About 10 years ago, I was in a class and heard about a motivational
book written by an individual who lived in the Midwest and had an
uncle who read National Geographics and told this individual (who was
his nephew) that he was going to go to all these places and do all
these things...but then died before he did any of them.  So the nephew
decided he was going to do 100 things in his life and then wrote a
book about these 100 major accomplishments.  Lew Holtz, the former
Notre Dame coach, used the book in his speeches as being instrumental
in his life...he read the book when he was young and ended up writing
down his list which included being coach of the year, meeting the
Pope, coaching at Notre Dame.  I want to read the book and don't know
where to find it because I don't remember the name or author.

Hello.

I believe that you're thinking of "The Magic of Thinking Big" (1959)
by David Schwartz.

"Lou Holtz...
In an effort to lift his spirits, his wife gave him The Magic of
Thinking Big by David Schwartz. At that time in his life, Holtz says
he was not motivated to do much of anything. " There are so many
people, and I was one of them, who don't do anything special with
their lives. The book said that you should write down all the goals
you wanted to achieve before you died. " Holtz sat down at the dining
room table, let his imagination go, got excited and before he knew it
, he had listed 107 goals he wanted to achieve in his life. These
goals covered all areas of Holtz's life that he wanted to improve from
professionally to parenting to improving his spiritual life."
http://www.rctm.com/Products/celebritiesgurus/louholtz.htm

Used copies begin at $1 on Abebooks.com:
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=schwartz&y=0&tn=magic+of+thinking+big&x=0

--------
search strategy:
"lou holtz" "100 things" "the book"
"lou holtz" "magic of thinking big"

I hope this helps.

This was excellent.  I'm sure this is the book I am looking for and
appreciate you including the quote from Lou Holtz because this
confirmed it for me.  I ordered a copy of the book (which will cost me
less than it cost to ask the question in the first place.)  Thanks
again.  John

Thank you for the tip.
-juggler