At this time of Thanksgiving I am grateful for my family and the memories we have created together. It also is a good time for me to revisit my bucket list since many items involve my family.
In 2011, my therapist (yes, I needed someone to help me get my head in order), recommended I do an activity called "32 squares".
The trick to this exercise, she said, was that the first 10-15 things were usually easy to write, but then by the time you get to 25-32 you really have to start thinking deeply about things you may have given up on doing many years ago. In writing your dreams down, you may realize that you don't feel the same about some things, maybe you were holding on to something that is not so important any more. You give yourself permission to just take that off the list and replace it with something new.
You don't have to allocate time to accomplish them (except general short-, medium-, and long-term) and in fact, please don't if you would turn around and beat yourself up if you did not accomplish something by a specific time.
I still do have my bucket list from that exercise and I am working through it.
One thing I decided to do was have a family event every month - we did that in 2012 and the kids loved it!
Another thing on my list is to do karate, which I started this year. It is really an awesome thing to look at the list! Here I am testing for my high white belt (Shotokan karate - traditional Japanese martial arts at ZanshinDojoAustin). The "funnest" part? I am doing it with my younger son - priceless!
Before I end my bucket list blog post, I want to point folks who may be stuck or are wondering about my old school bucket list activity, to try this site: bucketlist.org. You can see what others are doing and get ideas, and you can also see things that YOU have done that are on someone else's bucket list (like I've lived on a Caribbean island!).
But at the end of the day (from my post on Joy) :
"Do you have joy in your life? Or, alternatively, look for the joy in your life.
Did you bring joy to others?"
p.s. And what to do if I am done with my bucket list? Besides feeling good, you can turn around and create a new one!
In 2011, my therapist (yes, I needed someone to help me get my head in order), recommended I do an activity called "32 squares".
- Take a blank letter-size sheet of paper
- Fold it in half and keep folding it in half about 5 times
- Open it out, you should get 32 (not quite squares)
- Sit down and write every thing you would like to do/experience, every dream or goal you have
- They usually work out to be a mix of immediate, medium and long term, maybe even some things you may not ever get to.
The trick to this exercise, she said, was that the first 10-15 things were usually easy to write, but then by the time you get to 25-32 you really have to start thinking deeply about things you may have given up on doing many years ago. In writing your dreams down, you may realize that you don't feel the same about some things, maybe you were holding on to something that is not so important any more. You give yourself permission to just take that off the list and replace it with something new.
You don't have to allocate time to accomplish them (except general short-, medium-, and long-term) and in fact, please don't if you would turn around and beat yourself up if you did not accomplish something by a specific time.
I still do have my bucket list from that exercise and I am working through it.
One thing I decided to do was have a family event every month - we did that in 2012 and the kids loved it!
Another thing on my list is to do karate, which I started this year. It is really an awesome thing to look at the list! Here I am testing for my high white belt (Shotokan karate - traditional Japanese martial arts at ZanshinDojoAustin). The "funnest" part? I am doing it with my younger son - priceless!
Before I end my bucket list blog post, I want to point folks who may be stuck or are wondering about my old school bucket list activity, to try this site: bucketlist.org. You can see what others are doing and get ideas, and you can also see things that YOU have done that are on someone else's bucket list (like I've lived on a Caribbean island!).
But at the end of the day (from my post on Joy) :
"Do you have joy in your life? Or, alternatively, look for the joy in your life.
Did you bring joy to others?"
p.s. And what to do if I am done with my bucket list? Besides feeling good, you can turn around and create a new one!
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