at all, you know I'm one of the more optimistic people out there, believing that pretty much anyone can accomplish whatever they want to do. I've decided to challenge myself to complete 25 things in the next 2 years to not only improve my happiness and quality of life, but to create a sense of urgency in my life.

Ok, I'm hungry now

Parkinson's Law states that "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Given that ideology I am giving myself 2 years to complete the following life challenges. Instead of expanding work to make it fill the time allotted, I'm going to spend my energy completing these life challenges and not getting caught up in the everyday minutia that seems to steal many of our days away from us. While this for many people may be a lifetime of experiences, I plan on not only completing these challenges in the next two years, but mastering many of these skills.

Side note -
(if any of you can help make any of these things happen for me, let me know, I'll need all the help I can get)

Here they are in no particular order:

1.Travel Across the US on a road trip- Something I've always wanted to do, seeing places and meeting people I'll remember for a lifetime seems like a valuable experience. I'm thinking Vancouver to Miami might suffice for my first cross country voyage. Oh and I'm sure this trip will involve me eating a 7lb cheeseburger somewhere in Texas, something that you just gotta do. At least I'll get a free T-shirt I guess, even if I can't roll out of bed for 2 days.

2. Learn to play the Guitar- I love music and would love to be able to make my own. I'm not expecting to be Eric Clapton in two years, just to be able to play with reasonable skill.

3. Make 3 Lifelong friends- A very interesting challenge for me, kind of an outside the comfort zone thing. I have a few great Friends but have always struggled to establish long term friendships. You can never have enough good friends, so why not make a few more. It will also make moving easy, something I do a lot of.

4. Trace my roots in Europe, fill out my family tree- Something I think most of us want to do to see where they really came from. I'm fascinated by history and Europe, a perfect challenge for me it seems.

5. Jump out of a plane- cliche? maybe a bit. But considering my severe fear of Heights this one may be the least likely to actually happen. I want to push myself to do it, I really do. But I flinch when looking down 5 stories from the roof of my building and back away from the edge. For this reason, I plan on making this a priority.

Malbec Grapes

6. Grow my own grapes, Make my own Malbec wine- I'm not wine crazy, believe me. But I do really like Malbec wine and would love to grow my own while I'm in Argentina (more on this later)

7. Donate at least $2,000.00 to Charity- I'm not going to pretend to be a saint, I've given far less than I could afford to in the past and been downright frivolous with money. However I do have a desire to help other people that is very real. Plus I'll probably lose more than this amount on the next task, I might as well give to a good cause before hand.

8. Learning to count cards like a pro- So maybe I just watched the movie 21 and like everyone else who has a head on their shoulders thought, I could really do that. But I think that with a few months of practice I could win a few grand doing this. Then again, gambling may not be the best endeavour to try and master, but what the hell, I'm not 25 yet right?

Layne Norton, all natural pro.

9. Compete in Natural Body Building contest- I know I know, I'm laughing saying ya right too. But I've gotten in that good of shape before, I will do it again, watch...

si senior

10.Learn to Tango- Ok no homo, I think this would be very fun and what better to learn while I'm in Buenos Aires, Argentina (still later, you'll see what I'm talking about) Say what you want, but when I whip this out randomly you will be jealous, trust me.

11. Read and understand the Bible- So again, I'm no model christian, believe me. I do believe in Jesus and do really want to learn about everything I missed out on by not going to church until the last two years. I have a knack for comprehending things that sound confusing like passages from the bible, so I think this is possible for me.

12. Get in the best shape of my life- A man's peak physically seems to be around 24-27 years old. What better time than to be in ridiculous shape. Especially when all your buddies are putting on their spare tires and getting married. Anyone who saw me my senior year, knows that this is going to be real tough. I mean I could do 32 lat pull ups back then and bench 295lbs, leading me to my next challenges...

13. Be able to do 25 Lat pull ups (wide Grip)- don't know many people who can, But I know building this kind of functional strength enables you to do a whole lot more physically. Plus I'd feel like a super bad ass.

14. Bench 315lbs- I really don't wanna be the guy who thinks he's really tight just because he has a big bench press. That being said seeing someone do 3 plates on each side, pretty much lets you know they aren't f***ing around in the weight room.

BREAK- ok so I'm taking a break for a second, I actually don't know if I have time to finish this post, I got a lot of shit to do. Well let's get er done

15. Get an article I write published- I think I am a decent writer and it's something I enjoy. I don't care if it's in the Mukilteo Beacon, I just want to have a really good article I wrote that gets out to readers and I can keep and say, I was a decent writer back then.

16. Record my life through my blog weekly- That means a lot more of these posts. I just want to look back at these two years and have a record of my thoughts and experiences. Maybe I can write a book about these years and accomplish number 15. That's what I call "killing two monkeys with one gun" stolen from S.Griff.

17. Meet Tim Ferriss and Rolf Potts, buy them a drink- Ya I know, meet famous people and try to be their friend, real cool. I really can just relate to these two guys books extremely well and love their outlook on life. If nothing else I just want to thank them both for the inspiration to be more than a sedentary, miserable wage slave for the next 40 years.

Sorry Steve

18. Make my own CD in a studio- I can sing a little, just a bit. Hell I might even throw in a rap song. Just ask my Steve if I can freestyle, Wilkinson???

He's not that fat compared to me, it might be run obese guy run, but don't have a heart attack

19. Run a 5k- my body was definitely not built for this. I could be optimistic and say a 10k, but realistically I hate running and want to actually accomplish this task. This is why I'm doing this, i need to conquer some things that are great hurdles for me to grow.

20. Volunteer to help spread literacy and education in Argentina- Something I think is very necessary and could really effect some lives. As you can see this trip is not going to be a vacation as I have a whole lot I need to do while I am gone.

nuff said...

21. Take two minimum 3 month Mini-Retirements to Berlin, Germany and Buenos Aires, Argentina-

Yup leaving the country. I have places I need to see. Why wait for 40 years for a retirement that I may or may not live to see. Screw it I'm going...

22. Learn to speak German and Spanish Fluently- It will be perfect to learn a language while living in a place. a whole lot easier than trying to learn at Kamiak HS while me and my bro are throwing paper airplanes at each other and scheming on floozies. Lets just say I'll be a bit more focused.

23. Learn MMA and Lose a real fight- That's right, and I'm not trying to be funny. I really want to lose a MMA fight. Not intentionally, I just really want to see what I can take. I really think everyone should get in a fight at some point. Getting beat up I think would be relieving and give me a fresh perspective.

24. Grow my website to a $2000.00 per month profit margin- This should be number one. Something needs to fund these crazy adventures I'm going to partake in. Please help out if you can just by getting your clothes on my site. Your gonna buy em anyway and I have em cheaper than anyone else. A win-win is what we call that.

25. Get my blog more popular- Actually having exciting things to write about should help but I also intend to hone my writing skills and make this blog much more interesting. If you do read my blog please add yourself as a follower of my blog, to motivate me to keep writing.

It should be a great 2 years, filled with some great times. I better get my ass started...