We all have hopes and aspirations, things we want to experience and accomplish in life. Some dreams are big, like taking a cross-country road trip or winning the lottery. Others are more subtle goals like wanting to bowl a perfect game.
What’s on your Bucket List? Are they things that simply require blind luck? Or are they dreams that can be turned into reality simply by making it happen?
Sure, you may think there’s nothing “simple” about running the Boston Marathon, but people do it every year; people who once had little to no athletic prowess before focusing and training for this goal.
Most dreams require opening your heart to the possibilities, envisioning yourself exactly where you want to be and then making steps, however small, toward the finish line. So what holds so many people back? Here are some thoughts on that…
Fear
Well into adulthood we’re all still secretly afraid of being the last ones picked for kickball. No one wants to be mocked and ridiculed. So if your dream as a big burly dude is to learn how to do ballroom dancing you might fear voicing that, let alone ever actually doing it. But here’s the deal: people who pine for experiences and don’t go for them often become bitter dried-up humans. It’s the truth.
Fear also comes into play in other ways. Like what if you apply yourself and aim for this goal, achieve it and then find it wasn’t all you had hoped? Or maybe you set out and you don’t make it to the finish line at all. Well the good news is that even if you feel a sense of let down because it’s over and didn’t play out the way you had hoped – the joy truly is in the journey. And there is nothing wrong with going back at it again, wiser and stronger.
Life Obligations
“But I’ve got kids… I’m paralyzed… Work takes up all my time…” For every excuse you make there are several someones on the planet proving it can be done. Runners without legs are winning marathons; deaf players are making incredibly beautiful music; mommies are writing world-renowned bestsellers that become a phenomenon of film, a theme park, and more. Author J.K. Rowling was so broke when she wrote the first Harry Potter story that she had to find a cafe that would let her sit for hours with the one espresso she could afford. She wrote for hours while her newborn slept beside her. Rowling was morbidly depressed at the time and is now responsible for creating the world’s best-selling series of all time. What were those excuses again?
If your Bucket List really means something to you you’ll find ways to make it happen.
Some Goals are Easier Than Others
When tackling your Bucket List try to go back and forth between big long-range goals and smaller, more easily attainable ones. That way your successes will help you feel confident and fuel you on to your next goal.
Discovering what you’re made of is one of the greatest reasons for living. Seeing that mountain, whether literal or figurative, and then saying “I can do that – maybe not yet, but I can put in the work to get in shape and do that.” Then you get to the top with a sense of euphoria, exhilaration and accomplishment, but then? Then when you ever feel down, ever wonder what life is all about you can look at that photo, listen to that record, see your book on that shelf and think, I did that.
Life is not a dress rehearsal, so play your part and be the star you’re meant to be.
Credits: Article written by Emily Rankin. Photo by Matt Emmett. Dreaming of seeing the Northern Lights? Be insured. www.carinsurance.org.uk