It seems like everyone’s talking about their bucket list, you know, the list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket. Even Bill Clinton has one.
The bucket list doesn’t tickle my fancy
I’ve been reluctant to make a bucket list for a number of reasons…
I don’t want to tempt fate: I said the same thing when I was talking about finding your life purpose and the popular exercise of writing your own epitaph.
I fear my goals won’t be ‘big’ enough: I look around and see people putting some incredible challenges on their list and I wonder, would mine really ‘measure up’? Even though I know comparing our extraordinary never gets us far.
I’m not excited to do it: The name ‘bucket list’ just doesn’t fire me up – doesn’t get my imagination sparking in the way I need to create something really inspiring and authentic for me.
But a dream catcher? Now that sounds fun!
When I recently read a post from Naomi Simson that referred to the bucket list as a dream catcher, I was hooked.
‘Dream catcher’ sounds light, whimsical and open-ended. It’s not weighed down by the threat of a high-stakes deadline, not looming over my life with musts and shoulds, not loaded up with expectations of success.
This is an idea I can use because there are a few things I’d like to try in my lifetime and now, in my mind, I have a place to safely catch them.
What’s fluttering on the threads of my dream catcher?
An independent headstand in yoga, surfing on a longboard and heli-skiing out of Queenstown (as inspired by Naomi), just to get started.
What about Clinton’s list?
The article quotes Clinton speaking at the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna:
What I’d really like to do, if I could have my wishes, I would like to live to see my own grandchildren…
And I’d like to live to know that all the grandchildren of the world will have the chance in the not too distant future to live their own dreams and not die before their time…
That’s the “A list”… There’s also a “B list” of stuff that would be fun to do but doesn’t amount to a hill of beans whether I get to do it or not.
I’d like to climb Kilimanjaro before the snows melt. I’d like to run a marathon before I give out. There’s lots of things I’d like to do but it doesn’t really matter whether I do them.
What’s important to you?
I guess that’s what it comes down to, whether it’s a bucket list or a dream catcher: knowing what’s really important to you.
Of course I can have any number of things I’d like to achieve, or at least try, in my lifetime, but I don’t want those things to become ‘have-tos’ that I feel bad about.
The real, ‘big’ goal that’s important to me is living my own extraordinary – living true to me – and keeping what I do and how I do it aligned with my values and beliefs.
I’d love to hear what you think about bucket lists and dream catchers in the comments – do they spur you on or weigh you down? How do you remember what’s really important to you?
Image by Naomi’
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Keep working ,great job!