Society always goes on and on about the bucket list thing. It’s a list of things you want to do before you die. This has never made sense to me and I’ve never understood why. Up until 3 years ago when I started doing a deep dive on myself and where I am and who I wanted to be. This deep dive gave me the realization that I wanted to kick the bucket list thing and create the 100 Things.
Let me first give you some context to my previous bucket list. For me, it was a mental list of really cool things that I wanted to accomplish. That mental note seemed to be an open ticket to whatever the item was. Meaning I never defined a timeline to accomplish said items. The brain immediately filed it in the filing cabinet for later on down the road. For some odd reason I don’t even think those things were in the one-year to five-year file.
This is no good. No good at all. Is it because we feel it’s so unattainable for the immediate future? Have we set any parameters or any strategies to accomplish the goals? In most cases absolutely not. I believe this is one of the main reasons most don’t even come close to accomplishing things on their bucket list. In addition, it seems that we have this false sense of belief that we are immortal. Hello McFly, think!
If you put anything down on a list and have no substance with it, no heart, and no soul then it’s just hope in my opinion. This is why I created 100 Things. 100 Things is an “action” list, not a somewhere down the line before I die list. The mindset going into this has to change immediately. You need to have the intention and belief that you will start checking them off right away.
Starting off you need to write down 100 Things. These are things that maybe you have always wanted to do or just recently have thought about doing. You can even get inspired by those around you that have already accomplished many things. Either way, it doesn’t matter. The list doesn’t need any sort of order by higher in desire than the others. Just write them down. When you have finished your list it’s time to strike the lines through the ones you accomplish.
When I finished my list I looked at it and I was like damn that’s a lot. I counted them. I only had almost 80. Well, that’s close enough. You can add stuff along the way and you even get to edit said list. Like for example if you lose interest in something delete it if you want. The idea is to get your brain going in the direction of accomplishing things in your life that you want to.
As I gazed at my long list of items and nothing checked off I felt as if it may be hopeless. The mind went on to tell a story like this is stuff that’s way out of my ability and all that nonsense. You can see how these 100 Things could quickly turn into a bucket list. So I decided to throw in a cheat or two. I reflected back recently up to two years and I wrote down two accomplishments that I achieved, one big one and another not so big. I wrote them down on the list and then I checked it off. Actually, I used a lit stick of dynamite for effect. Additionally, I put one of those in the middle of the list instead of right next to the other so it looked better.
I must say doing this helped me in such a big way. Those two items were things I had wanted to do. Now it looks like I am working on my list and I see progress. The progress I fooled myself into thinking was really a part of it and was what I needed to actually work on it immediately. It is my “action” list. Do it now and stop playing this mental game as to somewhere down the line before I die I’ll do it.
Conclusion
Nothing, just go do it right now!
