Introduction

In Henry David Thoreau's Walden, Thoreau wrote "All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be." I can't help but agree with Henry on this one. I am ready to do something.

I have managed to live my life using up very little output unless I was good and motivated. In this life, motivation is not something I have a lot of. Not that I haven't worked hard, I have, but the effort to produce something to the best of my ability was not always there. I do not feel I have given my all to some greatness, but I am feeling more and more like I need to and I should at this point in my life. If you can't work towards something at 24, when can you?

The beginning of this idea and this blog doesn't start somewhere near as intellectual as the words of Thoreau, it instead starts on the pages of Facebook. A note from a friend about making a list of 100 things you wanted to do--and then working towards this list. I doubt this is a new idea, but reading about it at this point in my life made the idea resonate. What do I want to do? And when I figure that out, it's about time I started working towards it.

I began composing a list of 100 things I wanted to do, but most of the things I came up with were either a) beyond my immediate control and b) somewhere in a very distant future. As a procrastination expert, these did not work for me. I need more manageable goals and thus this blog was born.

The first step is to make a list of 100 things I want to do in 2007. They can be as simple as going to the movies alone or as complex as becoming financially stable. The list will be a wide array of goals, activities, and ideas--but the trick will be to work towards accomplishing all of them by December 31st, 2007. I suppose you could call them New Year's Resoultions, but on a less abstract plane. The things I list will be doable, specific things. If I had a goal of losing weight--that should be broken down into specific things I want to accomplish to reach the ideal weight, not simply "lose weight." Goals, to be accomplished, need to be both plausible and achievable in small, identifiable steps. Each number will be a small, identifiable step.

I would like to encourage as many people as possible to join me on this year-long journey. Start a blog, or chart your progress on an already existent blog, get your lists ready for January 1, and then tell the world about your journey towards doing something and in turn, being something.

If you are interested in participating in "100 Ways to Be, 2007", send me an email at bohdilicious31@yahoo.com, or leave a comment. If you're ready to join, leave your blog link and I will create a list of participants and display them on the sidebar. If you have questions or ideas, send them my way as well. I'd love to create a small community of people trying to make a difference for themselves in 2007.

(Note: If you have never blogged before, but would like to, blogger.com has a free blog hosting service and it is really easy--very little internet know-how required!)