There was a wonderful movie made several years ago that starred Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman called the “Bucket List”. What a great idea! Everyone and most importantly those over sixty need such a list. Such an endeavor is not be taken lightly. The goal should be one hundred (100) possibilities, however such a list will likely take at least a year to develop. My suggestion is take a Sunday afternoon with a bottle of wine, and start with a list of twenty. Most people tend to start with lofty ideas which is normal. It is important to list these. But be sure to start with simple items you can achieve in a month or so. If you start with “Being interviewed by Oprah,” your Bucket List will feel like a dream journal. Start with something like “Learning to say ‘hello’ in fifty languages.” You can do this in less than a month, by learning just two a day. If you want to build a great Jazz collection, resolve to buy one LP per week. At the end of a year, your collection will be quite respectable. The more you set realistic goals for yourself at the outset, the more real the List will feel to you, and the greater the chance of you accomplishing the more difficult tasks, like “Learn Italian,” or “Conduct an orchestra.”
So start with about twenty you can accomplish in one to three months. Then to those you can accomplish within the year. Then some more long term goals. Don’t give yourself a set number, and remember you can add to the list any time. You should add to it; if you finish every item–what then!
Don’t think of it as a list of things to do before you die, rather a list of things to deepen and enrich your life!
Here are some wonderful Bucket List stories. Leave a comment and share your own!