It's Korea: The Bucket List

Just now, I read this article titled, "Why Having Goals Can Destroy Your Life." The gist of the article involves forming the right and wrong goals for yourself and can best be summarized through this one paragraph:

If the goal you pick is one that will not allow you to feel inspired, driven, excited, and invigorated in every present moment between right now and the achievement of your goal, then you have picked the wrong goal.

And that really got me thinking. Right before graduation, I made a list for myself of things I wanted to accomplish before I turned 25. That was back in December of 2009. I just looked at the list now, eight months later - and it's ridiculous. Now, not ALL of them are ridiculous; the majority of them are still true and realistic, but a lot of them are really goals that people wanted me to accomplish. I've never known what it means to be selfish - this list makes that more than apparent. Just for kicks, here's the original list.

Go skydiving (I'm perfectly fine having not skydived. No thanks.)
Take a cooking class
Write a novel (maybe not so realistic)
Visit another continent (check!)
Pay my bills with money I've earned (check!)
Run a 5K
Weigh 150 lbs
Buy Julia Child's cookbook (check!)
Donate money to a charity
Go to Washington DC
Read every book I own
Take a road trip by myself (perhaps to Washington DC?)
Buy my own car (probably more out of necessity rather than ambition)
Get a dog (Um, what was I thinking? I am SO not a dog person)
Volunteer at a soup kitchen
Wear a miniskirt in public (I think this was more of a "be confident and happy with your body" type situation)
Learn how to be happy with myself
Write a letter to a magazine
Buy myself a beautiful pair of boots (Will this really enrich my life? I think not.)
Take a writing class
Take a dancing class (I've technically already done this, but didn't finish it)
Go to Seattle
Start a blog (check!)
Watch all the Star Wars (Say what?! Since when have I SINCERELY wanted to watch these?)
Go hiking/camping (more hiking than camping)
Learn how to make Pâté de Canard en Croúte (this was really not something I wanted to learn how to make)

Okay, so they're not THAT bad. But I do need to edit this list and perhaps make the deadline 30, rather than 25. I think I also want to make a list of places I want to go. I think travel ambitions are much more fun! That list will be LONG. We'll see.
I'll keep you posted on my updated life's list!

January 26, 2011
Instead of a life's list, I decided to be much more practical and make a list for me to finish while I'm here in Korea. Clever, eh? It's much less stressful. So here it is: