A New Way to Think About Bucket Lists

Ever feel like you’re living your life in a rut? Tired of doing the same things day in and day out? Wish you could experience new and meaningful things but don’t know where to start to change?

We know how you feel and I am sure millions of other people do too. I have talked with so many people in this same situation and know where you are coming from!  You feel like all you do is work and come home, watch a little TV, take care of the family, make food, do dishes, try to fit exercise and a little recreation in when you feel real creative and then go to sleep only to wake up and do that all over again the next day. Am I right?

So how can you get out of this rut? 

You need a bucket list!

Now, I don’t want you to think that bucket lists are only for those impossible dreams that won’t really happen. Or only for people with lots of money but not me. Because that is not the kind of bucket list you need!

You need a bucket list that will help you get out of your comfort zone and change up your normal routine. The kind of bucket list that will do this has to be tailored in a different way than standard bucket lists are.

This kind of bucket list will have a few things in common. 

1. It will have things you can do with or without money.
2. It will have variety.
3. They help you have meaningful experiences.
4. It will have be date specific.
5. It will be more about the people and less about the “things”.
6. It will be fun to create and even more fun to complete!

Now bucket lists sometimes get a bad wrap. Some people feel that creating them makes you only focus on big things and forget to live in the moment. 

Well, I have to tell you I don’t think those people criticizing bucket lists have put the time or effort into doing them the way we do or they wouldn’t say that!

We create bucket lists with our family and we do it seasonally. This may seem silly to some people, but for us it really helps us live in the moment. It forces us to be creative and think about new adventures and experiences we can do now, not 25 years from now!

Since we started doing seasonal bucket lists we have experienced so many more things in our own community than we did the entire first 10 years of our marriage! We simply let life happen and didn’t plan our lives with any purpose. Whatever happened, happened. That is not a fun way to live your life!

So how do you create a seasonal bucket list?

It’s easy, grab a paper or download our seasonal bucket list templates and we will walk you through what we do to create our own.

Okay, so we start with a plain old piece of paper (or our templates!). We gather the family, usually around the table at dinner time and we start dreaming! We brainstorm and think of all the things we want to do or that we could do in the next three months.

That step is important! What can you realistically do in the next three months? If you haven’t saved up funds, you can’t put go toHawaii on your seasonal bucket list. That is not realistic!

But if you have never gone on a really cool hike in your area that is something that could totally be doable even for those without a lot of dough in the bank! But I can tell you what, when I think about the things I want to do and plan my life out with more purpose I am able to start saving and planning for the big trips too. So don’t feel defeated or like those types of big trips will always be outside your reach! 

We also like to think of things we can do outdoors and indoors. Ever been to the art museum or a comedy club in your area? Have you spent time at that really cool new park or old park that is right around the corner? My husband’s family lived near San Francisco for a number of years and never went to Golden Gate Park! We have lived in Arizona, 6 hours from the Grand Canyon, for 16 years and didn’t go until last year!

Do you find yourself doing the same kind of thing in your area? A bucket list can change that.

Write those things down that you have always thought about doing but just have never got around to doing them. 

What about meaningful service you could give in your area? One year our large extended family got together and went and served at an organization called Feed My Starving Children. This was a really amazing experience for my kids to have their eyes opened to the needs in the rest of the world and to see how blessed they really are. There are thousands of organizations all over the world that need volunteers to help them! You and/or your family could be the ones to step up and help. Check with friends, online at places like justserve.org, check with your pastor or minister, or check with your local foster care systems and see what they could use help with. 

Also, are there season specific things you would like to do?

In the fall we love going to a good corn maze and making caramel apples, in the winter we hate to miss out on sledding or gingerbread making. Come spring we love to see a spring training baseball game and get out and go hiking in a new spot we’ve never tried before the weather gets sweltering in the summer! Whatever your area has in these months that you have always wanted to do more of put it on your list.

So now you’ve probably got a whole “bucket” of ideas on your paper right?

So now you need to start paring it down to about 8-10 things you really want to do and that you can reasonably accomplish without a hardship or financial strain. 

These 8-10 things get put onto our template and become our set in stone, we are gonna live life, things to accomplish within 3 months bucket list. We set a date we want to complete them by and then we get busy calendaring them so we are sure to not let life get in the way and have our list sit on our fridge and not get done.

One last thought. It’s important you don’t focus so hard on accomplishing one specific thing that you can’t enjoy the moment, that is why we like always try to just go with the flow and focus on the big picture of the activity and experiencing something new or reliving something we love.

So go ahead, give it a try and see if you can add a little fun back into your life today!

Didn’t catch the templates? Download them here!