When he was a young man, a BYU professor named Stacy T. Taniguchi made a list of 100 things that he wanted to accomplish in life.  He has accomplished all 100.  He says that without such a list you stagnate, don’t realize your potentials, and miss opportunities because you don’t know where you’re going.  We’re to make our lists over time and with forethought.  He says that “you can’t take anything off your list, but you can always add.”  (BYU Magazine, Winter 2019, pg. 36).

I wish I had done that.  Do I still have time?  What would I put on my future list, and what could I check off the list if I had made it 50 years ago?  I’ve set and accomplished lots of goals in those 50 years.

Checked-off Items:

1. Marry my best friend.
2. Never have a fight or argument with her.
3. Find God and be baptized in His true Church
4. Raise a righteous, happy posterity.
5. Serve diligently wherever called.
6. Have a successful ranch with the finest herd of cows.
7. Graduate from college.
8. Serve a full-time mission.
9. Become a temple ordinance worker.
10. Do the temple work for all of my direct-line ancestors and their children.
11. Be debt free.
12. Complete a 50-year index of general conference.
13. Learn a foreign language.
14. Write a book to my posterity telling what I’ve learned in life.  (In A Grove of Aspens).
15. Keep a lifelong journal.
16. Get over the fright of public speaking.
17. Read the Book of Mormon once for each year of my age.
18. Become an effective teacher.
19. Build a house.
20. Compile all the stories from 50 years of general conference into one place.  (6 volumes).
21. Put our family history stories together into a book.  (A Noble Heritage).
22. Write other books for posterity’s benefit.  (four, and one underway).
23. Do temple work for all descendants of my second great grandparents.
24. Learn woodworking.  Be a cabinetmaker.
25. Become accomplished on the lathe.
26. Be a life-long learner.
27. Become an able public speaker.
28. Visit every lake in the Elkhorn branch of the Blue Mountains.
29. Hike the 25-mile Elkhorn Crest Trail in one day.
30. Stand on top of Eagle Cap.  (No desire to climb anything higher).
31. Be a help and friend to my parents and prolong their lives.  Gave daily care and companionship to Dad for 12 years.
32. Serve my country.  A 4-year stint in the U.S. Navy.
33. Read the Bible cover to cover.  (Old Testament 2 times, New Testament 14 times).
34. Become a writer who can express himself well.
35. Sing a solo before a large group.
36. Finance our Vanuatu boys’ educations (Patterson Lui and Greg Tivles).
37. Become the best friend of the person who hates me most.  (Audrae).
38. Teach each of my children how to drive.
39. Devise improved parenting techniques that my children will emulate.
40. Get my contractor’s license.
41. Run a successful woodworking business.
42. Be a seminary graduate.  (Received my certificate after teaching for 4 years).

My yet-to-do list:

1. Put in place a valid will to eliminate all possibility of family squabbles.
2. Compose a hymn worthy of being published in the new hymn book.
3. Do the temple work for all descendants of all of my 3rd great grandparents down to 1910.
4. Complete a piece of woodwork for each grandchild.
5. Visit Church history sites in Missouri and Nauvoo.
6. Stand on top of each peak I can see from my living room window.  (Too late at age 72?)
7. Wishes:  To be a patriarch and temple sealer so that I could bless and seal my grandchildren.

Any regrets about things undone?

The only possibility would be that I didn’t get a higher college degree.  It was unnecessary, and my life took the course it should, so I’m satisfied.