I am Fed Up with hearing everyone talk about their ‘bucket list’. This highly sensitive woman is asking you, “can we have a nicer image than a bucket for our visions, hopes and dreams?” As soon as I hear that word I have a fingers down a chalkboard moment! Buckets do not inspire me, nor do they motivate me to make any sort of list.
If you have ‘things you want to do before you die’ then a bucket list is helpful. You can tick them off, say you did them, show the snapshots, hopefully have a good time while you’re doing them. In my opinion these ‘things’ just add up as a fun to-do list that you can share or competitively compare with your family and friends.
Great for some, not for moi. I’m looking for something more meaningful and purpose-driven. I’m looking to expand ‘who’ I am, not ‘what’ I can do before the end of my life. And as a very visually inclined sensitive and creative woman I want it to ‘look beautiful in my mind’ so I get excited and inspired by the notion.
So what’s my alternative?
A Jar.
I can’t take credit for this brilliance (it was suggested in one of my women’s group) but it certainly made more sense and spoke to me in a way a bucket list never has.
Here’s how it works. As you experience things in your life that involve yourself, other people or occurences that enhanced you, changed you, made life happier, and you became wiser in the long term, then they get written on a piece of paper and put in your beautiful jar (vase, box, whatever place you wish to cherish your bliss). At the end of the year you can sit down with eggnog, champagne, or cup of tea and remember that your year had times of great meaning, connection and personal enhancement. You know, your accomplishments. It’s that simple, and that deep!
To me, a jar of meaningful experiences does more than a list of ‘things’. Don’t get me wrong, I know some of the papers will have ‘things’ I have done, but I will be remembering them as part of cultivating a well-lived life. My inner evolution!
Embrace Life, with love The Burnout Queens xx