If you look at the top bar of this blog, you will see that there’s a tab that’s called “Life List“. Well, it has the same meaning as bucket list, but I refuse to say the word. Every time someone asks me what is my bucket list, I always respond “well, what I want to do in life is …..”.
I don’t have a problem with people using the word “bucket list”, but I just personally find the term too negative. It is as if we’re counting down to the day we die. We focus too much about the future and rarely the present. Why do we anticipate death and not celebrate life at the moment?
I am not in denial of death because it’s impossible to avoid, but I want to put the focus back on life and the present moment. At least for me, when I think of a bucket list, I think of the future; things that I have to do before I die, and it seems so far away. I am 21 now, and honestly, life has gone by so quickly. I still remember the day that I graduated from high school and in less than 5 months I will be out of college.
I created a list called “things to do before I graduate from college” in my freshmen year. Guess how many check marks I had. Not many, only three to be exact. Why? because I thought that I had 4 years to complete it. I thought that graduation was so far away and that I had plenty of time to do what I wanted to do. I checked off 3 things over the span of 3 years, and that showed me how lacking on life I was.
I now want to challenge myself to do at least one cool thing EVERY WEEKEND. That’s why I started this blog. I also call my “to do list” the “Life List” because life is right now and I don’t need a deadline for it. It’s not about what I have to do, but what I want to do. If I do at least one cool thing every weekend and live for 70 years, that’s almost 4000 cool things! Forget about making a list, that’s too many.
Death will come eventually maybe tomorrow, maybe in 10, 20, 30, 80 years, but I neither know that nor have control over it. Life list is about now. What can I do now when I’m still alive.
If you were wondering what is on my life list at the moment, here it is. What do you think about the terms Life List and Bucket list? I don’t think that there’s any right or wrong answer because they are just terms. To me a Life List helps psychologically and just sounds more positive.
One Cool Thing Every Weekend 
I have never looked at the term ‘bucket list’ in this way but I must admit that, as a society, we tend to worry about the future or dwell on the past too much. I try to live in the moment and I really like the expression ‘life list’. Thanks for a great post. 🙂
Thank you for sharing your thought! Yes, more than future, we sometimes keep on living in the past. “i wish I had done this and that”. To me life is right now and a list makes it sounds like something that I have to when it should just be a part of life.
I totally agree… I wish I had the time to do the one cool thing every weekend with u snook, coz I really want to live life outside of school,sigh… but this is why I travel every holiday, to explore places I want when I have time too. Love ur determination though, ul have a lot of stories for ur kids:)
I’m glad you find the time during breaks to travel! we’ll definitely do something cool together 🙂
Couldn’t agree more. We’re building a site that will enable people to create their Life List online. Very conscious decision to choose Life List over Bucket List (despite the latter making it easier to market). Life List is just so much more positive, and suggests it should be with you throughout your life, not just when you’re faced with your mortality!
Anyway, if you’re interested you can pre-register with Goalvanise at http://www.goalvanise.com or check out our new blog at http://www.goalvanise.com/blog. We’ll be looking to profile already successful Life Listers so I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on your blog.
Good luck with your various weekend exploits! (Great concept by the way)
Jon
Thank you very much for sharing! I will certainly check out your site and blog. thanks for your commenting again.
I like your attitude to this and you are absolutely right that the general tendency is to focus on the what-ifs of the future not that you shouldn’t consider future outcomes based on present actions, of course. Same with those worrying about the after-life more than they do their current lives. You have a chance to make life right and good, RIGHT NOW!! Live it, I say 🙂
thank you so much for your comment! that’s completely right. Life is about now. We all should plan for the future and think about it but don’t let what you anticipate dictate your current life all the time. You will never get this second back.