Agile Personal Development

Here is the final evaluation for using the Men’s Journal method for developing a life list:

Pros:

• Good ideas for life goals in the article for brainstorming
• Interesting idea to categorize your goals after brainstorming

Cons:

• Without the original article, you have to search online to find a copy

Lessons Learned

At the time, developing a life list was an eye-opening experience for me.

Overall Evaluation

This was a good method at the time, and the ideas in the article are really interesting. However, there are other methods out there that could accomplish the same thing.

As mentioned previously, I used the method outlined in the Men’s Journal article “99 Things to Do Before You Die” to develop my first life list (text of the article can be found by searching online - unfortunately not at the Men’s Journal website). This was two years ago. This method involves setting aside some quiet time to think through everything you might want to do, group your ideas into categories, and brainstorm some more. After going through this process, I ended up with about 75 goals (with 7 of them accomplished so far).

The categories I ended up with were Travel (e.g. climb Harbor Bridge in Sydney, Australia, watch the Kentucky Derby, visit Pompeii), Volunteer/Charity (e.g. mentor someone every year), Material/Wealth (e.g. stay in a Presidential Suite), Self-Improvement (e.g. learn tai chi, become proficient at sketching, write and publish a magazine article), Adventure/Outdoor Activities (e.g. go white water rafting, try mountain climbing, hike Appalachian Trail), and Unique Life Experiences (e.g. watch a space shuttle launch, see northern lights, experience a complete solar eclipse).

At the time, this was a really good method for me. Looking back at it now, and having just evaluated a number of other life list development methods, I would come up with different categories. I notice there are also some items on the list that I’m not interested in doing anymore. That tells me that I need to review my life list a lot more often than I have been over the past two years.

In a future, I plan to take the original life list I developed using this method and merge it with the life lists from the other methods I’ve evaluated.

My evaluation of using the Success Begins Today method for developing my life list is as follows. This method consists of answering some ‘Top Five’ questions about your life goals (e.g. Top 5 places to see, things to do, etc).

Pros:

• Broad range of questions to read through
• Open questions make you think about what you really want out of life

Cons:

• Not all the questions may be relevant to what you want (just need to ignore them)
• May have more answers than just 5 for a category (just need to break the rules and add more)

Lessons Learned

It is really hard for me to come up with life goals without ideas to read for inspiration. At the same time, having general questions that make me think about what I really want out of life is useful.

Overall Evaluation

I think this method is a good supplement to the other brainstorming methods I’ve evaluated. There are probably other questions that could be added, but it is a good place to start.