I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about the state of my life, and how I’m going to become the person I want to be. That’s one of the reason I created my list of 101 goals, to help me achieve that. I’m 397 days into it, and although the list has been a huge motivator I have also realized that some of the goals I originally set down either don’t fit with me anymore or don’t fit in to the next couple of years. They had actually been hanging over my head until I had the epiphany that this is MY list, and I can change it if I want to. It’s not there to make me feel guilty.

After these 1001 days are up, I’m going to work on my life list, and I’ll probably take on smaller challenges in the future too. In the meantime, here are the changes I’m making to my current list.

#18. Learn how to style my hair –> Transition to all-natural personal care products. Honestly, I’m not that into hair. I’m so awkward when I try to blow-dry using a round brush that it actually angers me. I decided I don’t care if I never know how to fix my hair in any special way; it’ll look nice enough straightened and left down. But staying in the category of beauty, I am very interested in transitioning to organic products whenever possible.

#22. Make a habit of paying extra principle on the mortgage each month –> Refinance the house. Paying extra principle on our mortgage was an idea we got from David’s uncle, and is probably a good idea if we were positive we’d be staying in our house until we pay it off. Since we can’t be sure of that, it’s not really the best idea. Instead we need to refinance to get a lower interest rate, which will really help out with our cash flow.

#42. Learn conversational Spanish –> Take another class from Leisure Learning Unlimited. Learning Spanish is definitely a life list thing. It’s important to me, but I don’t know how long it’ll take. Instead I just want to take another random class (hiking? photography? cooking?), and who knows what’ll turn out to be my next favorite hobby.

#54. Drive down the California coast –> Take a vacation with only my husband for at least a week. The California coast trip will be going on my life list. It’s just too expensive to try and pull off during this time of our lives when we’re still starting out.

#60. Get the house painted –> Paint the entire front half of the house. Our house basically has a front half and a back half, and when we bought it the entire thing needed to be repainted: trim, doors, ceilings, everything. Since we’re doing it ourselves, it’s quite a chore and going very slowly. If I can finish the front half for now, I’ll be happy.

#63. Plant flowers in the backyard –> Plant something. Our backyard is a constant source of shame for me, as our dogs have really messed it up. I try to keep it tidy, but for the foreseeable future my focus is going to be on the inside of the house, and not the outside. Once I get the inside fixed up and can focus some attention on learning how to garden (and deal with the dogs) I’ll plant some flowers or vegetables. Right now I’d like to start slow, maybe an indoor herb garden.

#67. Build a pretty and well-organized home office –> Set up a fully-functional and decorated dining room. The office project sounds fun, and will need to be done eventually, but what I really need first is a place to have people over for meals. Our tiny breakfast table isn’t cutting it.

#101. Beat Mario Galaxy on Wii –> Expand my vocabulary by 100 words. When we got a new Wii I lost all the progress I had made on this video game, and I was pretty far. I don’t have it in me to start from scratch, though I will play occasionally because it’s fun. But when it comes down to it, I won’t ever care all that much if I beat the game or not. Learning new words, on the other hand, is fun AND something to be proud of.

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I’m really happy about my updated list. It’s more reflective of my life right now, much more achievable, and I’m looking forward to completing every single item!