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All my life I have always written down my goals, placed them against my bedroom closet door and scratched them off as I completed them throughout the year. I normally complete anywhere between 60-75% of the goals that I write. The ones that I don't complete are either because they require more time then a year to accomplish, I didn't get around to it, or it was just a pipe dream and never really going to become a reality (like being a rock star. Yah!!).
However, it wasn't until I saw the movie "The Bucket List" did I realize that such a thing or a phrase even existed. First thing I noticed off the bat was that goals and a bucket list are two different things. With goals, those are things you plan to accomplish (or should be) within a certain period of time. A bucket list are things you plan to do before you die.
With goals you normally have an aim. For example, one of my longest running goal is to properly learn French. Reason why is because I live in Canada now and French is asked in just about every job you apply for. In my case, though I have my own private practice, however I can't take on any French patients or any French related work because I don't know the language and this defeats my purpose. However the flip side to that is, I speak Spanish (depending who you ask) so I can take on Spanish speaking patients with no problem.
Nonetheless with goals there is normally an aim (or should be) in place so that once accomplished, it better improve your life and/or current situation. With goals, there are also clear and present steps you take in order to achieve this. So when I finally decide to learn French seriously, I need to find a school where I can be taught. I then need to figure out how long the process will be to simply 'graduate' from French 101. I also need to see if the school schedule will fit into my everyday life calendar and if I have the funds to pay for it. All these steps need to be planned out ahead of time in order for me to simply learn French. Nonetheless that is how goals work. You set a plan in place in order to reach your goal which for me is learning French. However, when it comes to bucket lists, that's a whole different can of worms.
A bucket list on the other hand is a number of achievements, experiences or adventures that we hope to accomplish or have during your lifetime. Things that we would like to set out as goals, but know they might not be feasible for some time or ever. Nonetheless we don't stop dreaming, hoping or believing that we can reach them. Some can be as simple as to one day sleeping underneath the stars (without getting arrested by the police for potential squatting). Or donating blood in order to help save a life. Those are less goals and more bucket list items because they don't require to much planning. It just requires you picking a day and doing it. However other bucket list items are not as simple as these. An example would be to write a book, get a Ph.d, fall in love, run for president, race with the bulls of Spain. While these are harder to come by, nonetheless it allows us to explore our creative side and to a point with wild abandonment for the things we desire to do that on a normal everyday basis might seem crazy but oh so worth while. Nonetheless, bucket list items are worth having and exploring because they allow us to dream about possibilities that normally we wouldn't have put as goals. They keep our hopes alive in reaching for the stars and knowing that possibly one day, we will touch them when the timing is right.
So remember no bucket list is too small, too stupid or too simple. Everything is possible if you put your mind to it!
So, what's on your bucket list?!
I have yet to write one...although I plan to go to New York before I'm 50!! I also need to watch that movie. Good luck with your list. I hope you achieve many
ReplyDeleteThank you! I come for NYC you will not regret it!!
DeleteThanks for the boost of motivation! I have been focusing a lot on goals for this year (mostly financial goals), but not so much on experiences I want to have in my lifetime! I think I will start dreaming now! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI so agree financial goes are so important as well. Besides the "I want to be rich" dream, I agree these goals are important to be noted and worth investigating! :-)
DeleteI wrote my first list of 100 items I wanted to do in life (it wasn't called a bucket list then) in 2001. Then, I moved and lost it. Or, so I thought. I found it about 5 years later while cleaning out some drawers. After reading it, I was amazed that I had actually completed about 20 of the items on the list.
ReplyDeleteMy second thought was how much I could have completed had I not misplaced the list and simply read it every day. Of course, I also realized that some of the remaining 80 items were no longer important to me, so I crossed them off. Since then, I've completed several more and changed a few more, too.
I've visited a few of the places I put on my 2001 list, I created a scholarship, earned my doctorate, and wrote a book among several smaller dreams.
Learning French and to play guitar are still on the list, but not as important as I once thought they were. However, visiting Greece is still there and still something I really want to do one day. Soon.
I think that is so true about goals/bucket list items changing. I also realized on my goals list every year, that when the new year came, some things didn't matter anymore because my mind set or life had changed. So while those things still seem interesting, but no longer interesting for me. So I just took them off and added new ones! I want to go to Monaco and live there for a year! That is on my bucket list!
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