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25 February 2008

Bucket list! Do any of you have a life list? Or as the recent movie puts it, a "Bucket List"?[More:]

By this, I mean a list of things you want to accomplish/do/have fun with before you die. I have had one ever since I started teaching the following exercise in my Resource Management class. The exercise comes from an '80s personal management guru named Alan Lakein:

1) Take a minute to just write down lifetime goals.
2) Take a half-minute to edit.
3) Take a minute to write down short-term (six month) goals
4) Take a half-minute to edit.
5) Now, imagine you have six months left to live and all your financial and social responsibilities to family (funeral arrangements, insurance, will, etc) are already taken care of. What do you want to do in these six months?

The idea that Lakein proposes is that, if your "six months left to live" list looks totally different than your "Lifetime" list, then you really ought to put in at least a couple of those "six months left" items in the lifetime list as incentive to use your time more wisely so you have time for the frivolity of the "six months left" list.

What do you think about this? What's on YOUR "bucket list"?
Already laid it out!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero 25 February | 14:53
I don't have one, no. I'm more of a day to day person I think. I'm not sure, but I have done sort of well in life with this approach, and I am not an overly ambitious guy. Lists always sounds like over thinking, and I like to do my overthinking in my HEAD.

:-D
posted by richat 25 February | 15:06
But seriously, I had one- I did a 101 things/1001 days list a year or so back. It was really helpful to have articulated a list of things I wanted to do- I found that some things happened without my actively trying to do them to check them off the list. I will make another list soon, though maybe not with such a strict timeline.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero 25 February | 15:15
Not that hard for me. I'm pretty idealistic and earnest with this stuff.

Lifetime:
Foster or Adopt
Publish
Travel Europe
Learn a Third Language
Learn to Fly
Buy a House
Give all my love away

(Actual in the next 6 months:
Learn Scuba
LSD
Buy a House
Nail a Black Diamond Run, no falling)

Last 6 months should I be terminally ill:
LSD
Travel Europe
Give all my love away
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur 25 February | 15:16
list of what's in the buckets:

cocks
posted by mullacc 25 February | 15:18
I don't have a list, although I think the idea of list is fun and good.

If I can get a few good books, meals, and some vacations thrown into a long and healthy life, I'll die a happy woman.
posted by LoriFLA 25 February | 15:25
List of who's looking for bucket?
-Walrus
-mullac?
posted by richat 25 February | 15:26
I don't really have a life list, though at present I am consciously doing a lot of the things I won't be able to do much of for a while if I have children, including getting lots of training, advancing in my profession, going on music courses etc.

If I really did only have six months, though, I'd probably try to see as much of the world as I could. And try to take as many of my friends with me as I could manage, as I wouldn't want to be without them in my last six months.
posted by altolinguistic 25 February | 15:58
My life plan extends well into next week, although I have nothing special planned so it's not terribly interesting.
posted by doctor_negative 25 February | 17:28
I had one of these at one point in time, but I haven't really updated it. It's probably about time.
posted by sperose 25 February | 17:38
I suspect that if I'd created an actual list a decade ago, it would've led me down a path away from all the incredible stuff I'm doing now. I think I'll continue holding off on creating a list until I can't think of anything fun to do.
posted by eamondaly 25 February | 17:43
eamondaly read my mind. Perhaps I should put mindreading on my list...?
posted by jessamyn 25 February | 18:07
Here's a few of the ones I have already done:

Traveled overseas
Modeled in a fashion show
Acted in Vagina Monologues
Learned some beginning carpentry
Petted a lion
Learned to drive (at age 32. This was a big one for me.)

Some I haven't done yet:

Learned carpentry well enough to build a park bench
Re-taken Calculus with at least a C grade
Learned basic car repair
Sighted a painted bunting
Written that first romance novel

The biggest problem with my life list is that I want to learn how to do EVERYTHING.
posted by lleachie 25 February | 18:50
The biggest problem with my life list is that I want to learn how to do EVERYTHING.

Not long ago a friend was telling me about a strategy to relieve people of the anxiety they feel when they want to do EVERYTHING. It was actually to take this head on: to sit down and write the real list of every single thing you want to do, be, see, and learn between now and death.

The point was this: sometimes we get all breathless imagining the limitless possibilities and it's stressful wondering how we'll EVER get it all in.

But if you actually do this - if you aim to write down the 1000 things you really really want to do - it turns out that there really aren't 1000, and there is actually a good chance that leading your life will bring many of them to you. I did it - over two or three days as things occurred to me - and found this bore itself out. It's quite a long list, but I realized huh - assuming I'm around anout 30, 40 years, this stuff can happen.

So I still have this list - it's not 1000 but it's way too long to post here. But I also get a great feeling out of looking back at how many things I've actually done that I knew, even as a kid, that I wanted to do. Making a list of awesome experiences you've already had is a fun thing to do, too.
posted by Miko 25 February | 22:24
the long-term one: get in a position where I do as little as I have to so I can do as much as I want to.

the mid-term plan:
- get back into school, finish degree #1 (BA Social+Cognitive Psych/American Studies)
- work for 2-ish years, get jaw surgery, get braces off.
- pay off above debts, have travelling moneys
- go travelling; either south pacific and then back via southeast asia, or europe
- come back, go to school for degree #2 in either communications or industrial design
- finish degree #2, go to whichever place I didn't go after degree #1
- come back, grow old, do some shit.

the short-term plan:
- brush teeth
- go to bed.
posted by heeeraldo 26 February | 02:43
Little Hammie has big dream! || Happy belated Birthday to warbaby!

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