I guess I should write a little bit about why I have set myself such a large challenge. 

The challenge being to do 1001 new things in 1001 days. 

This is something I first thought of a year ago.  I had just heard about the book ‘I Dare Me’ by Lu Ann Cahn.  In the book she goes over her year of trying new things.  She challenged herself to do something new every day for a year. 

I love having new experiences.  Some of my happiest moments have been doing something surprising and new.  I went to Cuernavaca several years ago and the two best moments were learning to make tortillas and dancing with the Chinelo Dancers (If you don’t know what Chinelos are, look them up, they are strange and wonderful).  Anyway, I feel most alive when I am experiencing something new, or creating something. 

The problem is that I am also an extreme procrastinator.  I do things in burst with long stretches where I don’t get anything done but thinking.  This is likely due to dysthymia (chronic depression) that makes planning, initiating and completing goal-directed activities difficult.  So this means I will make a large goal and don’t even get it started. 

So while I am only 27 days into this challenge, I am also amazed that I got 27 days in.  And it doesn’t matter that some of my ‘new things’ are incredibly silly or inconsequential.  As long as it is new, it counts.  This takes a load off, while still making it a challenge. 

This does not mean that I won’t be doing some more substantial things; I am going to Italy later this year and California, and possibly North Carolina as well.  All those places will offer many opportunities for grand new adventures.  But I also know that we live in uncertain times in addition to my mood being unpredictable.  So there will be a lot of really simple seemingly mundane new things.

And even if these new things are mundane, the very fact that they are new make them special.  Like today’s ‘Mix’ app.  The app was hyped up like some new way to explore the internet, but really its just a curated mix of animal videos, swimsuit models, and travel pics.  Not really Earth shattering.  But I suppose I would not have known that had I not tried it. 

So why am I doing this?  I don’t really have something specific in mind that I want out of this.  I just had an idea and I am seeing how far I can follow it.  Maybe I will have some grand revelation along the way, or even a couple little epiphanies.  We’ll see.