The list
What is the list? It’s things I’d like to do in this lifetime.
Broken down into categories and difficulty levels (easy, medium and moonshots). I am aware that not all moonshots are possible in one lifetime. But if I am going to call it ‘the’ list, it had better have everything, no holds barred.
Body
Easy
Learn boxing basics- This is fun. I will still run like a little birdie if someone takes a swing at me.Take surfing classes and ride one wave- Who knew it wasn’t as scary as it looks. It gave me couple of bruises but it was worth it.Cold showers for a year - I only did hot showers for almost 29 years of my life. When I say hot, it is just one step from skin-peeling-off hot. Managed cold showers for 9 months in 2023. 2024 is when I clock 1 whole year?
Dance once a week for a year - Just need to wait for Delhi winters to go away so that I can step out.
Try scuba diving - It looked good in ZNMD. How different would it be when I do it? I am all up for some epiphany and a crying session.
Intermittent fasting 14-10 for a year - Ongoing.
Pranayama everyday for a year - Ongoing.
20 pushups every day for an year - Ongoing.
10K steps a day average for one year - Ongoing.
Medium
Learn to do 20 Bo-staff tricks - 3/20 so far. I don’t know how I actually look doing those tricks. But in my head, I look very cool. Using that as a motivation to keep at it.
Take archery classes and hit the bulls eye - I have a feeling this can be like meditation.
Take boxing classes and do a practice sparring round in the ring - Want to get around the fear of getting hit without actually getting hit.
Learn surfing to ride waves without an instructor - My surfing success is proportional to motivation and help from instructor. I want to be able to ride the wave by myself without the help from the instructor.
Intermittent fasting 6-1 (one day a week proper fast) for a year - My mom used to do this every Thursday. While she was being healthy, I was gobbling tasty food she made. Now it’s my turn.
Swim while taking proper breaths - I know half-assed swimming. If I am in the middle of an ocean, I would probably survive for 2 mins before drowning . If I can take proper breath without swallowing water, probably I can make that 3 minutes.
Headstand - Fits right in the basket of something that looks scary but looks fun.
Learn parkour and do 1 lap run - Got this bug from playing Assassins creed 10 years back.
Maintain 74 kg weight for 2 years - Ongoing.
Moonshots
Grow hair back that I lost from alopecia - The only thing in this list where I don’t have a clear way to tick this off. Not every todo is meant to be in my hands.
12% body fat - This is for the my 20 year old self who thought not having fit body was why he was single.
Reverse body age by 10 years - Isn’t this the new yacht everyone’s after?
Intermittent fasting 14-10 and 5-2 for 2 years - I don’t want to do the warrior diet. But this mix might be just right for me.
Mind
Easy
Take a yoga course - I tried few yoga sessions in Bali and my joints worked in sync for most of the time. Next up- a complete professional course to feel 40s in my 30s.
Take a meditation course - So far I found 3 forms of meditation intriguing: Naval’s recommendation of sitting at a place and to not think at all (I thought as less as a cat thinks looking at pewny humans). I tried trauma meditation class by Punnu swami (You exchange childhood trauma for a tiny scare of how intense meditation can be. Something I would recommend everyone to give a shot). Lastly my favorite so far, sleep meditation. I want to pick some form of meditation course and likely end up developing a love/hate relationship.
Read Stoic classics - One of the reasons I don’t like non-fiction/ self-help is that it feels too preachy and bland. Like breakfast oats. But I am enjoying Tao of Seneca so far. It’s like I get to eavesdrop on a healthy conversation. As compared to, well, forcefully eating oats. I would like to complete it. And then read it a few more times.
Live without mobile one day a week for a whole year - Like asking a dude in MacD to eat veggies. Let’s see if I can remind my mind and eyes how bright normal world is.
7+ hours sleep average for 1 year with proper circadian rhythm - This is my 30s mind trying to compensate for what I did in 20s - Red bulls, coffees, beers, burgers, sleeping at 4AM and getting up at 2PM. Ah, the sweet abuse I did.
Medium
Wear Sabarimala or some equivalent - A hard reset to realise that I can be happy with the minimal and almost everything is optional.
Live without any media one full month - I am curious to see what pulls me strongest to get back. Instagram? X?
x Surya namaskar a day for 1 year - I don’t even know what a proper surya namaskar is. I will get back once I know what I am getting myself into.
7+ hours sleep average for 2 years - Just to make sure these long term habits stick.
Moonshots
Qualify as yoga instructor - If I become good at it, why stop at learning.
Relationships
Easy
Speak with one friend a day for 2 years without fail- Strongly recommend. Love calling friends without knowing who will pickup that day.Speak with parents every day for 2 years- Strongly recommend. Love calling the 2 people who are happy to hear my day even in excruciatingly minute details and pace.See every close friend once a year- Back in the day it used to be that people are cities away. Now it’s countries away. But hey, why else are flights invented.Create an interview video of mom and dad - Hazy thoughts on what I want to do here. But 2024 is the year.
Medium
See every close friend twice a year - If I am going to be ambitious about things, this will be where I start. Everything else will suddenly seem far easier.
Build a home library - I like getting lost in bookshops. Want to create a similar corner in my home.
Buy an open-plot and build a house with dad - He loves it. I don’t hate it. I want to spend some quality time with him to get resistant to dad jokes.
Moonshots
Stay with close friends and family in a single society - Setting the right ball park for “moonshot”.
Play
Easy
Learn to do
3×3×3, 4×4×4, 5×5×5, 6×6×6, 7×7×7, 8×8×8 rubix cubes - Liked learning and flaunting 3×3×3. World gives enough external validation for solving a cube. I feel like it is a hidden secret that they don’t know how easy it is.Build a wardrobe of neutrals and solids- For 20 years of my life, everything in my middle class wardrobe is one to two sizes bigger. Uniqlo, Zara, 30s and some money changed my wardrobe.Learn to run RPG games with friends- Did 2 RPG sessions based on D&D. It was boring. Friends said they liked it but I know it wasn’t something they would return to. In the third iteration, I got it right. Mixed 3 books I read to create my own RPG version.Survive a trek- I went on an ambitious 10 day Himalayan-ish trek and came back the second day because of how the washrooms were. Came a long way from there and finished Triund trek in 2021 for a friend’s bachelors.Learn to cook a decent South Indian meal- Given how amazing my mom cooks, it’d be a shame to not pick this up. I’m glad I can manage to get the south flavours right. You would ask me to cook again.Read 20 books a year straight for 2 years- 20 a year was not as hard. 20 5/5 books? now that’s ambitious.Take a rollercoaster - Used to love them. Got scared of them in the last 5 years. Now I want to take it once so that I can get scared for another 5 years.
Learn improv - I don’t think I am as quick witted as I’d like. This one is a challenge to myself. If I do anything other than standing silently, I’d call it a win.
Learn to take good pictures with phone - What good is being in a photo obsessed generation with best cameras at our fingertips and not being able to use it?
Learn to make sushi at home - Sushi is fun yummy twist on rice. You do something with rice and it becomes a snack instead of a full meal? Count me in.
Medium
Learn Vim -strongly recommend for every coder. Typing in Vim has a hockey stick journey. But once I got decent at it, I felt like a ninja.Perform standup in open mic - I did one standup in my wedding. People laughed at my jokes. It’s not like they had an option not to. But performing in front of strangers? Even writing this todo is scary. But the reward from my wedding single is too fresh in my memory to not try this.
Learn to make music (some instrument) - I picked up Guitar thrice so far and never went back the second day. The fact that I suck at producing any sensible music and my weak fingers are the biggest hurdles. But I can imagine a great reward in being able to create music.
Get a new degree from a university - I loved the concept of education, colleges and teachers. Who came up with the rule that you can have it only once in life?
Learn football or cricket - Never loved any sport. My only role in sports was being an umpire. Or that player who is supposed to play for both teams and ends up playing for neither. Maybe learning a sport would be the trigger to care. I wouldn’t mind beating my chest and screaming for a team to win.
Learn to type fast in columnar keyboard - I spend so much of my life typing. Time to spice it up.
Learn to brew stout beer - Stout beer is the best beer. Hill I can die on.
Learn to bake bread - Concept of using yeast for cooking is pretty interesting.
Learn to give a massage - Is it as fun as getting one? Only one way to find out.
Perform improv in front of audience - and at least one person should laugh (hopefully not at me).
Take a proper Himalayan trek - and this time, finish it.
Learn to take kickass pictures with a great camera - I don’t want pictures that AI makes. I want exactly what my eyes see. I want the skill to capture just that level of beauty.
Solve 4xx-8xx rubix cubes in <4 minutes - Can I still remember algorithms by heart. or did I lose that skill along with inorganic chemistry.
Learn salsa and bachata dancing - Love dancing. But what fun is sticking to Bollywood.
Read 30 books a year straight for 2 years - I know it is a vanity metric. But it is so fun to have this one indulgence. 30 books a year. Imagine the worlds the mind would wander in.
Moonshots
Create own RPG game world - A world full of characters and storylines I made up? Is that sounding as exciting as I and my friend Neeraj think it is?
Create an escape room - I love well-made escape rooms. Creating one from blank canvas is a kind of architectural project I can get behind. I am already imagining myself donning bob-the-builder hat.
Create one song - that strikes a chord in me. And then hopefully few more humans.
Perform standup in open mic - where audience actually laugh (at the jokes)
Learn Chinese - Given that I almost failed in all language tests in primary school, this is perhaps the most ambitious todo. But given that it is the language used by largest populated continent, imagine the content pool it opens up!
Join a dance competition - My performances in dance competitions were disasters. The results made me cry like a little baby. It will be fun to enrol in some competition again.
Open a restaurant and run it for a year - My friend did it. He has mixed feelings about it but he learnt a lot from the experience. I want to burn my hands one day. Currently thinking if it would make sense to bring some Singapore delicacies to India.
Open a brewery - and brew different styles of stouts. I love stout. Need I say more?
Write and perform one music composition - in front of live audience (and they don’t throw tomatoes).
Have my own photo gallery exhibition - There was a time where I took a close portrait of a flower using a friend’s Canon. I stared at it as if I was Picasso for a few months. If I do end up getting good at capturing what my eyes see, would love to share it with the world in an intimate setup.
Sky diving - It is scary enough that I probably will return without actually jumping.
Have a Netflix solo - And who knows. Maybe few folks will hit that double thumbs up.
Wealth
Easy
Have 1M$ in money - It has just enough zeroes in it. Don’t you think?
Medium
Clear off all debts by 2025 - Been borrowing like Joey from Chandler from my college days. Goal is to reverse the roles.
Have 5M$ in money - Gotta buy my gadgets.
Moonshots
Have 100M$ in wealth - Enough zeroes for it to be a moonshot. More than this is just meh.
Travel
Easy
Live in another country- Strongly recommend. Lived with my partner in Singapore post marriage. Learnt a lot about myself.Travel to US, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, UK, Thailand- Grateful that I got to do this early in my life.Attend a concert- Didn’t know I needed this until I attended one. Now I gots to listen to more music so that I can attend more concerts.
Medium
NY and watch a broadway show- Did it once. Strongly recommend. You have to watch it to know why it commands such huge ticket prices. Would love to do it again.Do a solo travel for a week - I am the kind of introverted extrovert who wants his space but also wants a friend nearby. That has been the case with all my travel so far. But travel by myself? Yolo?
Go on >1 day cruise - And hope I don’t get seasick.
Attend Octoberfest - I like beer and there is a whole festival around it? Count me in.
Have local croissants in Europe - My wife brought all things Europe into my life. Butter croissants were the initial hook. Now I want the original.
Vegas and play in a poker table - I play poker with friends. Once, I want to get a taste of the real deal.
Visit Northern lights - The pictures look beautiful. Want to experience it while we still can.
Attend a Coldplay concert - My wife and friends have been to this. I heard so much about the experience that I have real fear that I missed out.
Create
Easy
Upload one video on YT- I did it. It was not as hard as I thought. I hoped it would get at least 10 views from strangers. Got 300+ views and 30 likes! Eeeehaa.Get 10 subscribers on YT- My puppy face made close friends to subscribe. But the video and the social influence got me 47 subscribers!Publish 10 posts on personal blog- I get at least one message a month from friends about my posts. It is a huge boost to write more. Now onto maintaining the consistency.Open source a project that people don’t hate- I was scared to show my code to the world. Now I know that fear is unfounded. My first open source project is almost at 500 stars now!Get 1K subscribers/followers on YT/Twitter - This is hard. I have to consistent for this. But 1k has good rounding that I will feel like a mini celebrity. 850 on Twitter right now. Perhaps 2024 is the year to impress 150 more people.
Medium
Write 1 post a week for a whole year - Will I even have that much content to write?
Get 10K subscribers on YT/Twitter - A real creator. Strangers mention me in their conversations. Sounds cool in my head.
Write ‘Logic, Math and Code’ - A long form book I am excited about.
Write Adaface Story - Coming from a completely biased POV, it is a fun story worthy of publishing.
Write movie screenplay - I got up one day from a dream. I was 10. I hurriedly scribbled the story that I was dreaming. Later I realized, I just wrote a rehashed version of Mummy movie. But I felt good with my version. This is for that kid who has been dreaming and scribbling fun stories ever since.
Run a popup beer stall - I saw a fun popup beer van in Singapore. Would be fun to bring it to India.
Open source a project that gets 1K stars - Now that I know that my code can add value to world, why not add more code for LLMs to learn?
Moonshots
Get 100K subscribers on YT/Twitter - I mean like a real deal creator. Is this the number where strangers take a selfie with me?
Publish Adaface story or Logic, Math & Code or similar non-fiction book - Can I convince an editor that it is worth publishing?
Publish a fiction book - I read so much of fiction. Contributing to that art form is very exciting.
Publish a book that 100 people read - I mean publishing can be as simple as printing a book and forcing a bookstore to keep one copy for a day. 100 people buying it, now that’s a contribution that will make me dance.
Teach ‘Logic, Math and Code’ course in a college - I love teaching. Miss the times when I won teaching awards during school competitions, when I was a college tutor, and when I taught colleagues new frameworks. Would love to teach some young brains and hopefully make a dent in their journeys.
Write a movie that gets made - After few beers. On beach. With friends. Making a movie is the one idea we have been contemplating for 10 years now. This is for those 20 somethings.
Create a RPG universe and story lines - If I am going to spend time imagining stories, why not bind them together like Game of thrones.
Produce a movie - Movies is an art form I associate with. My way to give back if I can.
Direct a movie - One of those shower thoughts that I wish will come true.
Play a role in a movie - I suck at acting. Good that this is in the moonshots section.
Fame
Easy
Appear in newspapers- This is for my middle class parents. Now they save those newspaper clippings and force everyone who visits our home to see them. If you are coming to our home, you’ve been warned.
Medium
Get into some X under X or similar list - This is for my wife. When your partner asks you something with a cute voice, you better add it to your list.
Get some alumni award from IITB - I love my college. It produced many inspiring alumni. Being part of that esteemed list is a great way to aim to do something useful.
Dent
Easy
Startup and sell 1M worth of product
Medium
Big dent in the world - Mulling over what it is.
Sell some physical item that I made - Virtual products are easy for me. Don’t even know where to start with the physical world. And that makes this exciting.
Moonshot
Dent that stays a couple decades - Mulling over what it is.
End credits: I found the inspiration to create this list back in 2020 or something after going through Alex Crompton’s list. Took 3 years for me to declutter my notes and compile them into a neat list. Thanks for the inspiration, Alex!
Mid credits: This was meant to be for my eyes only but heck, it’s not as if I am popular.
Post credits: I am going to keep this list as something I will revisit often (Last updated: Dec 16 2023).
