Ditch the Resolutions, Instead Write Your Bucket List!

By, Allison Liddle

Have any of you seen the movie called Bucket List? In the movie, Billionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) and car mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) are complete strangers, until fate lands them in the same hospital room. The men find they have two things in common: a need to come to terms with who they are and what they have done with their lives, and a desire to complete a list of things they want to see and do before they die. Against their doctor's advice, the men leave the hospital and set out on the adventure of a lifetime.

Today I have the opportunity to share about why you should write your bucket list.

How may of you start the new year off by writing down resolutions?

I did for many years, but then by February or March I’d forgotten what I’d written down.

This year I want you to think about things a little bit differently. What if instead of creating a list of things you HAVE to do. You created a list of fun, exciting, awesome things you WANT to go do? This list is called your bucket list.

In my book Life Under Construction, I write about bucket lists. I actually was so fascinated by bucket lists that I started to research people that know the most about them. Doing a google search I came up with the name “Annette White.” She is the author of bucket list adventures, travel writer, and has a bucket list journey blog. I reached out to her to see what she learned about bucket lists. From reading on her blog I saw that she had over 800 things on her bucket list. And her life wasn’t always filled with adventure. She actually suffered from serverve anxiety and one day she made her first bucket list. She started small and then as she gained confidence her list and her experiences grew.

Why should you create a bucket list?

This is a great question. A bucket list forces you to evaluate what you really want to do with your life. It may be traveling, volunteering, starting a business, skydiving, going on an Alaskan cruise, visiting a long-lost relative, anything. But by stopping and reflecting you’ll come up with a few things you may have never realized you wanted to do.

How do you write a bucket list?

It’s really simple. You find a piece of paper or journal and you just start writing. In my book Annette helps you outline specific areas in your life you could create a list for. But really this is just about writing something down. And the great thing about this is that you have your entire life to complete it. Or you could set a shorter time goal for yourself.

Did you know that having a bucket list actually motivates you? Isn’t that cool?

When you have something fun and exciting that you are working toward doing or looking forward to you get motivated. If you want to go on a trip to the beach and you want to lose that pesky 5 lbs before you go. Having the trip to motivate you to continue your workouts to get healthier.

I would say that you can really grow your thinking and your outlook on life when you start to go do the things on your bucket list and they can actually transform your life.

One of the things I wrote on my bucket list was that I wanted to go to have a TEEN LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE DAY. As a 7th grader I was told I was a leader and I knew I wanted to be able to do the same thing to youth.

Today I get to do this bucket list item- TEEN LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE DAY with 35 students, 10 volunteers, 1 full day of intensive leadership training.

My mom wrote it on her bucket list that she wanted to help feed her students last March 2016. She kept having hungry kids in her classroom and she knew something was needed to help them. So she founded Fill a Backpack, Feed A Belly. Each week 60 backpacks are filled with food to help students eat healthy meals over the weekend. Food is a basic need, that unfortunately, many students are lacking. This week we formed a volunteer board for this group so we can raise the funds to feed more children!!! 

Imagine the impact that you could have if you took a moment to decide what you want to do, who you want to help, or how you want to have a significant impact.

Each of you has a strength that you could share. There is someone right now that needs you to help them in some way.