January 4th,2012
I'm not much a video gamer...I never really have been. I played a little bit when I was younger but totally stopped in my teens and twenties. Recently though, I started playing a couple games here and there and I've discovered something called achievements. They are little goals/accomplishments that you achieve during a game such as "Complete a level in under 12 seconds" or "Complete the entire game on hard" or "Dislocate your knee while trying to impress your friends in Dance, Dance Revolution!" A little window pops up and it tells you that you achieved something. These are accomplishments that range from easy to impossible things and based on the difficulty you receive a certain number of points. Falling to your death could be 5 points while beating every single level of a game might be 20 points. They give you a sense of purpose during boring points in the game or maybe it requires you to do a little more than the minimum amount of work to achieve something. Either way, they're fun!
So, I thought: what if life was like that?! What if it had achievements?! Something more than just your average goals...though I don't know how much pleasure I would take in completing life in 12 seconds or purposefully playing through life on the hard difficulty, I'm sure there are people! I actually did dislocate my knee while playing a dancing game... I would take an achievement for that...and I better get a lot more than 5 points if I fall to my death!
So, today I started setting some goals/achievements for my life; some call 'em a bucket list, some just call them goals...either way they're achievements! The list is not comprehensive, just stuff I thought of while I was driving today. So, without further ado, here is my list.
Write and record a full album of songs with me doing all instruments and singing…even if no one hears it or likes it! -10points
Sky-dive over Hawaii -10 points
Build a house with my own hands that I can one day leave to those I love -15points
Be a gladiator in Rome for a day (They totally still do it!) -5points
Go to Jerusalem and pray in the garden of Gethsemane -5points
Serve another mission -20points
Study the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi -5points
Get one of my novels published -5points
Donate an organ to someone who really needs it (I’m working on being more charitable and I thought this might help me put a little heart into it) -20 points minus 5 points for the bad pun
Learn to play the violin- 5 points
Run a 5 minute mile in a marathon -5points
Stop a crime from happening -10points
Have a career where I’ll be sad when I retire -30points
Get my pilots license, fly to Vegas for lunch and fly back before I have to be at work…all in one day -10points
Adopt a child from a foreign country -25points
Tour Europe and speak without a translator in each country I visit -20points
Be a good enough teacher that the kids remember me and what I’ve taught -25points
Do a stand-up comedy routine for people I’ve never met and actually make them laugh -5points
Write, direct, film and star in an indie film and submit it to film festivals -10points
Have my wife and kids never doubt that I love them and would die for them -50points
Visit all 7 continents -30points
Go vegetarian for a month -5points
Dress up as a bum, go around asking people if they have a dollar and if they say they don’t then I will give them a dollar -5points
Visit all of the 7 new wonders of the world -5points
Be the cool uncle -30points
Learn Italian or French…probably Italian, I don’t like escargot -10points
Teach my daughters how to fix cars and teach my sons to cook -10points
Help people who break down on the side of the road -5points
Be a seminary teacher -5points
Overcome my fear of giving blood -75points
Donate blood (voluntarily, haha!) at least 3 times every year -a bajillion points
Eat a pickle without hurling… if I throw up it will be called a puke-le… -10 points plus 5 bonus points for thinking up the word puke-le
Visit all 50 states -5 points
Go Heli-snowboarding -10points
Learn and become a master at one of the martial arts -10points
Go back to Bolivia and find the people I taught but didn’t baptize and succeed this time -30points
Break one of the Guiness World Records -15points
Go to the moon on Virgin Galactic Airlines (IT EXISTS!) -30points
Hide in a Wal-Mart and sleep overnight -15points plus 15 if I don’t get caught
Start a snowball fight with complete strangers -5points
Say once in my life: “You can’t fire me! I quit!” -5 points but subtract 5 points for being dumb enough to get fired
Dig to China… -1492points
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