Lessons from the Journey: “It Feels Good to Check Things Off a List”

From my own 193-country journey to the stories of many other people who were kindly willing to share, The Happiness of Pursuit attempts to extract and convey the lessons of modern-day quests. This series explores some of these lessons.

Lesson: We are motivated by progress and achievement. It feels good to check things off.

Lists are both fun and motivational. We enjoy breaking things down step-by-step and incrementally conquering big challenges.

In 1994, 16-year-old Kristen Goldberg made her fir...