Let’s Ride: Continuing to Live on Purpose
Life List IV: 55 Things in 555 Days
Over the next 555 days, I WILL complete the following 55 items. It started on March 15, 2015, and will expire June 13, 2018.
** items that I STILL haven’t accomplished from previous life lists. #fail
+ tasks that have marked off a previous list but I want to experience again
BUILDING BLOCKS
There is something inspiring about making or building something with your hands/mind/talents.
1. Write a song
#markitoff: On my way back from Red River Songwriting Festival in New Mexico, I put pen to paper and wrote the “My Rose.” (I have NO idea what to do with it now.)
2. Help my dad finish his “pond”
3. Write 20 blog posts (2/20)
Most recent: “Road Leads to Magical Place”
4. Re-write my speaking presentation, “Live on Purpose”
5. Set 5- and 10-year goals
TRYING TO LOOK GOOD NAKED
This category has always spoken for itself – it revolves around getting my butt in shape.
6. Run two 1/2 marathons (with two different family members or friends – 0/2)+
7. Complete adventure race+
8. Take a martial arts class**
This has been on my Life List for more than 2,600 days (that’s almost FIVE YEARS)! #tragic
SIMPLY LIVING
A few simple pleasures that I want to experience over the next 555 days
9. Eat at Perini Ranch in Buffalo Gap, Texas
10. Get a subscription to Live Happy Magazine
#markitoff: Thanks to my friends at Live Happy for the complimentary subscription. Listen to the conversation with the managing editor on the Defining Audacity Radio Show.
DEFINING AN ADVENTURE (includes travel)
Blog excerpt: “When you aren’t 100 percent sure what’s coming around the next corner, whether that’s on the side of a mountain or walking down a strange street, you are in the midst of an adventure.”
11. Go on a vacation without kids (with my wife)+
This is on every life list that I make. (Over the years, we’ve been to Seaside, Florida…on a cruise…Ruidoso, New Mexico…the Grand Canyon…)
12. Go to Big Bend**
13. Float the Frio River
14. Stand on top of Enchanted Rock
15. Go on another “Sibling Trip” to NOLA 
Me, my sisters and all of our spouses left the kiddos with the grandparents and we tried to burn down New Orleans.
16. Summit another Fourteener+
DEFINING AUDACITY
These things are associated with my radio show, which is designed to inspire people to live on purpose.
17. Be Festival II & III
The inaugural event was Nov. 11-13, 2016. We laid a solid foundation for an amazing event for years to come. #liveonpurpose
18. Interview Dolly Parton for the Defining Audacity Radio Show
Podcasts from Defining Audacity Radio Show (click here)
19. Do 10 paid speaking engagements (10/10)
20. Increase syndication – add show to 10 stations (4/10)
21. Produce pilot episode of Defining Audacity TV Show
22. Help five of my guests mark something off their life list (5/5)
WAY OUTSIDE MY COMFORT ZONE
Things that absolutely scare the hell out of me.
23. Get a tattoo**
#markitoff: June 21, 2017 – in conjunction with the Triangle Kindness Project.
24. Go deer hunting **
25. Buy a “cowboy hat”
#markitoff: Christmas 2016 (not really a cowboy hat…think Outlaw Josey Wales meets Drew Kennedy)
26. Get my concealed handgun license
Radical honesty: I am NOT a gun guy
MUSIC TO MY EARS
Things associated with my love of Texas Country Music in some shape form or fashion.
27. Go to Steamboat Music Fest
28. Attend songwriting music festival
#markitoff: Red River Songwriters Festival 2017
29. Host a house concert
I recently found out that this was a thing and I have fallen in love with the concept
30. Attend Texas Red Dirt Road Radio Show
31. Go to show at the Greenwood Saloon in Bluff Dale, Texas
ALL KIDDING ASIDE
Tasks I want to accomplish with my kids. Crash will be 8 years old when this list expires – Ily will be almost 5.
32. Take Crash to Palo Duro Canyon
Mark it Off: March of 2018. We took a quick Spring Break trip to the Texas Panhandle.
33. Take Crash to a TCU football game
Mark it Off: TCU vs. Stanford in the 2017 Alamo Bowl.
34. Run a 5K with my kids
35. Go on a family camping trip
Just my wife, my kiddos and Cpt. Woodrow Call (when we normally go camping, we usually go with the 49th Armored Division)
HAVING A BALL
These are sports-related things I want to do or experience in the next 555 days
36. Visit Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco
#markitoff: March 31, 2017 (spent a Saturday afternoon in Waco with Crash)
37. Go to Cooperstown when Pudge Rodriguez is inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame
#markitoff: July 30, 2017
38. Attend a 6-man football game
#markitoff: September 15, 2017 (Walnut Springs, Texas)
39. Attend a Midwestern State football game (with N. Eatman)**
40. Go to a Rangers game in another ballpark
41. Go to a Cowboys game at AT&T Stadium
#markitoff: December 26, 2017 – Cowboys vs. Lions; thanks to my buddy Gabe for helping me mark this off my life list.
‘NEVER STOP LEARNING’
My grandfather encouraged me to a life-long learner. This category is designed to heed his advice and honor him.
42. Attend personal growth seminar
43. Finish Rosetta Stone (Spanish)**
44. Read 5 books, including Goodbye to a River (5/5)
– Anxious for Nothing by Max Lucado
– Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
– The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson
– Find Your Truth by Lou Redmond
45. Read the Bible: Book of John
Just the Book of John? Yept!
46. Take golf lessons (and play a round of golf at Squaw Valley Golf Course)
Since I sold my golf clubs in a garage sale…I guess I need to round up a couple irons and putter before I can mark this off.
CATEGORY ALL ITS OWN
This is a catch-all category for some really cool things that I want to experience over the next 555 days.
47. Win a contest**
48. Visit Fossil Rim Wildlife Center
#markitoff: May 21, 2017 – thanks to Dave Quinn, a #liveonpurpose advocate, for helping me mark this off my life list.
49. Watch Braveheart on the big screen**
50. Drink a beer with two former players from Blinn College**
51. Take a 3-month social media hiatus
52. Get my passport+
53. Visit both Bush Libraries in Texas (1/2)**
54. Volunteer for Special Olympics event+
#markitoff: May 6, 2017, in Stephenville, Texas
55. Actively participate in Random Act of Kindness Week+
The first time that marked this off….I said a short prayer: “Heavenly Father…I don’t mean to be an idiot, but I need you to open my heart and educate me about kindness. Show me how you want to use me this week.” Mission. Accomplished. (blog post)
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