Hi friends! Let me start by saying that Grace and I are ALMOST finally over our terrible cold/flu virus that knocked us off our feet. I was juggling work while feeling dazed, achey, and in a fog, and sadly found no time for HDWD. I'm excited to be back!
If you've been reading Have Dog, Will Drive for any length of time, you've probably noticed that posting my monthly goals is one thing I always do without fail, even if it ends up being a couple of days after the 1st of the month. Going back a few years ago, I didn't set monthly goals at all! I'm not sure exactly when the switch was flipped, but now I'd feel totally lost without those guideposts each month. These days I don't have a ton of free time, so knowing how to prioritize the gaps in my schedule to make progress about what matters is crucial.
A few months after I started setting monthly goals, I started seeing this concept called 101 in 1001 on blogs. It's a concept where you set 101 goals (some big, some small, some serious, some not-so-serious) to be completed over a period of 1001 days. 1001 days works out to be just about 2.75 years. It's a nice length because you can set goals that mean a lot to you and that you need more than just a year to accomplish, but it's not too long to keep up with. You can find a few other blogs that define the concept and share their lists here, here, here, here, and here.
I started my 101 in 1001 list on September 4, 2015, and my completion date is June 1, 2018. I keep all of my 101 goals written down in the notebook pictured above, and I write a little description once I check off each one! Now that I'm just a few months from the end, I can see that there are some I won't complete, but that's kind of the beauty of 101 in 1001. It's a snapshot of what mattered to me in summer 2015, and I can see everything that's changed since then. Some things have become more important, and others have become less.
If you are considering doing 101 in 1001, I have absolutely loved it as a personal goal setting tool. Now that my timeline is almost up, I'm thinking about doing a "90 before 30" as my next one. It's basically the same concept, but it's slightly fewer goals and it's focused on a time period before a certain age. This could totally be adapted to any age (i.e., 50 before 50, etc.), but my 101 in 1001 ending coincides almost perfectly with my 27th birthday, so 90 before 30 seemed like a good fit. I'll update here if/when I make a new list. Without further ado, here's my list and the progress I've made so far (some goals that are private or aren't fully "my story" to tell, I just labeled "private"):
1. Make an "art teacher" necklace (here's the inspiration for that)--completed 2/19/16. I actually ended up having a craft night at my apartment with my law school friends and we all made them! So fun.
2. Paint or wallpaper a wall--not yet
3. Try hair extensions--nope. I don't think this one is going to happen. My hair is already long enough! (But it wasn't when I set this goal. I just ended up going au naturale on this one, I guess)
4. Personal
5. Take a big family trip with my immediately family--not really, but we've had plenty of good times all together :)
6. Visit Yosemite--yes. You can read my post on visiting Yosemite with a dog here.
7. Take a calligraphy glass--not yet. This is one I could totally do before June, though!
8. Surprise Grace with a weekend getaway--yes! You can read about our surprise Pismo Beach getaway here.
9. Personal
10. Keep a recipe journal/book separate from my other journals--yes! Need to update more frequently though.
11. Send a handwritten note to a friend at least once a month--this is one that has changed my whole outlook on life! There was a period of time where I sent a card at least once a week. I've trailed off lately, but I'm a snail mail person for life now. It's one of my favorite things ever.
12. Join my first gym by myself (separate from parents'/school membership)--no, and my priorities have shifted. Not interested in gyms right now!
13. Surprise my family on the East Coast--no, but I have gotten to see them a ton!
14. Print an Artifact Uprising at least every six months for significant life events--not that often, but I've made several!
15. Perfect some kind of seemingly-complicated hairstyle--sort of . . . I have experimented with braid crowns and overnight curls and it's gone decently well. Not a huge priority anymore!
16. Decorate an office with a bulletin/inspiration board and plants--not yet; I should totally do that in my office now
17. Plant something edible and watch it grow--sadly no, not yet!
18. Call or write a letter to my grandmother at least once a month--I've been pretty good at this!
19. Turn this 101 in 1001 list into something printed that I can write in and keep forever--yep! The journal pictured at the top of this post
20. Take a fun bar trip--YES! I went to Barcelona, Ibiza, Sardinia, Santorini, and Athens with some of my closest friends from law school in the summer of 2016 after I took the California Bar Exam
21. Pass the California Bar Exam--yes, November 18, 2018. Biggest relief ever
22. Graduate from Berkeley Law--yep! May 13, 2016
23. Reach out to someone I admire but don't know personally--yes. I reached out to some bloggers I admire when I first started thinking about blogging, and I got the sweetest and most helpful responses.
24. Go to N/Naka with Grace--not yet! Maybe this spring!
25. Spend time with Grace's parents and have Grace spend time with my parents at least once a year--yes :) Last year, Grace even spent time with my family WITHOUT me there when she went to North Carolina to ask their blessing to ask me to marry her
26. Register to vote in California--yes
27. Vote in the 2016 presidential election and in state elections--yes
28. Personal
29. Take a cooking class with Grace--no. I've done this without her, whoops!
30. Take a flower arranging class--not yet
31. Buy a car--decided to lease instead (and so happy I did)
32. Find a good multivitamin and take it every day for a month+--not consistently. It's hard for me to care about this for some reason :(
33. Be a bridesmaid--still no! Get married, friends!
34. Get a massage--yes, many times, including last weekend. So needed
35. Take a trip by train--yes, Grace and I took a train from Brussels to London and back in spring 2016
36. Start wearing my retainer regularly--I don't even know where mine is anymore, if that tells you anything. Sorry teeth
37. Come up with monthly goals on the first day of each month and write them down--yes, obviously!
38. Buy a tent with Grace--we keep getting gifted/loaned tents very sweetly! So we have not technically bought one together
39. Print and frame photos for family & Grace--yes, I have so many printed photos and love it. I'm such a believer in printing your photos and not letting them just live on your phone/Instagram
40. Personal
41. Make pickles, including something other than cucumber--I've made cucumber pickles, but not something else. Need to do that!
42. Visit 5 new US States--done! 6 actually so far. Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska
43. Get into a habit of taking two rest days a week from social media--I haven't been as good about this lately, but I used to be. Need to get back into it. I think it's good and refreshing to do this
44. Read 10 books (not for school/work)--yes, more than 10 actually (looking back that was a pretty low number)
45. Get my first Christmas tree of my own--not yet. I decided I want my first Christmas tree to be my first married Christmas :)
46. See a movie at a drive-in with Grace--not yet
47. Go skiing--yes, in Tahoe with law school friends!
48. Personal
49. Purge closet once every six months--I've done this a couple of times, but I haven't nearly as much as I should
50. Try a capsule wardrobe for 3 months--I've done capsule wardrobes for trips, including for our Alaska trip. But I don't think it's a priority anymore for me to do it for 3 months.
51. Organize photos on my laptop and back them up--I use an external hard drive now but could still be wayyy more organized with photos!
52. Through a surprise party--yes!! See my how-to here
53. Leave a 100% tip for a server who you want to feel appreciated--yes, just the other night actually! We ate at Jones and one of our best friends Sara was our server :)
54. Send flowers to a friend or family member--I sent flowers to a friend recently for her birthday, but I don't think this counts--I want to just send some out of the blue, just because!
55. Attend a conference for personal interests--not yet but want to
56. Find a classic, signature, grown-up perfume--not yet
57. Visit Elon--not yet but Grace's cousin is now a student there, so we need to go see him!
58. Visit Antarctica--nope!! Haha. To be fair I still really want to do this, but this was a bold one.
59. Put stacks of printed photos around the house--yes, love it. My favorite is when people thumb through them and ask if they can keep ones of people they know. I always say yes!
60. Get my own credit card--yes, finally (I feel like this may be shocking to some but I operated on cash for years, and it really helped me save a TON and never go into debt in my whole life. Now I have one, just for purposes of points to use on our honeymoon flights)
61. See all of my mom's siblings and their families together in one place--yes, Thanksgiving 2017. And it was the sweetest.
62. Personal (this one is about pulling off a surprise that I still haven't done, so I can't share it!)
63. Take a vacation with my best friend Anna--not really, though we've visited each other a bunch. Needs to happen!
64. Spend a weekend with Sarah Rose and Allie (my oldest friends from growing up)--not yet! Not all three together, at least.
65. Personal
66. Bring baked goods to someone who needs a pick me up--yes, pumpkin bread :)
67. Make a list of 101 positive things about myself--yes, in May 2017. It took a couple of weeks to think of 101 different things, but really good for the soul!
68. Buy flowers for myself just because--yes, several times!
69. Get a cute filing cabinet to have at home and organize important personal papers--no, and could really use it
70. Make a home office wherever I live after law school--yes and no; we have an office in our house (which is a huge luxury and we love it!), but it's really Grace's office and not mine. Haha! She works from home whereas I have my own office downtown, so it makes sense. I'm typing this from our kitchen table right now.
71. Go apple picking, strawberry picking, or to a pumpkin patch with Grace--yes, plus going to Christmas Tree farms! Though only for wreaths and mistletoe, see #45 above
72. Make or buy earthquake kits to keep in my house and car--no, and obviously should
73. Make personal calling cards/business cards--no, and I probably won't do this one. I have business cards for my job and probably wouldn't use personal ones
74. Personal
75. Make creme brulee from scratch with Grace--not yet. Funny story, "creme brulee" was our code word for years when we were just dating and didn't talk openly about marriage because we weren't in the right season yet. One time we were on a date to a creme brulee shop in San Francisco, and somehow "the future" came up, and Grace just said, "I LOVE creme brulee and I feel the same about a potential next step, in a couple years . . ." and ever since we would say "creme brulee" instead of the M word. Haha! So long story short, we really need to try making it ourselves so this can come full circle!
76. Send "survival packages" to my friends taking the bar exam alongside me in summer 2016--yep! I think they liked them a lot. I included fun scented highlighters, gum, encouraging cards, relaxing tea, and airplane bottles of vodka.
77. Personal
78. Cook lobster or crab myself--no, and honestly I'm scared and don't really want to!
79. Bake muffins from scratch on a lazy morning--nope, need to get a muffin tin
80. Invest in a new pair of sunglasses in a shape other than aviators (my longtime shape of choice)--yes, I treated myself to some cat-eye sunnies but that was a couple of years ago now and they broke recently!
81. Buy a bar cart--no, but our house has a built-in bar area which is even better :)
82. Stock a bar car--stocked our built-in bar
83. Host a slumber party--not yet. Maybe for my bachelorette!
84. Come up with an organizational system for my card collection, washi tape, gifts, small ribbons, etc.--sort of-it could definitely be tamed, but my ridiculously large collection is somewhat organized at the moment
85. Make a coffee cart as a gift for Grace--yes, as a surprise for her 26th bday! I got a eucalyptus wood rolling cart and stocked it with a coffee maker, tons of beans, syrups, a grinder, and other items. Probably my best gift to her ever.
86. Find and move into an LA apartment--moved in, and moved out! I loved my first little place in West Hollywood--looking back, my last "bachelorette pad"!
87. Put away $__ [personal] for a honeymoon fund--yes
88. Do some kind of public speaking--not really
89. Drive across the US--not yet, but drove across Canada to Alaska in September 2017!
90. Try making butter, jam, and biscuits from scratch--not yet. Grace recently saw this when she was thumbing through my 101 in 1001 notebook and said this is the one I need to do next, ha!
91. Come up with my own pimiento cheese recipe similar to Mrs. McNair's (my neighbor growing up who had the BEST pimento cheese recipe)--yes, slowly but surely I have developed my own recipe (or rather, method) and it's seriously good. If you don't know what this one is about at all, it's a Southern thing.
92. Take a Northern California road trip with Grace--we drove through on our way back from Alaska, but I'd love to do a dedicated NorCal road trip
93. Spend a day getting lost in a new city without any particular plan and take it in--a few times actually! NYC (not new to me, but I was in a new area), Seattle, and Barcelona
94. Make my own fruit infused waters--no, but sounds great; I still should!
95. Write the story of Casper--yes, many times over. For Christmas, Grace and I usually do gifts of no monetary value for each other to focus on the meaning of the holiday. One year, I wrote out in a journal the whole story of how we got Casper, plus a little made-up story about his life before us (reimagined to not be so horrible). I've also written about Casper's life and passing on this blog.
96. Get scuba certified with Grace and go scuba diving--no, not sure if it's still a priority
97. Buy a set of signature, personalized stationary--was gifted two beautiful sets by my parents for Christmas one year! It's about time to do this one again, since I'll be changing my name after I get married!
98. Find some way to better organize jewelry, especially necklaces, and display it beautifully--not really
99. Invest in a quality foundation that is the perfect skin color for me--would love to switch to more a more natural foundation, I'm sure mine is filled with parabens and other toxins
100. Find a great one-piece bathing suit--no. Investing in one for our honeymoon for sure!
101. Watch the sunrise and sunset intentionally in a single day--not in the way that I'd like. We saw the sun rise and set almost every day on our Alaska trip, but it was often from the car. I want to sit and reflect and give thanks while watching the sunrise and sunset in the same day very intentionally, so I haven't crossed this one off yet!
I also keep some space in the back of my 101 in 1001 notebook to write down things that I'm very proud of and in retrospect could have been a 101 in 1001 goal, but weren't. Here are some of the ones I have written down:
- Baked fresh pumpkin bread and brought it to school (law school), still warm, and passed slices up and down the rows of desks
- Ran the Nike Women's Half Marathon (on San Francisco hills!!)
- Hosted a brunch to celebrate Casper, so my law school friends could meet him. I cherish this even more now that he's gone
- Traveled with Grace to her hometown of Waterloo, Belgium
- Took 10 full days away from email while traveling
- Took the California bar exam (I only made passing it a goal, but as anyone who's been through it knows, even taking it is a big accomplishment!)
- Started this blog!
- Got engaged to the love of my life on September 14, 2017
If you've done a 101 in 1001 list, I'd LOVE to hear about it! These are some of my favorite goals to read about. Hope you enjoyed mine.