No, this isn’t a new meme…although you are more than welcome to start one of your own from it if you want to.

Earlier this week, author Dave Freeman died after a fall at his home.  He was just 47 — far too young to die.  Though you may not immediately recognize the name, you’ll surely recognize the title of his book:  100 Things to Do Before You Die.  It was one of those “bucket list”-type endeavors, which suggested things no one should leave this earth without experiencing first-hand.  Sadly, Freeman himself only got halfway through his own list.

Maybe he was happy with that.  Maybe he didn’t need to hit all 100.  Some of us are happy with completing a short list.  Others are the “over-achievers” who aren’t really satisfied until they hit 200.  At least.

I’ve never tried to come up with a list of things, because I think I’m more of the under-achiever type where something like that is concerned.  My list would be pretty short, but I’d be okay with that.  Then again, there’s the hypochondriac in me who would become convinced that as soon as I finished the last thing on my list, I’d be hit by lightning — or a bus — and be done.  Game over.  It’d be enough to make me actually fear the last few things left undone on such a list.

Living with fear sucks sometimes.

But I think that beyond that, I’ve never wanted a checklist of things to do before I “check out,” because I don’t like the reminder of how short life is.

Sometimes it takes us a long time to just stop and look back over our own shoulder and really see what we have and haven’t accomplished.  And it’s never all that fun when you realize that of the accomplishments you have genuinely made, none stand out in the grand scheme of things.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that:  sometimes it’s that one little dependable cog in the machine that keeps the whole operation going.

But I wonder lately how one knows for sure when it’s time to try to become more than just another cog.  Not for credit or recognition by any means.  But for just fulfilling your life in ways you never before realized you might, or in doing things you never realized you had a need to do.

Forgive me, my friends, if I sound a little cryptic; I don’t mean to be…I guess I’m just thinking out loud this morning.

What’s your measuring stick for making changes in your life?  How do you know, when one of those proverbial “new doors” opens up, that it’s really one you need to walk through?