Travel

Do You Have A Bucket List?

It's important for us to have goals and dreams for our life. Declaring what you want in life (actually writing it down) can be very powerful. A Bucket-List can be more than just fanciful dreams about an exciting life you wish you could live. It can actually be a kind of visualization of a plan for living. It can also help you find strength for achieving your goals.

Sometimes referring to a bucket list can put our life back on track, get us out of a slump or routine, and help us to find more zest and adventure in our everyday lives.  Living your bucket list doesn't mean you give up partners, friends, family to be selfish and indulge in actives that only appeal to you. Maybe you can have the opportunity to grow stronger in your relationships because you can do these activities with the ones you love.

Having a bucket list can also help you put your life in perspective. Our goals change as we age, gain more knowledge, and learn more about ourselves. So, it's good to reconsider some of those dreams that we once had. Do you still wish you had went sky diving? It's not too late. A good friend of mine went sky diving on her 50th birthday!  Do you still wish you had gone to culinary school and opened up your own hometown cafe or patisserie? Well, maybe that’s your bucket list telling you to get out of your dead-end job and realize your true calling.

Finally, maybe the bucket list is just a way to escape for a moment or two and daydream. We used to daydream all the time as kids. We used to have a wild, fanciful imagination full of adventure. But, somewhere along the way we stopped. Whether we were told to stop or the peer pressure of growing up was too much for our whimsical ideas. But, using our skills of imagery is very therapeutic. Children don’t have the same worries or stress that we as adults do. In fact they smile on average over 200+ times a day. Adults, we are lucky to smile 40 to 50 times a day. So, if nothing else, having a bucket list to help you smile, reignite that imagination will help to reduce your stress and make you feel good about the life you are living now.

My Bucket List:

·         Visit all 7 continents before I die (I’ve been to 4)

·         Make it to Base Camp of Everest (I have no desire to climb Everest…just make it to base camp)

·         Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro

·         Learn to properly ride a horse

·         Learn photography & pottery classes

·         Pick-up my French again,  Learn Japanese

·         Visit my Great-Grandmother’s home in Ireland

·         Go dog sledding

·         Go to a U2 concert

·         Scuba Dive off  on every continent (though I realize how cold it will be in Antarctica)

·         See Machu Picchu

·         African Safari

·         Visit Dharmasala, India

·         ….and I’m sure I’ll keep adding to the list as time goes by.