Life List

Earnest Hemingway, San Fermin Festival

Do you have something that you always wanted to do in your lifetime? A dream burning inside of you just waiting to get out? What's stopping you? Time? Money? Age? Well, I'm here to tell you that none of those things matter. Accomplishing your dreams and goals is easier than you think.

One of my favorite Authors and most celebrated figures of our time, Earnest Hemingway led his life like one of his own novels. Hemingway ran with the bulls in Pamplona, won the Nobel Prize in Literature for Old Man and the Sea, served in two World Wars, hunted big game in Africa with Theodore Roosevelt and was apart of the 'Lost Generation' artistic movement in Paris.

Hemingway and the 'Lost Generation' in Paris

Hemingway lived his life like an adventure and became my inspiration for world travel and for running with the bulls which I did this past July.

Pamplona, Spain aftermath of the bull run

Another inspiration of mine is World-Famous Adventurer John Goddard, who at the age of 15 created a list of 127 goals he would like to accomplish in his lifetime. He titled this list his "Life List". He has since accomplished 108 of these goals which "included climbing the world's major mountains, exploring from source to mouth the longest rivers of the world, piloting the world's fastest aircraft, running a mile in five minutes and reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica."

You can read his entire Life List here.
Watch the video below to hear John discuss how he didn't want to live what he describes as a "Vanilla Existence" and as you can see John's existence has been everything but.

Here are some of the things John outlines in the video to accomplish our dreams and goals:

1. Put pen to paper: Without writing your goals down you will not be able to fully visualize your goals. Make sure to write it down and keep it somewhere visible like a whiteboard.

2. Deadlines count: Add a deadline and stick to it i.e. I must read 5 business books by January 27, 2010.

3. Visualize your goals: See yourself doing the goal you are trying to accomplish...if it's writing a book, visualize what the book will look like, how many pages it will have and where it will be sold, this gets you in the mindset of taking the steps necessary to accomplish your goals. If you think of even the most simple tasks you do on a daily basis you always visualize it first before doing it.

4. Believe it: You are no different than any other person who is successful at accomplishing their dreams. Just believe in yourself and go for it. It's far worse to have not tried than to have failed trying. Failure is learning and without failure there would be no improvement. Believe in yourself and you can do anything. Want that new promotion? Ask for it. Want to ask out the model/actress who works at the coffee shop? Ask her.

5. Do it: Break out of your comfort zone and just do it! Don't over plan! Nothing and no one is perfect! just take the first step and the rest will follow. When I took my trip to Spain to run with the bulls I did my research, made the appropriate phone calls and made it happen within 30 days. Had I not made the first move I would still be telling myself...one of these days. Remember, we all can live exciting and fruitful lives, you just have to do it!

"If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would truly astound ourselves."

-Thomas Edison.