Your “Bucket List”

There’s a great fun movie that promotes the idea that we should all be jumping out of airplanes, eating caviar and visiting the Wonders of the World before we finally croak. But is preparing a bucket list full of cliché items the right thing to do? Is it productive?  

Starring in the hilarious movie The Bucket List, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman are 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. The movie generated all sorts of interest among the millions of people who have dream lists. Bucket List items include all the usual things that one would expect to find in a Hollywood dream list: skydiving, driving fast cars, indulging expensive tastes. It includes visiting the usually considered ultimate travel destinations like China’s Great Wall, Egypt’s Great Pyramid, India’s Taj Mahal, etc. 

The movie’s premise may resonate with many, but it is flawed unless the “bucket list” is created and managed in a way that reflects your very own individual true passions, interests and desires. 

If you are going after the bucket list items, but going through long arduous processes to get to the items, then what the heck are you doing? What’s the point? Isn’t that like playing golf in the rain where you are walking around 99% of the time getting soaked and only 1% of the time swinging at the ball? Wouldn’t it be better to golf on sunny days and find other things to do on rainy days? Wouldn’t that make the whole golfing experience a better one? This is similar to people who hate their jobs but continue in them anyway, while always looking forward to weekends and the occasional holiday. How do they justify it? Are you among them? 

Although this is a place to start, a bucket should not be full of impulsive stuff that we pick up as we go along through life. It shouldn’t be like grabbing a chocolate bar off the display rack. Nor should it be filled with stuff that other people talk and dream about unless it truly resonates with your aspirations. Chasing other people’s dreams would be like having a hole in your bucket. Do collect the impulsive and the third-party dreams and place them in your ‘scrap-book’ of ideas. But filter these in a review process for the few that will really resonate. 

The most satisfying things to go into the bucket for most of us are those that are part of a larger context. For example, visiting the Canadian Rockies as part of supporting a family member or friend competing in this upcoming winter Olympics in Montreal would likely be a far more meaningful experience than just buying an over-the-counter packaged tour from a travel agent. Developing that larger context or framework is something that can and should take careful and thoughtful consideration. It often takes hard thought and hard work to develop but that is exactly the point. When it is specifically thought out and the details tailored by you and for you, it starts to get the creative juices flowing. That in turn kicks in the emotions that drives your desire to achieve. 

Here are suggestions for creating and managing your Bucket List: 

1. Make sure you get satisfaction and joy from your day to day stuff. Don’t suffer the 99% to get to the 1% you enjoy. Make the whole experience an enjoyable one. 

2. Don’t buy into your ideas and turn them into goals right away. Mull them over, review them constantly. By weighing them carefully, you’ll probably find you can improve or enhance, replace or rebuild, or just exchange them for something better, enhancing your overall life experience. 

3. Make a plan and enjoy the process. Planning is not optional. It is generally accepted as being a requirement by most of the experts in the field of setting and achieving goals. 

4. Review list items often to make sure you still want to do it. The bucket list should be open ended. Maintain enough flexibility that you don’t become a slave to your own list. Make sure you keep working on adding new items while completing others. 

5. Search for ways to make each goal more meaningful. The more inspirational you can make it, the more power you build into it to draw you forward. Include dimensions of quality within the items on your list. If your goal is not drawing your forward (you are not giving it any priority), drop it for one that does until such time as you can prioritise it. If you involve like minded people in group activities, you’ll likely get much more from the experience than if you don’t. For solitary pursuits, take steps to ensure you get the most from the experience. 

6. Document and share your goals for added enjoyment. If life is worth living, it ought to be worth writing about so commit some of these planning steps to writing. Writing the stuff down is a proven technique for turning goals into reality. Sharing them with others helps to cement your commitment to the goals and to bring others into the process. Don’t involve pessimists or nay-sayers in the process. Perhaps even find a mentor who has already experienced what you wish to achieve, who can provide positive support, and help you with the details. 

7. One strategy is to identify public and private goals and only share the public ones. Keep quiet about the private ones. Financial goals are often ones that are wise to keep private. But do always celebrate your private accomplishments as you would your public ones. Don’t worry about it if they aren’t big or flashy as long as they are inspirational and have the power to draw you forward. 

8. Ensure your goals are consistent with who you are. Or reshape them to suit your style and preferences. For example, introverts and extroverts alike can enjoy a certain travel destination like say Paris and the Eiffel Tower, yet experience it quite differently. 

The bottom line here is that you should find meaning and happiness in everything you do. Don’t get hung up on trying to compete with Nicholson and Freeman as they plough through their Hollywood list before the bucket tips. But do make the various activities pleasurable, from the sussing-out, the expansion and detailing, the organising and combining of the parts, the constant reviewing, the consistent priority, to the final completion and then the memory. Make them all part of the experience. In the world of gourmet dining, it could be called ‘sucking the marrow from the bone’. Enjoy the journey! 

The Coach