Hopefully you’ve got a good Living To Do List going now, full of adventures, dreams, and desires that you hope to accomplish within your lifetime. I truly hope that for as many professional or “success” oriented items you have list, you have at least double that many things to simply do for fun! I don’t know how many people I’ve talked to who include learning a dozen languages, earning millions of dollars, and obtaining so many different degrees without being able to explain why they want to do these things.

On that note, I’d like for you to take a look at your Living To Do List sometime soon and pare it down.

Yes, you read that right—I want you to take your list to the chop shop! I don’t mean for you to cut off all the things you dream of doing, of course; I simply think that taking it out every once in a while and examining it thoroughly, going over it item by item and making sure that you really want to do these things is a great practice to do. Not only can you add things you really want to do, remember things that you could do soon, and make plans to do them—you can get rid of old items that no longer interest you.

I recently did this with my own list. I took out things like become fluent in ASL, obtain my Master’s degree, and spend a week in Katmandu. I wanted to learn ASL when I was going to become a teacher, but now that my dreams have changed I no longer think it’s something that will serve me. (That said, if the opportunity presents itself, I’ll still be happy to take it.)

The same goes with obtaining my Master’s degree. I have several credits, but I had to stop attending school when I was laid off and could no longer afford it. Plus, I’ve been so used to attending school full time, working full time, and being a parent and volunteer and so many other things that my world was so off-center I constantly felt like I was walking sideways! A little balance will serve me much better than another degree. On top of that, what am I going to do with it? I thought about teaching at the college level before, but I’m not so sure that I want to do that anymore, either. Would it be a waste of money to spend on that degree if all I want to do now is raise my child as humanely as possible, live sustainably as possible, and write and create art to my heart’s content? I think so. But at the same time, should the opportunity arise for me to finish my degree without creating overwhelm, I just might take it.

And why a week in Katmandu? I don’t even remember why I wrote that down! I really want to see a lot of America these days, and my biggest aspiration abroad is to see the Neuschwanstein Castle, which I fell in love with during history class in the tenth grade. No more random “week in such-and-such places” unless I really want to go!

How about you? What can you cut from your list to make it more doable, more you?