One of the more annoying ideas that keep coming up as I get older is folks asking me whether I have a bucket list? The first time I heard it, my first thought was, “I have two buckets in my house. Why do I need a bloody list?”.
Why is it so important in your life to have a list of things that you need to do to feel you have lived a complete life? When did your life become “of value” only if you have a list of stupid things that you may or may not have time to do before you croak?
Evidently, my life has not been well-lived if I have not:
- Climbed Mount Kilimanjaro (or worse Mount Everest) (I climbed Mount Royal in Montreal does that count?)
- Run with the bulls in Pamplona (I did try cow tipping though)
- Surfed the Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii (not gonna happen)
- Put a padlock on the Pont de l’Archevêché ( think I have walked across that bridge once)
- Joined the mile high club (OK that one does sound intriguing to me, given I don’t fit in airline bathrooms when I want to use them as bathrooms)
- Got completely out of debt and saved enough for my retirement (OK that is me just messing with you).
I don’t get this whole need to do things to feel fulfilled (isn’t that called Work? Just sayin’). Can’t I be happy with what I have done already and the fantastic things that might happen in the future?
You want to know what my bucket list is:
- Buy a nice bucket
- Don’t die
Simple, ain’t it, though? I hope I won’t add to this list, and for now, I have completed my bucket list.
I climbed Mount Royal in Montreal plenty of times. I does count!
Personally, I had a ‘Bucket List’ developed in my twenties and one of the oldest Boomers! Everything was magic! Without going into the details I was able to complete my original bucket list items in a relatively short period of time.
Maslow, a well respected physiologist came up his new ‘hierarchy of needs’ list for the human species. This is a great place to be AFTER you have completed your original bucket list OR maybe your not interested in such things, then go directly to the greatest test of them all i.e. to pursue Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ and hopefully, getting to the Top which is reaching your highest potential and achieving the level of self-actualization. This activity will naturally be more difficult because you might be starting in your later years, where there could be changes in your physical, mental, social and spirtual make-up.
Lucky for you your bucket list was successful, I gave up on mine a while ago.
I had no bucket list but a few things that I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to meet a world leader. Any country, any world leader who was at that time the leader of his or her country. Had that happen in two federal elections ago, when I got to shake the hand of the Prime Minister. I actually said something in French, and it caught him slightly off guard, but he replied to me in French.
Everyone had been talking in English, but when he was giving his speech, it was in both official Canadian languages.
So, I can take that one off my bucket list. Whether anyone likes or hates the man or his politics, is immaterial, as it was my meeting “A World Leader”, regardless of the politics or country.
I would love to go to Australia and live there for a while…
I had a bucket list when I turned 30. One item: I wanted to come to America. Did it. 30 years ago. As a cynical friend of mine said: aim low, that way you always succeed.
Have not been able to figure out anything else since then. Guess I should have croaked then 😀
No reason to croak, simply be proud you can say you finished your “bucket list”, and then have fun doing other stuff.
BCM,
Not often I disagree with you (other than hockey teams), but totally disagree with you today.
Life gets in the way all of accomplishing things all the time and it can end suddenly. It is not that my life will not be complete if I dont accomplish my bucket list, but in our crazy lives it gives me a lifeline or something to look forward to when life is crazy and stressful. Also, it is human nature, if you dont write things down on a list, you tend not to do them. Played Peeble Beach which was on my list last year and intend to go on African Safari in next few years. That is my savings goal and something I will look forward to. Different strokes for different folks, even if you are wrong 🙂
For accountants, it is quite true that if it is not on a ledger, it is not real, but be that as it may, keeping track of fun things in life that might be nice to do isn’t a bucket list (I contend), it is simply a fun list.
A bucket list seems more like a sentence than a list of fun things (i.e. complete this list, or you will die an unfulfilled, unhappy and sour person).
Keep your list of fun things to do, just don’t call it a BUCKET list (unless buying a nice bucket is on the list, then I guess it could be a “List that has a bucket on it”).
I think you’ve missed the point of a bucket list – items on a list are those things that you have always wanted to do but circumstance (money, timing, life in general) keeps getting in the way. It isn’t about your life not being fulfilled if you can’t complete it – it is about striving to do the things you have always wanted to do in the short time you are here.
This post comes of as uncharacteristically bitter and cynical for this blog.
No, I think I have a very good understanding of this, since it has become a marketing angle for the Tourist Industry, and various other industries. The way these folks portray your list as being a moral imperative, is sickening (to me).
Cynical? Maybe you want to go through my archives, since cynicism is one of my core competencies. Apologies if this seemed too cynical, however, I am tired of the marketing industry telling me how I must live my retirement years.
I totally agree with you. So often people are focused on their bucket lists or other goals and wind up missing the wonder around them right now!
Huh. Interesting post. I don’t have a bucket list either. Never had, don’t see a need to have a list of ‘things to accomplish personally’. I have a list of goals for my business, but that’s it. Personally the goals are to continue to live well and enjoy my lifestyle and my family. Going somewhere and doing something out of the ordinary only matters insofar as it accomplishes more time with my family.
We will however do things spontaneously. A couple of years ago I decided on Thursday that we were going to go somewhere different for the weekend. I proposed that we go to James Bay and go for a swim. A vote of 3 to 1 and we ended up going to NYC for the weekend instead. Sigh. I figured it’d be cool to say I went swimming in James Bay. I don’t know anyone who’s done that – do you?
Swimming in James Bay? I went to school with a bunch of guys who worked on the Hydro Quebec project there, and they “fell in” a few times, does that count?
I don’t have a list, per se. But there are a number of things I would love to do. However, I know most of them are unrealistic, at least on the path I have already chosen But who knows, one day I might do one or two of them.
Yup, I’d like to do a bunch of things, but once I put it on a list, then it becomes almost an obligation.