Why crafting a killer bucket list is like a secret weapon
When I wrote My Ultimate Tokyo Bucket List for Discover Out Loud, I wrote it as a brainstorm and a plan for my years in Japan.
In the days and weeks following, I received a multitude of comments, suggestions and edits from friends and family everywhere. Suddenly, my list was alive and real. And it belonged to everyone.
This is an incredible feeling. And it makes me realise that a bucket list is more than a set of ideas.
A bucket list is a contract.
Your bucket list is a collection of ambitions formulated on a living document – a contract with yourself.
That document will change, evolve and be influenced as time passes. It is the product of your discussions with yourself and your own development.
We spend a lot of time deciding HOW we want to live.
I, for example, have a strong desire to for my three years in Japan to be fulfilling. I want to explore this part of the world and experience a more creative side of myself. I have enrolled in photography lessons, in Japanese language lessons and am writing a ton. But Why? Why is this so important to me?
We rarely focus on the WHY. We obsess with all of the people, places and things in our lives each day – our HOW we live. Creating a bucket list forces you to investigate on WHY you want those things. Or do you?
In investigating my bucket list, I had to ask myself what does it actually me to me when I say that I want my time to be and feel “fulfilling”?
It turns out, I believe that I have neglected my inner artist all of these years. I have no idea if writing or photography will be an on-going, important part of my life, but I have defined the backdrop of Tokyo to find this out. This is my WHY!
A bucket list is a connector.
When you take time to reflect on your situation, life, wishes, desires, motivators, etc., you tend to talk about it. You will feel shockingly passionate about your list and, most likely, never to run out of conversation about it!
It also links you to people in a way you might not have predicted. When you share your list, it will strike different people in different ways. It is a look into your soul and it touches the dreams of others, too.
You create connections. Those connections might prove important to you as you work thru your list.
When I published my Tokyo Bucket List, the level of interaction it brought from readers astonished me. Subsequently, I have planned my Mt Fuji climb with two new Tokyo friends – one of which will be celebrating her 25th year living in Japan! How cool is that?! My list brought that opportunity – that connection. My friends are enabling me!
A bucket list is a place to dream.
You become more aware of yourself when you draft your list. Skydiving is one of the most popular adventures on a typical bucket list. Is that you? Are you a thrill-seeker? Or are you deeply moved by architecture? Your ancestry? Travel? What makes you tick?
Your bucket list is the perfect venue for dreams. Get out of your comfort zone and discover you – and, perhaps, shock others.
Once your dreams are formalised on your bucket list, it is like a custom-made set of rewards for you. Have you ever gone through a particularly stressful period and thought, “Phew, I did it. I got thru.”? Game on, bucket list!
I think my list is akin to vision of my more talented, sophisticated and artistic self. Exactly what I want to be when I grow up.
My Tokyo bucket list is a work in progress and it belongs to every person I interact with. I never imagined that creating this list would enrich my experience in Japan so profoundly.
I believe that we should all have a bucket list, or three.
You know the saying that hindsight is always twenty-twenty? In a (very) weird way you are creating that retrospective look into your past.
If I have been honest in the creation of my bucket list; if I have allowed myself to ponder the why, to unabashedly share my thoughts and to dream a little; then I should leave Japan pretty darn satisfied.
PS: I am now also working on my parenting bucket list.