“PEOPLE ARE DYING AT 40 AND GETTING BURIED AT 80”
Travis Bell – The Bucket List Guy – said this at a recent ActionCOACH Conference. What does he mean?
“Well” he goes on to say “lots of people are sleepwalking through their life”.
He stresses that people are not making conscious choices in their lives and as such are mindlessly meandering through life without purpose. And then they die.
Is that you?
If so, here’s a quick exercise for you.
Draw an 8 x 10 grid on a blank sheet of paper as below. Each square represents one year of your life.
Now, fill in a box for every year you’ve lived to date. I’m about to turn 43 so here’s what my grid looks like.
In the UK, the average life expectancy is 81.5 years so for the sake of a neat grid let’s just call that 80.
Ouch! I’m over half way through my life!!!
Now, let’s be clear. I’ve had a good life so far and I’m proud of and grateful for loads of stuff (my parents, my kids, my family, my friends, starting a business etc etc) but I’ve got loads I still want to do.
Loads!!!
And if I don’t consciously think about what I want then I run the risk of living a life bouncing from one thing to the next without achieving what I really want. I don’t want to look back in my twilight years and say “ I wish I’d done…..”
TOP 5 REGRETS
Apparently, the top 5 regrets in life are:
- I wish I had the courage to live true to myself and not what others expect of me
- I wish I hadn’t worked so hard
- I wish I had the courage to express my feelings
- I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends
- I wish I’d let myself be happier
So, if you knew you had the ability to avoid these regrets what would you do?
BUCKET LIST
Here’s where we take charge.
Draw up a Bucket List
For some this might be easy. For others it might take a little longer to get the creative process kicked off.
So, if you need any inspiration then here’s an easy-to-follow framework to creating your bucket list which Travis designed:
M eet a personal hero
Y our proud achievements
B uy that something special
U ltimate challenges
C onquer a fear
K ind acts for others
E xpress yourself
T ake lessons
L eave a legacy
I diotic stuff
S atisfy a curiosity
T ravel adventures
We’re in December, which is always a good month for us to reflect on stuff.
Let’s definitely do some reflection but let’s also make time to get creative and think about all the things you’ve yet to enjoy in life.
Make a Bucket List!
Enjoy drawing it up….but even more, enjoy scoring it off!
