I came across a concept today, “the Total Life List,” proposed by Bruce Rosenstein in his book Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life. In an interview with Vern Burckhart on Idea Connection, Rosenstein describes the concept:

at the end of each chapter … readers are guided to list current activities and future goals in a variety of work and non-work areas, and also to list the people involved in those areas, such as family, friends, colleagues, and associates.

The idea seems to be akin to a bucket list, except that listing and appraising current activities appears to be a way to live a more balanced life:

The Total Life List, which I mentioned earlier, is a great device … [for] deal[ing] with Drucker’s systematic abandonment question for many areas of your life: ‘If we did not do this already, would we, knowing what we now know, go into it?’

It occurred to me that a Total Life List is both a way to analyze one’s life story to date and construct a future story.

In his blog WritePlace, Web Moore shows know evidence of knowing about Rosenstein’s Total Life List concept (and it probably would have been impossible for him to know of the concept since Moore’s post was written in 2008, and Rosenstein’s book came out in 2009); yet, he offers a blog post with that name that equally seems to lend itself to analyzing the story to date and constructing the future story. Some sample items:

• Conquer the world!
• Visit all 50 U.S. states
• Participate in the Antarctica Marathon (safer than the Ice Marathon)
• Which may lead to a desire to become part of the Seven Continents Club
• Visit all 7 continents
• Advance oneself with integrity: never seek to advance at the misfortune of others
• Learn to read music and play the piano comfortably (getting closer…)
• Always remember that life is short; make the most of each day
• Travel to Everest Base Camp via either Tibet or Nepal
• Write a book
• Continue to learn, grow and push oneself forward; be bold
• Maintain creativity: inspire and be inspired
• Participate in a triathlon
• Visit the Great Pyramids, Great Wall of China, Denali, Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu in Peru, Petra in Jordan, Angkor in Cambodia, Acropolis of Athens in Greece, Old City of Jerusalem and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (and maybe swim in the Devil’s Pool).

Looking at Moore’s list of completed items in the same post reinforces that idea that he apparently leads an adventurously storied life. Too bad it appears he stopped blogging in 2010.

What do you want your story to have been in five years? 10 years? 25 years? At the end of your life? Start making a list.