My Impossible List

For the longest time now, I've had a bucket list in some form or another. However, it was always a nagging reminder of what I hadn't done - never a spur in my side to push me forward. Today I threw out that bucket list and replaced it with something infinitely better: an Impossible List.

Joel Runyan - blogger, stuff-doer, people-inspirer - runs a blog outlining his ideas about doing the impossible
 and living a life that reaches for something beyond what you think you're capable of. A main part of doing this involves developing your own Impossible List - a list of goals you thought were "the sort of things that I assumed the cool guys on TV only ever got to do. The things I never thought that I would be able to do."

The Impossible List is not a bucket list. A bucket list is "made up at one point in time that most people don’t end up actually incorporating into their lives and discard when things get tough." Far from this, the Impossible List is a "fluid, updating status of what’s coming, what’s next and where you’ve come from. It’s always changing, always updating and always evolving. The impossible list isn’t just a piece of paper, it’s a commentary to yourself on how you’re living."

I've spent a lot of time lately contemplating my goals and how little I've done to reach them or improve myself in many areas. When I saw Runyan's impossible list, I was inspired to do my own. And I did.

Here it is:

Life:

- Go out 50 times to be social and develop people-skills

Creative:
- Start a Youtube channel
- Self-publish an illustrated children's book
- Learn to sing well within my range
- Finish Intermediate level piano books
- Finish a portrait in oils
- Finish my Aesculapius painting
- Finish a still-life with fruit in oils
- Finish my 30-lesson watercolor book
- Learn to play Cristofori's Dream

Health Fitness
- Become a morning person
- Fit into my old jeans
- Increase stamina so I can practice dancing for 30+ minutes without being dead-tired

Activities:
- Memorize The Ballad of Reading Gaol 
- Read 3,159 books (beat George Vanderbilt's record)
- Learn to speed-read
- Make $10+ on the stock market

Skills:
- Fluency in Spanish
- Fluency in French or Norwegian
- Semi-fluency in French or Norwegian
- Master 4 soft-shoe dances
- Master the 6 hard-shoe dances
- Learn to waltz
- Learn to use graphic design software
- Become a decent Go player (win 50% of non-practice games)
- Learn to appreciate opera

So, there it is. Let's see how it goes.

So Many Books . . .

My reading habits have reached a breaking point, and I've had a revelation.

It started like this . . . 

While composing an e-mail today, I found myself debating which font to use. "Calibri" was the default, but I wanted something that looked like I put some effort into my e-mail and didn't just go with the default. I tried "Consolas," but it was too clinical, cold, outdated, and impersonal. I switched to "Sylfaen." I love it's name, and it has a magical, Times New Romanesque look that doesn't look too "default." However, its serifs make it a bit too busy for an e-mail that I'm hoping won't look too long and time-consuming. I considered Helvetica (which reminded me of the "Helvetica" documentary on Netflix; if you haven't seen it, watch it now!) before settling on "Candara." 

Considering these fonts made me see them as what they were - artwork. Artwork with style and meaning and a heckuva lot of consideration that went into their design. Each font has a specific feel to it; choosing the right one is often not an easy task. While thinking of these things and writing my e-mail, I thought, "There's that one really good book about fonts - "Just My Type" - that I've wanted to get." Then I realized -

I OWN that book.

IT IS IN MY POSSESSION.

RIGHT.

NOW.

It was like forgetting and then realizing I owned a trunk of gold ingots. HOW DO YOU FORGET ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE THAT?

This brings me to my point: I've needed to finish reading the books I own, but now, for the first time in a long time, I want to read the books I have more than I want to buy more books.

I haven't finished my book inventory yet, but I'm pretty sure I have more unread books compared to read books in my shelves right now. While I know I should read them, the siren's call of new books and my unfortunate book-hopping reading habits have made it near impossible to finish all the unread books. However, forgetting that I owned "Just My Type" is a wake-up call. When you FORGET that you own a certain book - a book that you had looked forward to owning for the longest time and were exceptionally excited to find at the bookstore - you know you've reached a breaking point.

For so long, I've bought about 2 books for every one I finished. I figured it would all work out in the end because I was going to eventually read them all, but now I realize that I can't just be stock-piling books for later.

Now is Later.

On my shelves are all these books that I've been holding off on - like saving the coconut-chocolate-piece in a Russel's chocolate box for last. I see Maphead, Reading in the Brain, Darwin's Proof, What the Dog Saw, Who's Afraid of Opera?, The Rise of Thedore Roosevelt, etc., and, for the first time in quite a while, their appeal far outweighs the appeal of the books I want to buy. Suddenly, they aren't the tired titles that have been on my shelves for years, they're the friends I've neglected for too long. I don't want any more books. I'm excited to enjoy these long-neglected morsels here.