The mini bucket list

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Dr Denise Taylor

1 February 2019

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I want you to create a mini bucket list. You know about bucket lists …. people write the things they want to do before they die. These are often to go on long and expensive trips, and fantastic challenges. They must do a sky dive etc.

But in life, it’s not just about the big things, little things can be wonderful – so why not create a mini bucket list? Things such as

  • spending an hour talking with a friend
  • getting up to watch the sun rise
  • a walk in the country or at the seaside

I want you to play along with me and mid-month is a great time to start on creating your own mini bucket list. I was going to wait and post this at the end of the month, but then you, and I will be in a rush to create our own list and not give this much thought.

The beauty of this task is that once you create your mini bucket list you can use it every month. You can also add to it, and if you don’t get to 30, and even if you do, you can repeat some of the things on the list.

My Mini Bucket List

I thought it might help to see some of the items on my list. I used a note pad and at the top of the list wrote:

What Makes Me Happy

And then I just let ideas come into my head

  1. Going to bed early enough to read at least 2 chapters of a novel
  2. Drinking coffee and watching the birds in my garden
  3. Phoning my mum and listening to her talk about her day
  4. Leaving my phone and iPad upstairs so I can concentrate on a film on TV and not multi-task
  5. Creating a blog post/ article that I think others will want to read
  6. Tidying up – making sure everything is neat and tidy – I really love doing this!
  7. Clearing out clutter and adding things to the charity shop bag
  8. Making sure my pencils are sharpened
  9. Having a clean and tidy desk with all my “to do” work out of sight
  10. Cooking a meal with Simon, sharing the tasks and looking forward to a lovely meal
  11. Eating a magnum ice-cream, but I won’t till I finish my 30-day healthy eating challenge – I’ll have it on Day 31 which will be in April!
  12. Reading a story with my grand-daughter Evie
  13. Completing my work tasks for the day so I can then relax
  14. Going to the cinema and watching a film
  15. Live music – I truly love being able to dance or lose myself in music

And this means ….

So, this gives you some ideas, but the best way to create a mini bucket list is to be true to you. For an imaginary person in might be things you, and I perhaps consider weird or slob like. It might be something we consider a chore – like my love of tidying! But that’s the beauty of a list like this it’s all about what makes us happy. Adding to our own list the things we want to do for us rather than thinking about what sounds good or what others might want. We don’t have to share it with anyone, unless we want to.

I’d considered adding – Going to the Gym, but honestly, does it make me happy? I know it’s good for me, and I’m pleased when I’ve done it, but does it make me happy? Not really. It’s a fitness task that I do because I need to do it.

My idea 13 is interesting and tells you about my personality. I’m the sort of person who finds it hard to relax until the work gets done. That means I can miss out on things; I’m unlikely to sit in the garden and relax if there is something I feel I need to do. But the problem with working for myself is that my “to do list” is never ending. That’s one reason I now like a clean desk. I may have plenty of things to do but they are out of site, with my action steps for the current week on my desk, so I just focus on that.

I’d love to read your list and here’s to us having a great April. But you could start at any time. I’m off to the cinema now!

This post first appeared on my blog in March 2017

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