167But isn’t a life as important as a picnic?
Start by listing all the things you would like to do
before you die. Keep the list somewhere handy, where
you can look at it and add to it.
Then list the people in your life you want to remain
close to and stay in touch with. Friendship is so pre-
cious, why let it be forgotten? It sounds silly to make a
list of your friends, but you’ll be surprised at how it re-
minds you who’s important and motivates you to stay in
touch.
My friend Terry Hill, the writer, is one of the great-
est list-makers of all time. He has a list of every book
he has ever read, every poem he’s read, and many more
things I don’t even know about. It gives his life a sense
of history, depth, and direction.
We don’t have to wait to become famous so that some-
one else might write our history. We can be writing our
history while it happens.
And when we list our goals, we’re writing our his-
torybefore it happens. When legendary advertising ex-
ecutive David Ogilvy started his advertising agency, by
making a list of the clients that he most wanted—Gen-
eral Foods, Lever Brothers, Bristol Myers, Campbell
Soup Company, and Shell Oil. At the time, they were
the biggest advertising accounts in the world, and he
had none of them. But in a sense he did have them, be-
cause they were in his list.
“It took time,” said Ogilvy, “but in due course I got
them all.”
A goal gains power when you write it down, and more
powerevery time you write it down.
What motivates you most in life ought to be in your
own handwriting. People all too often look for motiva-
tion in what others have written. If you become a good
Make a list of your life