Kendel Christensen’s Life List

Personal Mission Statement (Guiding Values):

I endeavor to be expansively serviceable to my fellow men. I seek information and experiences which will provide me and allow me to provide to others 1) An informed and diversified perspective, 2) Worthwhile skills, and 3) Examples of superior success in the face of justifiable reasons to expect averageness. My life mission further includes the devotion to ebullient learning, personal development, and teaching to the end of inspiring lasting change in other’s minds and hearts especially in regards to their worldview, personal relationships, and expectations of self. In short, I seek to be a “great benefit to my fellow beings” (Mosiah 8:18) and live my life such that it will be said of me that, “he left a path worthy of emulation.”

Reminder: “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important

as what you become by achieving your goals.” -Goethe

My life goals, in no particular order:

Accomplishments:

1. Become an Eagle Scout

-Done (2002)

2. Type 50 wpm with 100% accuracy

3. Teach a college course

   1. Substituted for a college class 3 times...

4. Become a published author

-Done 4 times. (Link to author page)

5. Publish an article in a nationally-renowned magazine.

6. Write at least 5 books

   1. Started 2 in Fall 2010

7. Run a half-marathon for a good cause

8. Do 100 pushups in a row

9. Do 20 pullups in a row

10. Have my own website

-Done (2007). www.Kendelc.com

11. Have over 1 million hits on my website

-7883 hits to date

12. Hike a mountain that is over 10,000 feet in elevation

-Done (Mount Timpanogos = 11749 feet), Sinai ~7500 ft.

13. Assemble a comprehensive family tree

14. Solve the Rubik’s Cube

-Done (January 28, 2005)

15. Make a transcendent change in the world*

16. Be interviewed for a TV program

17. Be a guest writer/newscaster

18. Invent something

19. Create something that did not exist before, every year

20. Be in a play

21. Write a play

22. Write an app

23. Have over 1000 followers on my blog

24. Do a stand-up comedy routine

25. Have dinner with one of my heroes

-Done, (LGR, WD, ALW) more will follow.

Knowledge

26. A) Learn 3 Languages, B) Be Conversational in 5. C) Know basic greetings/phrases in 10.

    1. 2/3 done. (English, Spanish)

    2. Know ASL alphabet,

27. Be familiar with the great works of Shakespeare, Plato, Aristotle, Dickens, Thoreau, Twain, Tolstoy, Wordsworth, Kierkegaard, Kant, Mill, Marcus Aurelius, Francis Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Pascal, Thomas Paine, Emerson, Jung, Nietzsche, Rand, William James, Locke, Popper, the Dalai Lama, Chopra, C.S. Lewis, Weber, Levinas, Baudrillard, Bourdieu, Durkheim, Foucault, Mead, Stephen R. Covey, Dale Carnegie, Cervantes, Aesop, Homer, Montesquieu, Pascal, Bronte, Austen, John Donne, Emily Dickinson, Dostoyevsky, Maupassant, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Tennyson, Gerard Manly Hopkins, Borges, Orwell, Tolkien, Yeats,

28. Read about the lives of: Einstein, Marco Polo, Helen Keller, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Augustus Caesar, Nicola Tesla, Winston Churchill, Raoul Wallenburg, Ghandi, William Wilberforce, Socrates, Albert Schweitzer, George Washington, Viktor Frankl, Alexis de Tocqueville, Mark Twain, Martin Luther King, Robert Baden-Powell

29. Become a certified computer technician

-Done (June 2004)

30. Gain a basic understanding into the following topics: economics, European history, United States history, geography, philosophy, sociology, psychology, business, human development, anatomy, political theory, world religions, ethics, statistics, Latin American history, teaching, pedagogy,

31. Gain expert status in interpersonal communication and relationships*

32. Organize, Review, Remember, and share what I learn*

33. Become financially literate

34. Become an intelligent, critical consumer of media

35. Earn a Bachelor’s Degree

-Done, B.S. in Sociology, August 2010. All tuition paid via scholarship.

36. Earn multiple advanced degrees

-Begun. Attending University of Pennsylvania 2011-2013 M.S. Ed. program

37. Earn an honorary degree

38. Learn formal debate

39. Learn formal logic

-Begun. Studying for the LSAT since February, 2011

40. Be able to appreciate great works of music and art

41. Read 1000 worthwhile books and be able to recall the main ideas from each

-Over 100 and counting. Track my progress on Goodreads.com

42. Read at least one self-help or relationship-building book per year. (On track)

43. Stay up-to-date on new technologies

-Thusfar done. Current method: subscribed to the RSS newsfeed of www.cnet.com

Character

44. Be someone worth remembering.*

45. Be a lifelong advocate for at least 3 causes

    1. “One day, all children will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.”

    2. Promote a healthy family culture

    3. ________________________________

46. Start a nonprofit for a cause of my own

47. Learn how to take criticism and not take offense*

-Ongoing. Current way that helps me the most: realize that I am imperfect and need to continually learn from others—why not now? After thoroughly examining the suggestion, I can always choose to conclude that they are wrong and ignore it, thus, criticism does not intimidate me.

48. Learn how to take a compliment*

49. Be and be known as someone who is honest, efficacious, informed, and genuine*

50. Stand up for what I believe in

51. Be approachable, able to put others naturally at ease*

52. Be a man whose opinion is sought more than it is dreaded*

53. Never choose power, glory, or money over principle.*

54. Keep in touch with friends*

Spiritual:

55. Read the major holy books of the world: Bible (Christianity), Qur’an (Islam), Bhagavad Gita (Hinduism), Dhamapada (Buddism), Tao Te Ching (Taoism), Confucius’ Analects.

56. Know myself—including a healthy, objective perception of my weaknesses*

57. Live deliberately/Develop mindfulness*

58. Develop self-mastery, especially the abilities to delay gratification and subordinate the flesh*

59. Be able to look at people and see them as God does

60. Find balance between expecting the most out of people and just loving them*

61. Serve a mission for my faith

-Done. (2004-2006 in Argentina)

62. Know every person in my religion’s Holy Books (Known for more than just ‘begat’ing)

63. Never be a blind follower, but rather someone who lives out of personal conviction*

64. Be a person who does not need to be told all things, but rather sets my own standards based on principles.*

65. Be perceptive to other’s feelings. Always look at things from the other’s perspective.*

66. Be a self-corrector: continually evaluate performance and repent as necessary. Take responsibility and never live in self-deception.*

67. Be forever teachable*

68. Be continually grateful, and experience joy in life’s small pleasures*

69. Seek and hold to Truth above all else.*

70. Never lose hope in the goodness of humanity*

71. Never be a worrier. Be accepting of the things I cannot change; Have the courage to change the things I can; And have the wisdom to know the difference*

72. Learn to be content with little

73. Learn to be forgiving and patient with myself*

Personal Development:

74. Use exemplary grammar and understand the reasons behind the rules.

75. Seek a mentor

76. Be a mentor

-Ongoing. Current count (to my knowledge): 4 people.

77. Keep a clean, organized personal space and household

78. Learn to handstand

79. Learn Photography

80. Be a toastmasters prizewinner

81. Learn 10 magic tricks

82. Learn a dance that will allow me to twirl, then catch, my wife.

83. Learn a new sport

84. Learn to photoshop

85. Learn to play 5 hymns and one popular song on the piano

86. Take voice lessons

Experiences:

87. Ride in a hot air balloon

88. Scubadive

89. Go gliding

90. Experience weightlessness

91. Go on a safari (but don’t shoot anything)

92. See a Broadway play

    1. Done. 2004 and 2010. Will do again.

93. Attend an Olympic event

-Done. February 2002.

Travel:

94. England (Stonehenge, Winsor Castle, see a play)

95. France (Eiffel Tower, Versailles, the Louvre)

96. Redwood Forest

97. Egypt

-Done. May 14- 2010. Saw the Great Pyramids at Giza, the Sphinx, the Step Pyramids at Saqqara, the Colossus, Karnack, the Valley of the Kings, the Cairo Museum (including the King Tutankhamen exhibit), the Mosque of Mohammad Ali, and hiked Mount Sinai.

98. The Holy Land (Israel/Palestine)

-Done. Saw every major site. Lived there April 28-August 12, 2010. Will return with my family.

99. Italy (Coliseum, Vatican City)

100. Petra

-Done. July 27, 2010. Saw the Treasury, the Monastery, the urn tombs, walked through Hadrien Gate, the theatre, and the slot canyons.

101. Greece (Parthenon/Acropolis)

102. Smithsonian Museum

-Done. Will go again.

103. Museum of Fine Arts (Boston)

104. Disneyland and Disneyworld

105. Scandinavia

-Done, May 2011

106. Washington, DC

-Done four times and counting.

107. Visit 6 continents

-Current count: 5 (All except Australia)

108. Visit over 50 countries.

-Current count: 11 (Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Paraguay, Sweden, United States)

Career:

109. Get in to a top law school

110. Give a major speech at a major university

111. Leave a lasting, valuable contribution in my field*

112. Run for public office

113. Start my own business

114. Do something for my career that

     1. Uses my God-given talents and related to my core characteristics

     2. Is intellectually stimulating: I will be continually learning things that are both fulfilling (help me see the world more clearly) and relevant (things that can be applied to better others' worlds).

     3. Has an impact on people's lives—their happiness, relationships, and way of being. Heavy emphasis on “minds & hearts” over physical/temporal things. I also desire the widest sphere of influence possible.

     4. Doesn’t have to yield a lot of money, but enough to support a family, and some extra for projects/causes.

     5. Has freedom: Rigid enough to give me a pattern/structure to work within, but flexible enough to let me mold things in a direction that I when I get ideas. Ideally, can allow me to be fully independent once I know what I want to do and have an idea of the steps to take to get there.

     6. Engenders future job mobility. I’m not learning something that is so specific that I’ll be locked into that type of job—or run the risk of becoming obsolete. I want something that is as generally applicable and transferrable as possible.

115. Become financially independent by age 40

116. Earn $10,000 through online sales

-$3,228 to date

117. Earn passive/residual income

118. Design a t-shirt

Family:

119. Fall in love with someone who inspires me. Marry them, and be forever faithful.

120. Have my wife know and really feel that she is the most important thing in my life*

121. Have a large family (wife agreeing, 8 kids)

122. “Be there” for each of my kids*

123. Have a relationship with each of my children such that they trust me and come to me with their concerns*

124. Have a loving, safe home environment where our family is completely open to share our feelings*

125. Have an in-house library

126. Create traditions that will survive into the 5^th generation and beyond

Random/Keep Myself from Taking Life Too Seriously:

127. Go to a public place in the middle of the day in my pajamas

128. Be the first one to raise my hand when a dignitary asks if there are any questions

-Done. February 28, 2011 (SC)

Misc

129. Learn a new word every day, for a year.

130. Help found or be President of a club.

131. Go without watching television for 200 days straight (save conference)

*To be judged candidly by my wife and immediate family after my death.

Looking into:

Alhambra, 7 Wonders, Taj Mahal, Juggle, drawing, handwriting, becoming an early riser, learn Esperanto (international language), CPR, Switzerland, Spain-Capostela, Venice, Leaning Tower of Pisa, florence, Develop good posture to be my natural position

Inspiration:

"I urge you to examine your life. Determine where you are and what you need to do to be the kind of person you want to be. Create inspiring, noble, and righteous goals that fire your imagination and create excitement in your heart. And then keep your eye on them. Work consistently towards achieving them."

(Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Life's Lessons Learned," Ensign, May 2007, 45-47)

"As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death."

-Leonardo da Vinci

http://www.raptitude.com/2009/09/how-to-make-a-life-list-youll-actually-do-a-comprehensive-guide/

http://www.squidoo.com/100things#module140042361

http://superviva.com/inspiration.php