The Bucket List

In 2007, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman starred in the movie "The Bucket List."   It's a story about two terminally ill men who escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.   It was a funny and poignant look at living out your dreams.   But why wait like most people, until you retire or face death to write the list?  Why not live every day from your bucket list?

If you didn't know, a bucket list,  is a list of all the goals you want to achieve, dreams you want to fulfill and life-experiences you desire to experience before you die.  Why is a bucket list so important?  Because I believe it helps us to want more, experience more and live more with a greater purpose.  Without defining the goals we have for our lives we can get too caught up in the everyday mundane tasks of our lives and forget to plan for more fun and excitement.  We might neglect reaching past our own limits.  Without a bucket list we not learn how to think big.  You know you have heard it before, "If you are going to think, might as well think big."

Taking the time to create a bucket list for your life will help you to think bigger and bigger!   Thinking big means going big!   And I don't think a bucket list should be written as part of your "personal race against time".  It's not a morbid task.  It is a positive proactive optimistic plan for YOUR life!  Your bucket list contains all of your personal triumphs yet to be seen.

I also think we should add new goals to our bucket list all the time.  There should never be a time when we stop imagining and planning how we can live out our purpose.  Imagine if every High School Senior was asked to start their Bucket List as part of their graduation requirements?  Wow

All it takes is a pen and a piece of paper to get started and maybe a quiet spot for 30 minutes.  Think about the things you would love to try, the places you would love to see, the experiences you want to have in the course of your lifetime.  Who are the people you want to meet, help and inspire?  Don't worry about how or when right now, just imagine.   Think without limits, without fear.   What will you do with the life that has been given to you?

Will you write a book?  Learn to play the piano?  Climb a mountain?  Speak another language?  Run a marathon?  Travel to India?  Fly a plane?  Take cooking lessons?  Drive a race car?   Come up with as many items as you can.   The items should be things you have not done yet.

Don’t stop until you finish listing at least 101 things!   If you find yourself stuck, chances are you are mentally limiting or constraining yourself.  So release the brakes and remember this is a list of everything you want.

But look past the wants and see the why's.  What will you discover about yourself when you take a look at not only what you want to but why you want to do it?  And wait until you see who you become in the process of achieving the items on your list!