Like it says in the intro, this is my second time going through the Day Zero project. Why am I doing this again? I really did have fun with it before, even though there were times I forgot about and times I wished it would go away. It got me to do some things that I had been procrastinating for years and some things I had never thought about before hearing about the project. It gave me a way to bond with some of my friends -- the one who got me to join the project in the first place and the friend that decided to make her own list after I talked about it. And it helped me look at my own life a little differently and learn some things about myself.
So lets talk about this new list. I started writing down ideas for a new list not long after I started the first one! By the time I sat down and seriously started writing out my 101 projects, I already had almost sixty items. In the end, I had 113, which gave me the opportunity to pare it down to the things I most wanted to accomplish (although there are definitely still a few silly things in there!). My life has changed a lot since I started the first list in 2011... I lost my oldest friend, my godchildren, my pet, and my job. I gained new friends, a kitten, part of my old job back, and a better relationship with my father. If there were a scale to measure my life now against my life then, I'm not sure things are quite in balance yet, so I tried to put things in my list that will add to my life in positive ways and things that will make me happy. I also swore that after last time I would not have things on my list that require me to do things multiple times! I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to smack myself for having things like "do item A six times"! The repetition, while sometimes meaningful, made it tedious and neverending. So I did it again. Yes, yes, I know. But I decreased the frequencies on the times I did it, and I only have four items that will last the length of the whole project (including posting updates on this very blog!). And I solemnly swear not to complain about having to do things more than once in order to cross it off my list. If I try it, call me out.
Once again, I included reasons for why I chose each item for the list. I think it makes it interesting for you, and it helps me remember why I felt those things were important. It also helped me when I was trying to narrow down the list to the 101... if it was something I had seen on someone else's list but I couldn't come up with a good reason, then obviously it didn't resonate for me and it got cut. I also decided to group things into categories. I liked this idea when I saw it on other people's lists, and I decided it would help me better see what kinds of things I was doing. I am also hoping it will help me keep track of the list for myself. It sounds crazy, but there were many times I would review my list and think "that's on my list? I don't remember putting that on there!".
I'm excited about this! Tomorrow is day 1 out of 1001. We are set to end December 31, 2017 (wow, that sounds so far away!), and I am excited about celebrating the end of this project and New Year's with my friend who talked me into doing this the first time around. I didn't finish my list last time, and I'm okay with that, but I want to finish this one. So here we go... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
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