SLOW PROGRESS IS BETTER THAN NO PROGRESS!
So, I haven’t posted or updated the blog in a little while. Entirely my fault. Every once in a while, life takes over and you have to put some things on the back-burner. Not to say that progress is not being made in the background. As long as you keep moving forward you are making progress:
I have an ideology, which is obvious and others have adopted the same over time. That if you can’t run, jog; if you can’t jog, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl; but for the love of life, keep moving forward.
The exact same process and principle works in reverse of someone who has not yet learned to run. It’s little the same as what we teach children, but unfortunately forget as adults. First you have to learn to crawl, then you can walk, then you can jog and then you can run.
When in the past I mentioned to friends and family that they should join me for fun-runs or do a marathon and they said “they would DIE!”, it filled me with wonder as to why they didn’t believe they could train the ability to do so. A lack of motivation tends to be excused in numerous ways. Granted, I’m certain they know they wouldn’t die, but they didn’t want to put in the work and effort to be able to run. And of course, it is not my job to force them either.
I did do a half marathon without any training just to see if “mind over matter” was a thing. I finished the Half Marathon, set a half decent time.
A few things though:
- Do not do a half marathon without ANY training as you will be SORE for days to come
- All you have to do is put one foot in front of the other, run, jog or walk, just FINISH
- The finish line will set you free!
One of the most liberating feelings. To have had nothing left in the tank and then seen the finish line and SPRINTED with a friend who I’d literally met along the run.
OH YEH, WHERE WAS I?
As with any process, there should be constant iterations and improvements. We as people and humans are amidst a process. Life is a process. We a born, we live, we die, that is a process. How we choose to live is part of that ongoing process. Without improvements and updates, things remain exactly as they are. We should seek out redundancies and ways in which to optimise processes and things.
I figured my bucket list is the same as other process and an iterative one if that. As part of the process, you either start at the beginning, the middle or the end, but you must tick all of the boxes or as many as possible. And then BINGO!
I always figured; life is a longitudinal journey. Well, short or long, it depends on how you see it really. You should set decent goals and decent targets, they shouldn’t be massively daunting nor impossible, such as “Live Underwater” or “Fly With The Birds”. Then again, with how my brain works, over a longitudinal period, what I did think was:
Hmmm, “Live Underwater”: You’d just need to create a dome environment with oxygen and a sustainable method of living
Hmmm, “Fly With The Birds”: Build a jetpack!
Like who in their right mind would not want to build a jetpack?
I think you kindo know what I mean tho, keep it SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable/Achievable
- Realistic
- Timebound/Time-scaled
So, I think most of the items on my list and my entire list covers the above:
- Specific – In a single sentence “99 Things To Do Before I Die”
- Measurable – 99 Items on the Hit List
- Attainable/Achievable – Each item is respectively achievable
- Realistic – Each item is realistic, although the entire 99 would be some achievement
- Timebound/Time-scaled – Before I die
GENERAL UPDATES
The list has been updated on the main homepage of the website; however, this is the second iteration of the website since it was completely redesigned. Most people don’t tend to notice simple things like a mild logo change and things getting bumped off lists.
Brands, products, landmarks, sights and sceneries and even ideas tend to go through a multitude of changes over time. Once change and iteration takes place and a new version is hailed, you can often rarely ever picture life before the update.
Check out a few logos that have been updated over the ages.
Apple | Audi | Mastercard | ||
NBC | Nintendo | Nissan | Seat | Skype |
I’ve picked some obvious and famous ones as logos tend to become somewhat iconic over the ages.
Let’s see if you can remember their originals or you were born into an update.
So, as you can see, things don’t stay the same forever and as I previously said, we as humans should also grow. We’re more like trees and other animals than we might consider ourselves to be. From birth to life to death. I think, only really tree’s, if nurtured can potentially be eternal. I can’t really think of any other species that could theoretically live forever.
A FEW UPDATES
As I said before, there were other items on the list, however for one reason or another, they had to be reworked/removed/updated. The following blog post is literally meant to be a brief summary of things that have changed on the list over time. From here on, no items should theoretically change and the list is therefore “laminated”.
Update 1 - Bungee and Trees
Items 6. Bungee Jump and item 68. Bungee Jump were identical. Not that you wouldn’t wish to bungee jump twice, so the latter item (68) was changed to:
68. Plant A Tree.
Update 2 - Too Much Publishing
The following items formed a literary passion and view to have something written which be noteworthy and later have some form of publishing.
7. Have one piece of work published in a recognised journa
12. Get one literary piece of work published
37. Publish A Book
All so similar in nature that they all even contained the word PUBLISH.
Update 3 _ Nurburgring History
The first of the three became a combination of the 3.
7. Have one piece of work published (Recognised Journal/Book). All of the following items were changed to things I thought would be fun/interesting.
12. Complete the Nurburgring which I generally thought would be cool to do and it involves travelling to a distant land to compete.
37. Trace My Lineage and Ancestry Back 200 Years, as am I a British Born Fijian Indian, and whilst I was born in Leicester and Leicester is where I call home, it is not where I would have originated from. I think it would be somewhat fascinating to find out how and where I descend from.
Update 4 - Processes and Rewards
As I said before, I do think we are iterative and growing human beings so item 15 I thought did not fall into the category of SMART target. As if you know me, I believe we are always updating/improving. So then 15. Update A Process became 15. Receive 1 award personal/business award.
Update 5 - Gym And Song
Items 19. Get back to the gym/workout and 92. Lose Weight in the next 5 months were also somewhat similar in nature, so scrapped the latter and replaced it with 92. Record A Song. I don’t believe I’m blessed with an abundance of musical talent, however recording a song can’t be that hard.
NOTE: I have retained item 42. Participate in Military Training which otherwise suggests simply being MILITARY FIT. Whilst similar, it takes the workout to a whole different level of discipline.
Update 6 - Change The World
As an idealist, I am not too sure what I was thinking when I thought of 46. Create Life, it did hold some personal meaning and an innate respect and appreciation for life, which I think I have. I figured, it was a tad vague, especially with the TREE PLANTING and BABY MAKING, which kind of fall into that domain anyhow.
46 TO BE REWORKED: Too similar to plant a tree / Have A Baby (Not SMART target)
46. CONTEMPLATED: SAVE A LIFE / SAVE LIVES – Although not being medically trained I figured there is limited to no opportunities for me to actually ‘Save A Life’ as such or be a ‘Have-A-Go-Hero’. Besides, you wish for bad things to happy just so you can be there to save someone, it makes no logical sense.
At the end of the iteration process, I decided 46. Change the World (Change A Life) would be most fitting. I figure, we can change the world very simply by changing the life of a single person. To that person, by changing their life for the better is changing their world. I just have to find a world to change.
Update 7 - Mountains / Conference
I thought the following two items on the list were similar once again, 51. Climb Kilimanjaro and 55. Climb a big hill/mountain, as it a little obvious that Kilimanjaro is a BIG HILL and/or a MOUNTAIN, given that it’s MOUNT KILIMANJARO. Hereafter, the following changes:
51. Climb a big hill/mountain/Kilimanjaro (Emma-Preeti)
55. Speak at an industry conference or event
I know what I’m thinking, firstly, I already think I tend to talk too much at times and secondly, there should definitely be a time limit.
Update 8 - Truth Or Podcast
I’ve always been fairly honest but not always completely open, so a friend of mine suggested
56. Tell people what I actually think of them instead of keeping it to myself
I then realised, honesty in mild doses can be better. Humans as emotional beings can’t always “handle the truth”, so it tends to be injurious to their ego and self-esteem to be completely explicit, Sometimes, it’s better to smile and nod than it is to spit some poison. The truth can often be very unpleasant and people prefer comforting lies. I suppose its human nature to be somewhat pain averse and not intentionally inflict emotional pain on another either.
I figured, keep the list optimistic and positive, so changed it to 56. Set Up A Podcast. I figured a podcast could be a fun experience and it doesn’t necessarily have to be daily, just relatively regular. I could have guests, record short soundbites, play music or just moan about anything that comes to mind. Come up with a topic first and then repeat the process.
Update 9 - Buy or Build
In the ideal world, we would buy our own home, we would develop it and we would nurture it as part of the family. It is after all the building within which we reside and takes on its own persona, has a character and we decorate it as our own unique own. You could BUY A HOUSE or if you could BUILD A HOUSE, I figured buying a house is generally quite conventional, and building one sounded a little more fun and a bigger project in itself. I thought both of the following were very similar:
94. Purchase A Property
56. Help Build A House
I therefore mildly tweaked 59 and reworked 94 to something a little more fun and creative. With all of the items on the list, I figured finance is something that is measured numerically, so 94. Be A Millionaire seemed like a logical monitory measure of finance and affluence. Yes, that’s right, A MILLIONAIRE!
If you’re gona dream, dream big, otherwise don’t dream at all. Fair enough, it’s not up there with The Billionaire Boys Club, but it’s a start and a step in the right direction. Not that I believe money compensates for happiness, however believe it is a resource. You’ll hear the nay sayers tell you that money doesn’t buy happiness, but given the choice, I think we’d all prefer to live in abundance.
Update 10 - Gameshows and Challenges
As a kid, I thought it would be fun to go on a gameshow, like FUNHOUSE, THE CRYSTAL MAZE or even the KRIKTON FACTOR. As you can see from the images, I have a bit of nostalgia going on and I think the classics were unbeatable, some have been revamped, others we’ve lost to time.
I did ask a few friends and I thought it would be something to put on the bucket list, but then ended up with similar results 64. Go on a game show and a friend suggested 79. Do the crystal maze experience. Given that The Crystal Maze is also a game show, it falls within the same category. The other difficult issue being finding someone to go on any game-show that requires more than one contestant. As a solo attempt, it’s fine, but I know most of my friends think I’m nuts as it is, let alone get the wrong answers on TV. I think it always seems a lot easier from the couch.
I figured in keeping with the spirit of challenges, I changed the latter to something a tad more personal to me. This was something planned for 2020, however I somewhat failed to accomplish due to COVID19 and the GLOBAL PANDEMIC.
Item 79. Complete 20 for 2020 (21 for 21), which was previously 20 for 2020 suggested doing 20 charity events over the course of 2020. Ranging from running, cycling, climbing, swimming, etc, however the entire world went on LOCKDOWN and that didn’t go to plan. I figured, 21 for ’21 would be a decent challenge. Currently actively looking at events to enter.
Update 11 - Pipelines, Promotions and Upgrades
The following items were removed a short while ago, however as I doing a list of updates, I thought I’d add items that were either previously removed or recently updated.
81. Build a pipeline referred to creating a sales process and pipeline as such, not anything to do with plumbing, as that’s a skill-set that is not under my proverbial belt. More a case of managing a customer journey and independently creating a sales process or sales funnel of sorts.
88. Climb 2 Grades at Work would have been a decent idea, although this was more for a friend and having decided to go down the self-employed route, at least for now, I feel this would be somewhat difficult. The business owner cannot theoretically climb two grades at work.
91. Significantly Improve A Process, kindo speaks for itself. Ever growing and ever improving. There’s rarely a process I will see in my day to day life that I wouldn’t want to in some way give some constructive input on. Working within the corporate world taught me to keep my mouth shut however, most people don’t like change or improvement and corporations don’t like to be told that they’re not doing everything as well as they could be.
All of the above were edited and changed to the following:
81. Attend A Music Festival, as I never have and think it would be pretty cool.
88. Finish My Marketing Masters, which I technically have, however there is a pending BLOG POST and I am still somewhat deciding if I want to change this to 88. DO A PHD because it would be cool to be DR NARAYAN or whether I should take a hit and tick this one off the list.
91. Obtain an Industry Recognised Qualification
Update 12 - No Blank Spaces
99. PREVIOUSLY BLANK. In my finite wisdom, I figured 99 would have been a WILDCARD. As in, if there were any other cool and significant things I’d wanted to do along the way or things I maybe haven’t realised I want to do based on either a lack of knowledge, understanding or technological capability. However, I thought I should keep it specific and gave it some thought and I realised something.
In 2019, I went to Marbella, it was a trip granted I could barely afford, but it was a seemingly once in a lifetime moment and opportunity that I could not pass. A friend of mine was getting married and it was his STAG. I noticed the level of affluence in Marbella and noticed the number of boats/yachts on the pier and realised I didn’t know anyone or have any friends with a YACHT. I’ve come to have a distant friend/acquaintance, via social media, he’s a cool and unique character and massively motivated. One of his biggest dreams/ambitions is to OWN A YACHT, so I figured 99. Yacht Buddies. I would love to have a yacht, it would be super cool, but I don’t want to be the only one of my friends with a yacht either.
So that’s the update as it stands, ALL 99 items on the list, some already completed and a load to go yet.
More regular postings coming soon. 100. Improving My Time Management could be a thing, but alas this is a list of 99 things to do.
If you’ve read this far, congratulations…
Wishing you all the best with your bucket lists…!
81. You’re coming noisily festival next year
Hell Yeh I am…!