Amazing Race 7

One of the few shows on television I will watch on a regular basis is Amazing Race. Tonight was the start of the 7th edition. It is definitely a guilty pleasure. I really enjoy seeing different places around the world, observing the human reaction to pressure situations, and seeing people extend themselves past what they initially might have thought as impossible.

This show is a road rally on steroids, but instead of one evening of excitement in your home town, this trip takes eleven teams of two around the world, puts them in challenging situations, and forces the team to manage their money, complete physical challenges, and work together to be first at the end of the segment, and more importantly at the end of the entire race. The team that survives and finishes first wins a million dollars. The last team to arrive at the destination for eight of the legs is eliminated from the race. There are usually a few non-elimination legs of the race, but the last team loses all their money and gets no money to start the next leg. This race has interesting teams. After a couple of weeks you develop favorites and hope the other teams are eliminated. It is a fun show to watch as a family.

The host of the show is adventurer Phil Keoghan. I am reading his book No Opportunity Wasted. This book outlines a philosophic approach to life which mirrors my approach. Live your life to the fullest by setting life goals, and then working toward accomplishing these goals. Phil adopted this approach after a near-death experience, and hopes you can adopt the approach without getting so close. Developing your "List for Life" is a contract and forces you to list things you want to accomplish before you die. Phil's approach is different from mine because he developed eight categories and challenges you to add at least one goal for each category. This is definitely an interesting book, with inspirational stories and much food for thought.

I will blog my complete list one of these days. Many of my family and friends know I want to experience several natural disaster events first hand (earthquake, hurricane, volcanic eruption, tornado). Another one is to visit all 50 states in the United States and all thirteen Canadian provinces/territories. Another one is to see a shuttle takeoff and landing.

While developing a set of goals is important, the key most people forget is the list is dynamic. I believe the key is to continuously add goals to the list, even at a faster rate than you are accomplishing them. You can erase things no longer important to you. One of the mistakes I made several years ago is letting my list nearly evaporate and quite frankly, I was not working toward my goals. Without defined goals you lose focus and drop off the path. I can tell you from personal experience, you will accomplish much more in life when you have goals to attain. I believe this was another thing I learned in Kindergarten.