Be/Do/Have List for My LifetimeBusiness Planning Retreat Exercise

I've spent some serious hours working out goals, analyzing my personal values, and aligning those goals and values. I'm in Kona, Hawaii, to attend a Reinvention Business Planning Retreat with Master Certified Coach Joeann Fossland. I know in my heart of hearts my life will not be the same when I leave this island. My life changed dramatically after attending Joeann's retreat in Tucson in 2005.

One of the pre-retreat exercises involves making a Be/Do/Have List for My Lifetime.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition." - Steve Jobs.

Here are Joeann's instructions: Let go and be creative! Use all the paper you need and dream big! What have you given up on being able to have? Or what did you used to love doing that you haven't done lately? Include all areas of your life. Family, spiritual, financial, career, business, social, physical, learning, personal development, environments, pleasures, recreation, adventure ... everything that is most important to you.

1. Be at my ideal weight (have a way to go with this one ... about 65 pounds).
2. Finish the Irish novel that resides on brown-edge yellow typing paper in my closet.
3. Get a super duper telephone lens for my Nikon D70.
4. Spend a month in Lima and interview the Maryknoll Sisters and the Sisters of Notre Dame who have been working in the barrio for more than 30 years, and profile an in-depth profile about the lives of these Sisters.
5. Travel to Poland and meet some distant relatives.
6. Spend another Christmas in Ireland.
7. Spend another Christmas in Denmark.
8. Have a reunion in Italy with my friend Giulia Morandi whom I have not seen since 1974.
9. Take a family vacation in Hawaii with Jens and Andreas, my little guys.
10. Find myself permanently grounded at Zero.
11. Enjoy a BIG family reunion with the Flynn family.
12. Enjoy a BIG family reunion with the Maliszewskis.
13. Enjoy a BIG family reunion in Denmark with the Thorsens.
14. Devote 20% of my time to social advocacy.
15. Become a Certified Hospital Clown.
16. Take tennis lessons.
17. Swim competitively.
18. Buy a home in Tucson.
19. Buy a second home in Hawaii.
20. Visit Mexico.
21. Make an educated video camera purchase.
22. Publish a book of original poems and photographs.
23. Visit Greenland for a month.
24. Visit the Faeroe Islands.
25. Take Lily to Tivoli Gardens.
26. Take a spa vacation with my sisters.
27. Write a screenplay.
28. Learn to polka.
29. Return to the Andes.
30. Read a book a week.
31. Take two REAL vacations a year, starting this year.
32. Attend the 2nd Ho'oponopono training weekend with Dr. Len.
33. Learn to play some serious contract bridge.
34. Play Scrabble with my nephews and niece.
35. Put up a whole year supply of prickly pear cactus juice and jelly.
36. Have a kick-ass sourdough starter that is so alive I have to keep it under tight security.
37. Write a love song.
38. Visit the death camps.
39. Visit my high school friend Jeannie Wohlers Jeffs in St. Augustine and see her bridal shop.
40. Visit my Aunt Jeannie in Orlando.
41. Bring my oldest friend Ellen Gustafson to Tucson for a visit.
42. Visit Cuba.
43. Buy a new pair of red cowboy boots.
44. Set up a desktop computer with three monitors.
45. Say another rosary with my Dad.
46. Raise the balance of $100,000 for CARE.
47. Sleep in a tipi for a weekend.
48. Attend a Nana Mouskouri concert with Birte Jensen.
49. Spend a whole weekend with Uncle John poring over family history and photos.
50. Spend a weekend with my Flynn aunts.
51. Design an impactive foreclosure initiative.
52. The end of this lifetime adventure will be marked with a pre-planned Polka  Funeral Mass. I'll be be there to enjoy the festivities, just see!