My 40 before 40 list.
Tomorrow, I will turn 35. That's not a bad number. It's divisible by both 7 and 5. It was Phil Niekro's number and "the Nigerian Nightmare," NFL running back Christian Okoye's number. All in all, a pretty respectable number.
But it also means I have only 5 years until I am 40. With that in mind, I came up with a "40 before 40" list of all the things I want to do before I hit that age. Here is what I came up with, in no particular order of importance:
My 40 before 40
1. Run a marathon
2. Raise a total of $500,000 for charity.
3. Have a song I've written recorded
4. Write and publish 5 books.
5. Help L.E. Acuff complete her 10 before 10 list (Which she already wrote on her own and includes jump roping 100 times in a row.)
6. Help McRae Acuff complete her 10 before 10 list.
7. Help Jenny Acuff complete her 40 before 40 list.
8. Take dance lessons with my wife. Preferably tango.
9. Sell 500,000 copies of books I have written.
10. Consistently weigh my ideal weight.
11. Visit the kindergartens Stuff Christians Like readers built in Vietnam.
12. Run a half marathon in less than 2 hours.
13. Speak on an international tour.
14. Go to that tomato-throwing event in Spain.
15. Co-write a book with my daughters.
16. Hike part of the Appalachian Trail.
17. Learn how to make sushi.
18. Raise pre-teen girls who are so full of their parent's love that they don't feel compelled to fill their heart with things that will hurt them.
19. Get a book I wrote on the New York Times Bestseller's List.
20. Teach my kids to play Disc Golf.
21. Spend fall weekends in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.
22. Take my family to Cinque Terra in Italy.
23. Go to a recording of Saturday Night Live.
24. Visit my uncle's orphanage in Kenya.
25. Spend two solid weeks at the beach with my family.
26. Take my kids on a zipline.
27. Own a dog.
28. Go to a World Cup game.
29. Spend New Year's Eve in New York.
30. Have a library in our house. (Possibly with a ladder upon which I sing by the time I'm 50.)
31. See U2 in concert again.
32. Do something savvy enough to be mentioned in Fast Company
33. Help 100 people build 100 amazing blogs.
34. Build another kindergarten, hospital or school in another country.
35. Spend an increasing amount of time with God and a decreasing amount of time with distractions.
36. Listen to more classical music.
37. Have a group of guys who love me enough to tell me when I'm being an idiot.
38. Take our kids on a cross-country road trip.
39. Go surfing.
40. Take my kids to the American Girl mother ship in Chicago.
It's not a perfect list and I'm sure some will change in the years to come.
But what is something on your list? If you had a 20 before 20 or a 25 before 25 or a 50 before 50, what would you put on it?
What's something you want to do?
