Elena came home excited a couple of days ago with two lists from a website she was reading at work and wanted me to have a look, the lists were titled:
Hope to’s and Things I never want to do again
It set in motion thoughts of what it is that I want out of life. Elena asked me if I had just one thing in life I would never want to do again what would it be. We laughed when I said I would never mix another can of paint (as this is what I do for my job).
So the project was to set a list of things the if given to opportunity I would never do again and a list of things I hope to do in my life.
Things I never want to do again
- Mix another can of paint
- Have to cook a meal after a hot days hard work
- Be concerned about paying bills
- Worry what others think
- Own a face to face retail business
- Try to compete with others for appearance and quality of life
- Have to please an employer
- Be on time for non essential meetings
- Work through a coffee break
- Have to wake Elena to go to work
- Have a heavy lifting job
- Hold back my personal opinions
- Be frustrated by a lack of training
Things I hope to do
- Live in Bali for at least 6 months
- Travel through China
- Walk up to Machu Picchu in South America
- Motorbike around Australia
- Live in Russia for 6 months
- Meet my pen friend in Colombia
- Motorbike across America
- Spend an hour each day walking with Elena in the countryside of wherever we are
- Learn photography
- Have an hour each day to write
- Have the freedom to be here today and gone tomorrow
- Have friends over for the weekend in Bali
- Take a camper around the South Island of New Zealand
- Teach English in a foreign country
- Create new friendships around the world
- Be more creative and spend time painting on canvas, mosaic and craft.
- Spend more time with my children
- Work on a volunteer aid project
Of course Elena had a list also and it’s interesting to read and discover her thoughts
Her list was
Things I never want to do again
- Waking up to an alarm
- Spend each day with people I don’t actually like
- Be political at work and have to suppress my views or beliefs
- Be too tired to do other activities than just work
- Borrow money to pay for “stuff”
- Regret borrowing the money after “paying off” stuff for more than 3 months
- Being scared to change because I earn too much money.
- Being dependent on options of others
- Never having time to maintain friendships
- Being nice to people I dislike / don’t respect / find annoying
- Regret not retiring early
Things I hope to do
- Stay active through regular activities and classes
- Learn a new language
- Choose when and where I work
- Enjoy my lifestyle on a smaller income
- Start a new hobby (photography, art etc)
- Get involved in foreign exchange and shares
- Travel and life in different countries and cultures
- Do study – correspondence or day courses
- Lead a healthy life through diet and exercise programs
- Less TV and more outdoors
- Get involved with like minded people
- Be happy with what I have and not to take life for granted
- Save and buy everything for cash
- Be excited and content with not working a regular job
- Find new activities with Wayne to keep our relationship interesting
- Let our friends be jealous of our experiences, not our possessions
- Have a more responsible “green” lifestyle
It seems like an over whelming list but with the thoughts now out in the opens we can start to make plans to set certain aspects of or lives more pleasurable in the future.
