Until I watched the movie The Bucket List, I had never heard of the term “bucket list”. Featuring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, the movie is about two men in their sixties who found themselves sharing a hospital cubicle after undergoing surgeries. During their time there, they came up with a list of things they had wanted to do in life, yet were unable to. This was their bucket list – things to do before they “kick the bucket”. Finding that their operations had been successful, these two old men decided to “take a second bite at the cherry” and dedicated the rest of their lives to doing as much as they could on their bucket list.
I love that movie for both the inspiration it provides and the lesson it teaches. Since then I have started writing up my own bucket list of the one hundred things I have to get done before I leave this world. Some are funny, others are trivial, weird, and fanciful while some very serious indeed. I have plans of doing three things on the list each year, so it is going to take me some thirty four years to get it all done, but that is what a bucket list is all about: a ‘lifelong quest!’
Having a bucket list gives you a sense of purpose, a reason to want to live, and a reason to fight against all odds. It gives your life direction as well as a deep feeling of achievement each time one of those items is done and crossed out of the bucket list.
Your bucket list is not just another to-do-list, not at all. While your to-do-list is a list of things you have to get done within a relatively short period, your bucket list is the list of things you desire to achieve within your life’s course. It is your personal out of the norm list.
One key lesson from the movie is that you stand a better chance of accomplishing your bucket list if you have a buddy who shares a number of items on your list. Neither of the two men could have done it alone. Call up your best buddy and draw up you joint bucket list and shoulder to shoulder, go achieve your goals.
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