I’ve recently made a couple of changes to my current Day Zero list. A Day Zero list is a list of 101 bucket-list like things you want to get done in the next 1,001 days. The idea is that by breaking a bucket list down into smaller chunks of time, you stand a better chance of doing some of them sooner. It’s nudged me to do some cool things in the past and is an enjoyable tradition among my friends.

The idea is that you pick things you want to do for the list and then spend the next 1,001 days trying to complete the challenge you’ve set yourself. You’re not meant to just move the goal posts part way through. That said, there were a couple of tasks on my list that I now feel pretty certain will be a waste of time to complete. Not a fun waste of time as some of the tasks are intended to be, just a waste of time. For example, while I liked my Daily Greatness Journal when I bought it, I’ve since established my own version of daily review in Evernote that is much more targeted to the sorts of things I want to review and improve. I’ve found this new process much more useful and so continuing the journal no longer makes sense. I’m still glad I bought it as it put me on the path to making journalling and reviewing my day a daily habit but I see no merit in continuing.

My Day Zero List is usually the topic of my more personal 24joy blog, so why has this crossed over here? I’m writing this here, mostly because the process of reviewing my currently active list raised a few questions for me. The main thing I’m curious to delve into here borders on to the more self-improvement and ethics space this blog approximately covers. I am wondering: how can individuals best balance changing their minds while avoiding analysis paralysis?

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Have you ever had days where you felt like this?

I do. All the time. This is a Facebook status of mine from a couple of years ago. The comment on it is from my uncle, saying that it still applies even if you replace “20s” with “30s”, “40s” and beyond. Surely some people out there do have the tutorial, there are some adults that know what’s going on…right?!

I often feel like I’m missing a handbook I should have on getting things right in life. I still can’t imagine having children because my view of my parents as a child was always that they knew everything and could do anything. A part of me is still waiting to wake up one day and finally just figure life out. Until that happens I’m not a real adult, I cannot be responsible for things; the real adults, the one’s who have done the tutorial, got the handbook, they will have to sort things out.

Unfortunately, there are no “real adults” coming to save us.

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