The Bucket List.
And no, I’m not talking about the cinematic adventure with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman (Only a 40 Rotten Tomatoes? Come on.)
That ever present, always looming list of life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. Seemingly everyone has one and is quicker to talk about it than someone who does CrossFit. Constantly adding to the sprawling list and rarely crossing items off. It’s created a culture of errant dreamers, not doers.
Skydiving. Hike Mount Kilimanjaro. See the Northern Lights. Find true love. These experiences are not items to be condemned to something I would also write Milk, Eggs, Gushers (because let’s be real), and Bread on: A LIST.
Let me clarify. I definitely have goals. Travel goals. Life goals. Experiences I want to go on. Things I want to succeed at. More importantly things I want to fail at, and learn from. They just aren’t on a list pushed subconsciously so far down that the only way they emerge is when I have some life changing event…like almost kicking the bucket. I don’t put them on a bucket list because I strongly believe that if something is important enough to you to be put on a list of events to do before you die then you should be going after it now. While you still have life beating through you.
For many, a bucket list has been a way for them to put off some of the greatest things that life has to offer with no actual game plan to make them happen. There is a reason why there are no Bucket List Gantt Charts.
But let’s go down that errant thought for a second. Courtesy of Wikipedia a Gantt Chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project, specifically mapping out the start and terminal events and key milestone dates. Looks a little like something to the left. Can you imagine if people wrote their bucket lists like this? Planning out the key milestones to achieve an experience like no other? People might actually start crossing off items left and right, or at least feeling like they’ve made significant progress.
Come up with a saving plan by end of month. Find a friend to travel with at the end of 2 months. Map back work timelines in order to take off the correct amount of time off. Research flights and travel details after 6 months. Book something in 7. Train during 8–10. Buy some travel gear too look the part too in month 11. Have a kick ass time hiking the Grand Canyon in month 12.
So let’s kick the bucket…list that is and get some kickass memories logged. Starting. NOW.