To do lists

[Valenteenah.]

IMPORTANT/AMAZING THINGS YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO:

 

- In the next 5 years

 

- Before you hit 30/40/[insert milestone age]

 

- Before you die

 

 

Do you have such lists? Even if you haven't written it down somewhere, most of you probably have a list of things that you would really like to do somewhere in your head.

 

These 'things' are not your normal day-to-day activities, they are things you have been thinking and dreaming about, consciously or subconsciously, for some time. They may be adventurous, spiritual, educational or just plain fun things that you would like to try. On the other hand they might be unique, once-in-a-lifetime, life-affirming activities.

 

It doesn't matter either way. The important bit is that they add value to your life, improve how you see yourself and develop you as an individual.

 

So...do you? Have such a list?

 

 

I kept a list from a young age, but ended up destroying it some years ago. Now I feel I should prepare a new, more realistic list to see me through the next phase in my life.

[Animal Farm]

Make enough money to not ever work again.

 

The fact we task ourselves or write goals down, we move from i can't to i can mode -- heard it from one of those do it yourself life coaches -

[Resistance]

How ironic, only last night i was pondering over my plans for the next five years ( actually 4 years).

 

My list is plain and simple:

1. Get married

2. Go into business ( 9 to 5 is not for me no more)

 

and somewhere in between acheive some of my other dreams ( some wild and others close to the impossible )

[Legend of Zu]

Good Topic Val

 

Funny you mentioned these, I was just mentioning something like this to couple of friends tonite. I do have a list in my head, things I would like to do before I hit the Four-O.

 

The list is quite long for me...some phobias to overcome, a self fulfilling and adventurous traveling I wanna do (got the plan, about to cost it), some personal and professional ambitions to achieve. Well as I said the list is long...

So start from your self and tell us about your list then perhaps others will follow

 

Cheers

[-Lily-]

1) Travel and or work abroad

2) Get published

3) Write full time and start a lingerie business with my sister.

4) Learn two new languages.

5) Have one child by the time I'm 30, preferably with a Farah I'm married to.

 

They don't have to be in any order as long as I can do them all before I reach 30, I think there is enough time. This is my list for the moment, might change next year who knows.

 

P.S My own farm to retire in, if I live that long. These are all obviously earthly plans, Akhira plans are something that should (hopefully) already be in tact now & not need to be planned for in the future.

[Valenteenah.]

I woke up this morning and for the first time in eight years, I didn’t mind getting a year older. Usually I look back at the past year and feel like I haven’t done anything interesting or achieved anything worthwhile, but today I feel content. I had a brilliant year (Alhamdulilaah) and at the risk of sounding positive, I’m looking forward to another excellent year (Insha’Allah). This must be what they mean by aging gracefully!

 

 

Zu,

 

Actually, I only started thinking about making a list. I’m not even sure what I want to put in there, however, I plan to make it very tight and focused. It will need to meet two requirements; 1] I must be capable of undertaking the activities - I’m known for letting flights of fancy take me off my feet (like what’s the chance of me learning how to fly?) and 2] the goals must be sustainable for the most part – that is the sum of the activities must contribute to improving my quality of life. That’s not to say that I won’t have the odd one-off activity, but I wouldn’t want the whole list to be made up of one-offs.

 

I know you have mentioned a few things, but I would very much like to see what your whole list looks like - I’m guessing it to be very adventurous.

 

Hizb,

 

Are you about to or have you celebrated your birthday recently? I have the feeling we are at the same stage….I’m also looking at what I would like to do in the next four years, God willing.

 

 

I just bought myself a new digital camera, so documenting important moments will be one To-Do.

[sheherazade]

Look at everything on your list and if u're doing nothing to achieve it currently then forget about it. Using far-off deadlines encourages procrastination and fools u into believing u've failed once u get there and believe u me u'll get there- 30, 40,50- sooner than you think.

 

There are three things on my list- one appeared today. They have no 'one-day' deadlines. Only one I am doing something about- signed up to a course to meet like-minded people. The one that appeared today I am completely at a loss as how to go about. The final one is trying to get some of my writing published. For months I have known about a publication deadline for a story, I told myself I had months, write later. Now it's 3 weeks away.

 

WaterLily if u are serious, may be u and I can be the pain in one another's backsides and harass each other into actually sending in work for consideration. What do u think? I have lots of links, literary magazines, ezines that are looking for work to publish. Let me know if u want them and I'll dig them out.

[Didi Kong]

I have a to-do list for every year/month/day of my life. Long-term as well as short-term lists. In the next five years I should be in med school, the fastest approaching milestone age for me right now is in 2 years (22) I should finish my undergrad by then. The biggest milestone age of my life or any muslim's for that matter is 40 hopefully I'll look back and be content with all my achievements and thank god for all his blessings.

[Zafir]

Ahura my dear.There is an island, be it small,Amid the passions of the sea,Beyond what years you may recall,Where you in silent grace can be. Grow young while old gracefully, Happy brithday.

 

I have no lists, just dreams.

[- Femme -]

Valenteenah:

 

Coincidently, I attended an Islam/Family/Career/Education Life planning Seminar 2 days ago. The speaker was an Egyptian brother, Vice President of the Muslim Student Association of the US & Canada, 25 yrs old and doing his PHD in Computer Science (Mashallah). He has a family, hectic school life, job but also flies around the country on weekends giving seminars and lectures. The point he was trying to drive is that we make excuses that we have no time - but it's all a big fat lie that's hindering you from achieving your goals. He really made me think and look back at my short life - and I've accomplished NOTHING. Absolutely nothing except alot of dambi (school not included - most pple go to school).

 

Anyway, he was talking about setting goals down on paper - 10 yrs from now, 5 yrs, 1 yr, this month, this week. Work from then to now - then write down the obstacles that might stop you from getting to ur goal and lastly tasks to do NOW to overcome those obstacles. It was the best, most inspiring seminar I ever went to and I only hope my motivation does not disappear as it usually does, Inshallah.

 

One tip he gave was:

The quickest way to achieve ur goal - talk about it to everyone (that forces you to go ahead with it since pple are expecting you to do it), write it down, and force time in your schedule to work towards it. Keep your goals all over your workplaces, journal, room, etc. so that your always aware of it - 2 reasons pple procastinate and let opportunities get way is 1. they forget and 2. they think they have the time.

 

Interesting sidenote, he asked all of us when we thought we were going to die (he said 'I know as muslims we believe were are going to die anytime and that only Allah knows, but just guess a year'). People had 80, 70, 60 - very old. He smiled and said 'the companions of the prophet ruled such an empire and achieved great personal successes because they honestly thought that they were going to die tomorrow, therefore they did not want to waste a minute'. I wrote down 80 - and that was true, I thought I was going to live long enough to do all that I wanted.

 

Goals in the next ten years?

- Graduate and become a nurse

- Get into medical school (Inshallah)

- Get married, have bio children and adopt

- Travel to Somalia & Spain

- Send mother to Hajj

- Prayer Fajr and Isha on time ( )

 

P.S. We worked it out - and we can honestly memorize the entire Qur'an in 10 yrs if we just memorize three verses (ayahs) a day! Wow! But who has the time and drive that is the billion dollar question.

[STOIC]

Life is a boring thing. It badly dents your ego. Every now and then wave of fear keeps sweeping on me. It is like an unanswered letter or a telephone call not returned, but you still waiting for it. There are times I loose faith in my life and the only thing I want to do is be the man who wrote his own obituary! When I came across your topic a few minutes ago I hastily decided to jot down on piece of paper what I wanted to be on my Obituary. I was thinking of how strange life could be; one minute we are content with what we got the next minute we are thinking of the conscious of time passing. Trying to ignore the treacherous leap of my life, with a supreme force of will I first decided to put my mind at ease on what I want to achieve before I hit thirty (IA). I know I will not always have the boyish look of my face forever! Life will probably be shuffling more of my body in the next decade. There is no doubt that our motives are revealed in our fantasies. My long-term satisfaction is to get done with my graduate education before I hit thirty and probably get a family on my early thirties. This sound absurd to some, but the two most important thing in my life are graduate education and getting married. The graduate education must come before the marriage (IA)

[Faheema.]

Valenteenah Happy B-Day dearest and many happy returns.

 

Well, I never really had a "To do list"…Though I always had an idea of what I wanted to achieve at some point but never really put much thought to it....always seemed to go with the flow and Alxamdulilah I have accomplished more than I have expected...

 

However, recently I decided to set myself few attainable goals that were to some extend, under my control . So, here they are….

 

In the foreseeable future, Insha Allah, I plan to…

 

Get rid of all my Debt

Take Hooyo to Hajj

Buy a House & Luxury Car

Go Skydiving

 

Ofcourse if marriage comes along then those plans [House & Luxury Car] will have to be put on hold.

[Valenteenah.]

Thanks Zii & Lola.

 

 

Ofcourse if marriage comes along then those plans [House & Luxury Car] will have to be put on hold.

LoL...Lola, you won't need a house and car if you got married, miyaa??

 

 

Red, sounds like it was an interesting seminar. I do like motivating talks myself. :cool:

[Pucca]

as far as to-do lists go, i've given up on them years ago...nothing i plan for goes according to plan. There are general goals that i have set, goals that feel more like expectation than real goals...but oh well thats about all i've got to work with for now.

 

btw...happy b-day! may the rest be just as great.

[Faheema.]

Originally posted by Valenteenah:

 

you won't need a house and car if you got married, miyaa??

lol, Oh most definately...all the more reason, Lakiin dee the trick is to get him to buy those two and save me some mmoney ...What is his is mine and what is mine is mine and all