Some motivated people like to create a list of all the things they want to do before they die. Oftentimes these lists contain things like skydiving, climbing Mt. Everest, or eating 15 cherry pies in one sitting. While I applaud those who can make such a list and get those things done I just don't see that sort of thing working for me. My list would change too often as my life circumstances changed. Or, a lot of the things I want to do are completely out of my control. For example, I want to watch a tree get struck by lightning at some time in my life. How am I going to make that happen?

Thinking about such lists lead me to consider a different kind of list that I find more interesting. It is a list of things to do before I live. The list contains those things that I feel I have to get taken care of before I can move on to the more important and enjoyable parts of life. Of course it's true that doing those items on the list is in fact "living" but the point of this exercise is to see the attitude. Some people, myself included, are always living for the future. Their minds aren't on the present, it's thinking about what they will be able to do when they are finally done with the current task.

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