My Checklist for Life

I am a big fan of checklists. I love to add something to a list and then check it off later when it is done. It gives me a great sense of accomplishment and makes me believe I can accomplish even more than I thought, since I usually add a lot to my lists.

The other day at the grocery store when I was checking items off my list—technically I was deleting them from my notes app, but as the list got smaller, I felt lighter. Anyway, for some reason, I thought about developing a checklist for life.

What would happen if I would make a checklist of everything that I am…

  • Catholic
  • Wife
  • Mother
  • Daughter
  • Sister
  • Friend
  • Niece
  • Neighbor
  • Worker
  • Over-doer

…and then make a checklist of who I wanted to be?

Would they match?

I gave it a try when I got home, and it turned out that they did, indeed, generally match, but not perfectly.

The most important thing in my life is my Catholic faith, but lately, I have not been spending much time in prayer.

My sisters are two of the most important people in the world to me, and I had not talked to them in ages.

I had not called my mom in ages, either—the woman I love dearly, who gave birth to me, and has put up with me and my tantrums for all these years.

The two things at the bottom of my list—worker and over-doer—had somehow taken over the top spots in my life. How had that happened?

This small exercise gave me a huge wakeup call.

I made a promise to myself to become the person I want to be. I know I will lapse again into being someone I do not want to be. But at least now I will have a checklist to remind me of who I want to become.

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