The Flux List

For the past year or so, I’ve been collecting and recording moments and accomplishments that I’d like to experience or achieve at some point throughout my life. I’ve been developing the Flux List. You could call it a bucket list, but I like to think of it as a living, breathing record of what I want to do throughout my life. As I grow and learn and assess my priorities, some things may be added.  Some may be removed. The Flux List represents my personal zeitgeist. It represents what I want to do in life and what is important to me. Some will be easier to achieve, some will not. Some will be crossed off the list years and years in the future. Some might be crossed off next week.

I plan to use it as a tool to encourage me to work towards my dreams, but also as a tool to remember how much I have been able to accomplish. Unlike goals, the items on my Flux List do not have timelines. This page will be used to track my progress.

Life

  • Complete a half marathon in under 2:00
  • Run a marathon
  • Live in another country (Moved to Germany in April 2017)
  • Become fluent Achieve C2 level in a language other than English
  • Attend a taping of SNL
  • Spend the night in a yurt
  • Break the habit of biting my nails
  • Get a tattoo (August 2019)
  • Purchase a DSLR (November 2012)
  • Host a dinner party
  • Tour the White House

Career

Money

  • Pay off my student loans by the time I turn 30 (4 months after my 30th, I DID IT!)
  • Save $15,000 in an emergency fund
  • Donate $1,000 to an important cause
  • Donate $10,000 to an important cause
  • Fund a student’s college education (someone NOT related to me)
  • Max out my yearly IRA contribution
  • Max out my yearly 401k contribution
  • Earn six figures in a year (My base salary was 104k at DD US)
  • Earn steady passive income
  • Win a large amount of money (MyMoneyAppUp Challenge – $10,000 won in September 2012)

Travel

  • Go on a cross-country trip via Amtrak
  • Stand in 4 states at once
  • Fly on an airplane in business class (April 2018)
  • Travel to every state in the U.S.
    • Current count: 32 visited as of November 2016)
  • Travel to all countries in the European Union
    • Current: 10 of 28 – Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain, UK
  • Visit 6/7 continents (I have ABSOLUTELY no desire to go to Antartica)
    • 2 – NA, Europe
  • Travel to India and visit the Taj Mahal
  • Visit Machu Pichu
  • Explore Rome to its fullest (August 2019 – maybe not to the fullest, but we were there for 5 nights)
  • Visit the pyramids at Giza
  • Check out the sweet churches in Moscow
  • Travel to the Ukraine (aka 1/4 of my homeland)
  • Travel to Napa Valley and drink a lot of wine (July 2016)
  • Travel to Japan
  • Travel to a tropical island
  • Visit Chicago
  • Visit the Grand Canyon
  • Visit Mt. Rushmore (September 2015)
  • Check out Christ the Redeemer in Rio
  • Visit Stonehenge and the English countryside
  • Visit ancient ruins in Greece (June 2019)
  • View the Pamplona casket in Pamplona, Spain (I once wrote a 15-page paper on it – hello, art history major!)
  • Visit Norway (December 2017)
  • Fill up my passport before it expires
  • Travel to another country without planning
  • Ride a high-speed train in Japan and/or China
  • Walk on the Great Wall of China
  • Swim in the world’s largest swimming pool (San Alfonso del Mar in Algarrobo, Chile)
  • Walk on a glacier in Alaska

States Visited Map



Retired Items

These are some of the items that used to be on my flux list, but I have retired for various reasons.

  • Travel solo (or with someone else) around the world or across a significant part of a continent in one trip
  • Join a UX/Design/Technology networking group
  • Get a mentor to help guide me through my career
  • Own a business where I employ someone else
  • Be a mentor for someone else
  • Participate in a startup weekend
  • Attend the Olympic games
  • Watch all movies in the AFI Top 100
  • Drink coffee while watching the sun rise (preferably from a balcony overlooking an exotic location)
  • Meet Leonardo DiCaprio
  • Live to experience the US’s tricentennial
  • Take an improv or comedy class
  • Take part in an Improv Everywhere stunt
  • Run a successful blog
  • Achieve 100 subscribers to this blog
  • Achieve 1,000 subscribers to this blog
  • Acheive 10,000 subscribers to this blog
  • Sell a photograph
  • Learn to program and subsequently build an iPhone app
  • Contribute to a Kickstarter campaign
  • Earn money from selling upcycled furniture
  • Make $2K per month on the side
  • Invest in something
  • Identify the best $1, $5, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $5,000 I’ve ever spent
  • Earn money from selling art
  • Book a RTW trip using airline miles
  • Journal every day for 1 month
  • Read at least 1 book a month for 12 months

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