Have you spent much time thinking about what you want to do with your life? Or are you too busy doing your life to think much about it?

The first time most people start thinking about what they’ll do with their lives is towards the end of high school years, when decisions need to be made about long term future activities, like uni or career paths.

I reckon 17 is way too young to have to make a decision that will affect the course of one’s life. I would like to suggest instead that people at 17 be given the chance to make a Life List, and then encouraged to seek out and do all the stuff on that list.

I imagine this young-age Life List would be full of all sorts of wonderful, adventurous ideas, that would be scoffed at as impossible by an older, more world-weary lister.

The more cautious amongst us would recommend that we keep the list achievable, so as not to be open to disappointment should you not achieve, for example, item number 4 of abseiling from the top of a 43 floor hotel building.

When you do make your Life List, do it with the enthusiasm of that 17 year old you once were, when the whole world was at your feet. At 17 you were immortal and invincible. At 47 things may have changed somewhat, you may not feel quite so immortal. Each year goes by without a Life List increases the importance of having one. What ever age you come to your Life List, create it with a sense of excitement and invincibility.

Put some over the top ideas on your Life List, just to get the blood running, and charge up your excitement button. Having a Life List with some outrageous ideas will stir your imagination and cause you to operate at a higher level more often, perhaps even help to push you out of that Life Lethargy.

A Life List with only basic, obviously achievable items will be of little use to you. Of course you can read all of Charles Dickens, that’s not too hard at all. While it might be entertaining, do you think it would really get you pumped and excited just thinking about it?

While a Life List is meant to have a good portion of those long term achievable things, like reading all of Dickens, it also needs to have the really out there items, those things where you say – I can’t see how this is going to happen. Add it to the list anyway.

One of mine is to feed sharks from inside a cage. I can’t see how this can happen. I don’t know anyone who is doing this. But it’s on my list and I will make this happen one day. The important thing is that I have put it out there, and written it down and remind myself of it regularly, so my radar is open to seeing anything to do with sharks. I reckon it’s a great idea and someone will come up with it for me one day.

It’s like when you buy a different model car to your old one. You may never have noticed that sort of car on the road before, but once you buy one, you notice them everywhere.

The same with the items on your Life List. Keep the list in the fore front of your attention, look over it every few days, and you will notice that opportunities to check those things off your Life List will just pop out at you.

And in case you were wondering, I did abseil off the top of a 43 floor hotel building. I thought it was a dumb idea when I first wrote it down years and years ago, shortly after I finished high school in 1981. But the idea made me laugh, and also had a huge dose of excitement about it. Actually the idea scared me silly.

The opportunity came up as a charity event, for Sydney City Mission in 2001, fully 20 years later. It scared me stupid, and I still did it. It was so fabulous to get my feet back on the ground after that abseil, I nearly made like the Pope and kissed the pavement. I kissed my abseil guide instead.

And then I went home and checked off one more thing from my Life List. What a buzz.

To get you started, here is a great website that is offering some free help to get your Life List up and running. Enjoy!

www.superviva.com