Today I was reading one of my new favorite blogs, Modern Mrs. Darcy. On my pursuit to finally become a reader, I usually quickly skim through what great books she’s reading right now for ideas of what to add to my local library queue, but today I was stopped dead in my tracks by her list of 100 dreams. After reading through a selection from her list, I was compelled to write my own. Really I don’t think I’ve ever written a blog post so quickly in my life.
It was surprisingly easier than I had thought, but also very emotionally challenging. I don’t know why exactly, but I was brought to tears many times while composing this list. Maybe it was because it brought to the forefront the things that really matter in life, and it was a good exercise of reflecting on how I’m currently spending my time.
Reading over my unedited, off-the-cuff list again, it perfectly illustrates my heart’s desires and gives a great picture of my personality, love languages, and values. If you can’t tell, I’m one that values and desires deep relationships, family, solitude, God’s creation/nature, travel/global picture, service, and hospitality. I was very much surprised by how my dreams revealed things about my heart that I had put aside and forgotten for a season. I imagine if I were to write another list in ten years, my dreams would be even more different than what they are right now. It’s funny how time, experiences, maturity, and season of life change a person.
I encourage you all to make your own list of 100 dreams. I’d love to hear from you a few of yours.
My List of 100 Dreams
- Go on a six month RV road trip with my family traveling the US.
- Visit South America.
- Visit Europe.
- Visit Asia.
- Visit Africa.
- Visit Australia.
- Visit Canada.
- Travel for a year with my family over seas.
- Stay in a bungalow over crystal clear water.
- Scuba dive
- Take a helicopter ride in Hawaii
- Visit Israel and surrounding areas.
- Keep bees in my backyard.
- Care for chickens in my backyard.
- Grow grapes.
- Plant more fruit trees.
- Preserve enough food in the summer to supply half of our food for the winter months.
- Learn to can.
- Plant a community garden at my church for people that we serve in our food pantry.
- Read 1-2 books a month.
- Write a published book
- Write a published cookbook.
- Take a family vacation yearly.
- Take a girl’s trip yearly.
- Host a neighborhood party yearly.
- Foster children.
- Adopt a child through the foster system.
- Perform in a community theatre production.
- Complete a triathalon.
- Hike part of the Pacific Crest Trail
- Start a business that helps strengthen impoverished communities either in the US or abroad.
- Public speak professionally
- Take a photography class
- Learn to speak a foreign language fluently
- Learn to play the piano.
- See my kids come to know Christ and live reckless lives for him.
- Grow a garden from all seeds that I saved the year before.
- Start a monthly community meal to feed the homeless and hungry.
- Create recipe cards and meal ideas using staples in our food pantry for our monthly ministry.
- Teach local cooking classes.
- Have my kids serve along side my husband and me in difficult situations
- Learn to sew without a pattern.
- Learn to crochet without a pattern.
- Learn to knit.
- Take an herbalist class.
- Eat at a new farm to table restaurant in my city once a month for a year.
- Support my family financially through my online business.
- Make a living from my writing.
- Take a painting class.
- Disciple and pour into a single young lady.
- Have a mentor disciple and pour into me.
- Have a regular dinner club with friends.
- Host missionaries on furlow or pastors’ families on sabbatical in my home as a place of rest.
- Visit with a widow weekly and “adopt” her into our family.
- Make an appearance on a tv news station.
- Swim with dolphins
- Visit every park in my city. (There are a LOT of them.)
- Participate in Operation Christmas Child gift giving.
- Use my current business to really make a difference in the world
- Keep fresh cut flowers on my table
- Have a vacation lake home to host big family vacations.
- Live by the beach.
- Record a cd.
- Regular special “dates” with my children.
- Give away a house to someone in need.
- Stay up late or get up early to witness a meteor shower.
- Take a cooking class.
- Participate in a private blogger retreat.
- Take one photo a day for a year.
- Help my children develop their God given talents to see how they can impact their world.
- Foster an environment where my children always want to come home and invite others.
- Cultivate a relationship with my children, in which they always feel comfortable talking to me about anything. Nothing off limits.
- Read aloud with my children and grandkids until the day I die.
- Become part of a church that love each other deeply and makes a real difference in their community and globally.
- Say no to more of the things that I only feel obligated to do, to make more time for the things that actually matter.
- Take regular family walks.
- Take regular bike rides.
- Dance regularly.
- Spend less time talking online and more time living real life.
- Get published in a magazine.
- See those that I love come to know the Lord.
- See old broken family relationships healed.
- Go on regular dates and vacations with my husband.
- Own a great pair of jeans. (Why is that so hard for a short curvy girl?)
- See the Nutcracker with my daughter.
- Become familiar with classical music.
- Become familiar with classic art.
- Own fewer items but more of what I truly love.
- Have regular days where I am just alone.
- Keep a regular journal.
- Take a hot air balloon ride.
- Live in a home with a wrap around porch.
- Create a home where people love to visit.
- Regularly get together with my closest friends.
- Find a circle of close families and regularly do life with them.
- Own 5-10 acres of land.
- Have a gorgeous homey kitchen that begs to be cooked in.
- Create a beautiful outdoor space (fire pit, patio, swing, eating area, etc). It doesn’t have to be spendy, just lovely.
- Re-educate myself on history that I never paid attention to in school.
- Spend time with my SIL and BIL in Kenya.

<3 This is a really beautiful and very *real* list. <3
I hope that you are able to accomplish so many things on this list. You deserve them. You are such a beautiful woman with goals you work so diligently to achieve. Thanks for sharing your list with us…and putting them out there 'on paper' for you to always have and refer to!
Thanks so much Jess! I hope I get to see them come into reality too. I’d love to see yours if you ever decide to write them and share. It was a neat activity.
The obvious really keep in good health.
Like to travel more
Maybe marry later in life in a church mean a lot to me or some other venue.
I love this post-I know it sounds cheesy, but once I started keeping a dream journal is when things in my life started to change and come together…finally!
I had been feeling lost and “stuck” for such a long time (most of my 20’s). An expensive degree/student loans loomed over my head, which quickly led to me becoming too afraid to pursue my true passions. Instead, I felt I needed to become “realistic”, aka, get a full-time job and work as much as possible- whether the job had anything to do with my degree/passions or not. I just wanted to work and make as much as possible so I could get things paid off. This led to me becoming out of touch with what I really wanted.
After feeling lost long enough, I finally found a great lifecoach/former therapist. During our first meeting, she suggested to me that I start keeping a dream journal for my life. She recommended coming up with 100 dreams (idea she read about from Laura Vanderkam). At first, I had a hard time coming up with dreams; I was writing down goals. Once I remembered that a dream is limitless and was able to open my mind, the pen started flowing. Within a couple of weeks, I could already see different themes and patterns popping up that I had written down. I would say within 3 months of starting my journal, I started to pursue the career I always really wanted. I am still very much in the building phase of my business. Some months are slow and I’ve had to cut back. The thing is, I don’t care. I am happier now than I ever have been. It feels so nice to not feel lost anymore. I always recommend a dream journal now whenever I talk with a friend who seems stuck like I was.
Whether it’s a daily to do list or a dream journal, there is something to writing things down. To me, it really feels like you are putting it out there to the universe.
Have you vised Africa yet I would love to host and meet you and your family.
I think I am going to write my own list on this.. I seems like alot of things I want to do in my life. but im not sure if i will be able to.
Thank you for giving me ideas for my own list!
Thank you for helping me out for working on my own list!
Thank you for starting my creativeness…warm regarss Lynn
Your dreams are so awesome.
A bucket list! Wow… Life… Uncertainty can’t help but ask myself how much I let the fear take the wheels and steer