Goddard List

What is a Goddard List?  Some people call it a “Life List” or a “Bucket List.”  In a nutshell, a Goddard List is a list of things I want to accomplish before my life is over.  Simple enough, right?  But why a “Goddard” List?  Good question.

Several years ago I was reading an article about John Goddard.  Here’s what I remember about the article:

At the age of 15, John Goddard learned a valuable lesson.  He had been listening to his father and his father’s friends complain about regrets they had over not doing certain things in their lives.  The realization that most people grow up and grow old without ever doing what they want with their life was powerful for the young Goddard.  So powerful, in fact, that it spurred him to craft a list of all of the things he wanted to accomplish in life.

The list Goddard crafted consisted of 127 things that he wanted to accomplish.  Theses were not small, easily achievable tasks.  Goodard’s list contained grand adventures that most people would never accomplish.  Some of the items on the list included exploring the Nile, Amazon, and Yangtze Rivers; studying primitive cultures in the Congo, Brazil, and Australia; climbing Mt. Everest, Mt. Ranier, and Mt. Vesuvius; and accomplishing such things as dive in a submarine, play the flute and violin, and milk a poisonous snake.

Today (August 30, 2010) at the age of 85, Goddard has achieved 110 of the 127 goals he originally included on his list.  Of the remaining 17 goals, he has made progress on some, while it seems inevitable that he will fall short on others.  Even so, Goddard is known as the world’s greatest goal achiever.

In honor of John Goddard and the encouragement I received from his example, I set out to create my own “Goddard List.”  As I accomplished things on the list I originally crafted, I simply deleted them.  That’s unfortunate because I no longer have a record of what was on the original list.  However, several year ago I wised up and just started crossing through goals as I accomplished them.

With that background out of the way, here is my Goddard List as it currently stands:

1. Earn a living from my own business
2. Visit every country in the Caribbean — Not necessarily every single island, but every country.
3. Catch a Grand Slam — Grand Slam is a fishing term I learned several years ago.  It includes catching at least one each of a smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, walleye, northen pike, musky, snook, tarpon, bonefish, trout and redfish.  Just to make it a little more interesting, all of the fish must be caught within a 12 month period.  Also, the smallmouth bass must be caught north of the Mason-Dixon Line, while the largemouth bass must be caught south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
4. Whitewater raft through the Grand Canyon
5. Go on a fly-in fishing trip to Canada
6. Visit Denali National Park in Alaska
7. Go sea kayaking in the U.S. Virgin Islands
8. Go on a photo safari in Africa
9. Canoe/Kayak the length of the Mississippi River
10.  Canoe/Kayak the length of the St. Johns River in Florida
11.  Circumnavigate Wisconsin by bicycle or on foot
12.  Own a ”getaway” home
13.  Take an extended RV trip with my family (traveled with family in an RV from 12/2007 to 2/2008)
14.  Race in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring
15.  Win an auto race
16.  Win an auto racing championship (won the South Atlantic Road Racing Championship in 1993)
17.  Learn to play piano
18.  Learn to play guitar
19.  Learn to speak Spanish
20.  Go kayaking in the Florida Everglades
21.  Own a baseball team (We own a small piece of the Rockford Foresters)
22.  Attend the annual Midnight Sun Game in Alaska
23.  Attend a World Series Game
24.  Visit every MLB stadium
25.  Become a proficient fly fisherman
26.  Become a proficient race car driver
27.  Retrace a portion of the Lewis & Clark trail by bicycle and boat
28.  Canoe/Kayak the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota
29.  Visit Romania
30.  Go fishing for giant blue marlin in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
31.  Publish a novel
32.  Kayak with whales in the Gulf of California
33.  Run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain
34.  Go on a photo adventure in Cuba
35.  Visit a working dude/cattle ranch
36.  Attend a Chicago Cubs Fantasy Baseball Camp
37.  Visit Hawaii
38.  Fish in the Dry Tortugas
39.  Drive from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Key West, Florida in less than 96 hours, 23 minutes, 22 seconds (record set in 1999 by a Saab 93 – previous record of 99 hours set by a Ford Expedition)
40.  Drive from Ledges, ME to Imperial Beach, CA in record time (current record unknown)
41.  Drive from Prudhoe Bay, AK to Imperial Beach, CA in record time (current record unknown)
42.  Drive from Prudhoe Bay, AK to Ledges, ME in record time (current record unknown)
43.  Drive from Key West, Florida to Imperial Beach, California in record time (current record unknown)
44.  Drive from Ledges, ME to Key West, FL in record time (current record unknown)
45.  Adopt a child
46.  Learn how to sail
47.  Sail from Florida to the Bahamas
48.  Go sailing in the Caribbean
49.  Donate $1,000 to a charity
50.  Donate $10,000 to a charity
51.  Donate $100,000 to a charity
52.  Donate $1 million to a charity
53.  Learn to SCUBA dive
54.  Go SCUBA diving at John Pennekamp State Park in Florida
55.  Search/Dive for buried/sunken treasure
56.  Build my own lake
57.  Visit Ireland with singer/songwriter Johnsmith
58.  Take an extended vacation to Italy
59.  Hike the Appalachian Trail
60.  Read the 100 best novels of the 20th century (according to Modern Library)
    1.  ULYSSES by James Joyce
    2.  THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitgerald
    3.  A POTRAIT OF AN ARTISTS AS YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
    4.  LOLITA by Vladamir Nabokov
    5.  BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
    6.  THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
    7.  CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
    8.  DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
    9.  SONS AND LOVERS by D. H. Lawrence
    10.  THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
    11.  UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowery
    12.  THE WAY OF FLESH by Samuel Butler
    13.  1984 by George Orwell
    14.  I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
    15.  TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Wolffe
    16.  AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
    17.  THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
    18.  SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
    19.  INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
    20.  NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
    21.  HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
    22.  APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O’Hara
    23.  U.S.A.(trilogy) by John Dos Passos
    24.  WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
    25.  A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
    26.  THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
    27.  THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
    28.  TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
    29.  THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
    30.  THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
    31.  ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
    32.  THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
    33.  SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
    34.  A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
    35.  AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
    36.  ALL THE KING’S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
    37.  THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
    38.  HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
    39.  GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
    40.  THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
    41.  LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
    42.  DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
    43.  A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
    44.  POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
    45.  THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
    46.  THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
    47.  NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
    48.  THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
    49.  WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
    50.  TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
    51.  THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
    52.  PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
    53.  PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
    54.  LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
    55.  ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
    56.  THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
    57.  PARADE’S END by Ford Madox Ford
    58.  THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
    59.  ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
    60.  THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
    61.  DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
    62.  FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
    63.  THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
    64.  THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
    65.  A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
    66.  OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
    67.  HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
    68.  MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
    69.  THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
    70.  THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
    71.  A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
    72.  A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
    73.  THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
    74.  A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
    75.  SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
    76.  THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
    77.  FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
    78.  KIM by Rudyard Kipling
    79.  A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
    80.  BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
    81.  THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
    82.  ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
    83.  A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
    84.  THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
    85.  LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
    86.  RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
    87.  THE OLD WIVES’ TALE by Arnold Bennett
    88.  THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
    89.  LOVING by Henry Green
    90.  MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
    91.  TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
    92.  IRONWEED by William Kennedy
    93.  THE MAGUS by John Fowles
    94.  WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
    95.  UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
    96.  SOPHIE’S CHOICE by William Styron
    97.  THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
    98.  THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
    99.  THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
    100.   THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington
61. Create the United States Curling Tour
62. Hike The Tennessee section of the Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail
63. Compete in the Senior Olympics