Today we’d like to introduce you to Leo Lo.
Leo, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I don’t know why, but we somehow care about birthdays with 5’s and 0’s at the end more than the other ones. And funny thoughts tend to happen when you approach those milestone birthdays. When I got close to my 40th birthday, I made a to do list. A list of 45 things to accomplish before I turn 45 years old. It was my “bucket list with a deadline”. I call it my 45 Before 45 Project.
I’m such a terrible procrastinator. While I could get away with a lot things by just cramming before the deadline, a bucket list would be difficult to pull off. For one thing, I have no idea when the “deadline” will be. Therefore, the only way for me to really get going on accomplishing these life goals was to set an artificial deadline.
Coming up with a list was actually a lot harder than it sounds. It took me months actually. A lot of people make bucket list without much intention of actually accomplishing the goals. Because those things that you want are usually not that easy to get. They take effort, motivation, and determination. Just look at the number of people who make New Year’s resolution every year. Apparently, over 30% of all Americans make New Year’s resolutions every year, that’s more than the number of people who tune in to watch the Super Bowl. And 92% of them fail to achieve their goals. 92%! That’s quite a remarkable statistic, isn’t it? Anyway, I became very intrigued by setting these life goals for myself. Ultimately, this 45 Before 45 project was my way of trying to become a better version of myself.
I did quite a bit of research online to see what’s on other people’s life lists. It’s so interesting that most people want the same things. Even though the individual items are usually very personal, they all pretty much belong to the same 8-10 broad categories. You know, we all want to be healthy, or look good; we want to travel, see the world; we want to learn new things; we want to conquer fear; we want to be successful in our career; many of us want to do something artistic. I have some silly ones too. For example, many years ago, I bought a T-Shirt with a panda with a thought bubble thinking about another panda. And at the time I said to my friend, “wouldn’t it be cool wear this shirt AND to hold a real panda?” So I put that on my list. Last year, I went to China and volunteered at a Panda Research facility, and at the end of the day, I had about 30 seconds with a baby panda. So now, I have a photo of me wearing that shirt, holding a real baby panda. At the end of the day, we make these lists so that we won’t regret not doing them.
I turned 45 this year, and I have accomplished 33 of the goals so far. The most recent one being “Visit all 50 states”. Montana and Alaska were my two final states. It was amazing to see the Northern Lights in Alaska. I anticipate accomplishing another 8-9 by next year. So while I didn’t get them all done by the deadline, I am happy with what I’ve achieved. First of all, I definitely think that I have become a better person because of the project. Secondly, this experience has led me down a professional path of researching how people set and achieve goals, and live a “well” life. In fact, some of my research has been published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals. I am hoping that I could use it to have some positive influence on others’ lives.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. I supposed anything worth doing would be not easy. For example, before I began my project, I was completely out of shape. One of the goals was to get back to a healthy weight range. At the beginning, I thought oh I just had to eat less, and exercise more, and I would automatically lose weight. Sure, that mindset worked for short term results, but our will power is limited, and depriving myself of the pleasure of eating and pushing myself to exercise too hard was simply not sustainable. Originally, I wanted to accomplish this goal in 6 months, but it ended up taking the entire 5 years. But it ended up being a much a better way to achieve it, because it was caused by living a healthy lifestyle, instead of crash diets. So, the lesson here was that slow and steady does win the race if you know clearly what your end goal is. And practicing patience has really helped me make my life much more enjoyable.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
My vision is to live a fun, purposeful, and extraordinary life, and help inspire others to do the same. So, my “business’ is less a business than a desire to share my experience, and the lessons learned. I have a blog about my 45 Before 45 project. It was simply a place to keep track of my own progress, but now that I have turned 45, I am transitioning the blog into more of a place for me to share advice and suggestions for other people who would like to try something similar or to learn about setting visions and goals.
I am also a librarian/faculty researcher at Old Dominion University, and my research areas include vision and goal-setting, workplace wellness, and leadership. So what sets me apart from other blogs on these topics is I offer my own peer-reviewed published original research (and other published scholarly research) as basis for my writing. I often give talks and conduct workshops at conferences and coach and mentor individuals.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up I was pretty shy. I grew up in Hong Kong, and then I moved to the U.K. when I was about 13, and then America when I was 17. So I got exposed to different cultures pretty early on, and obviously my world view was shaped by that.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.45before45project.com
- Email: 45before45project@gmail.com
- Instagram: @leoshlo
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/45before45project
- Other: www.leoslo.com
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