Whether it’s a physical piece of paper, or more of a general mental checklist, most people have some form of a list of things they’d like to do/accomplish before they die.
Bucket lists and tiny living can sometimes seem like they go hand-in-hand. After all, most people have ‘travel the world’ as something they’d like to do, and tiny living is a prime way to get it done.
But, are bucket lists all they’re cracked up to be?
Similar to daily to-do lists, bucket lists can be useful for some people, but can also give others anxiety. Are you ‘weird’ if you don’t have a bucket list? Will you end up feeling like you wasted your life if you don’t check off every single thing? What if the trajectory of your life changes, and the things you wrote down are no longer feasible, or things you want to do? What kind of things can even go on one?
Some might think talking bucket lists is a morbid topic, but I think it’s healthy to get these kinds of bigger life worries out in the open!
So, to answer the above questions: a bucket list can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. The items on it can be as big or small as you want, and of course you are able to change, re-arrange, and/or completely trash and start over your list!
Your list should be as unique as you are, and that means it can look like whatever you want! If you think ‘eat waffles at least 4 times a month’ deserves to be on there, put it on there! There’s no Bucket List Police that’re going to show up and tell you you’re doing it wrong.
Speaking of other people, here’s a fun fact: you also do not need to show it to anyone! People looove giving their opinions to others, so if you’re worried about what your friends/family/significant other will think of what’s on your list, don’t show them. Obviously, if you have something like, ‘live in a mansion’, ‘have a baby’ or ‘get a pet’ on your list, you’ll want to consult a current/future partner on their thoughts/feelings about those things to see if you’re compatible, but other than that, you don’t need to tell anyone about what’s on the list. You don’t need anyone’s approval but your own.
It is your list.
It is your life.
You are also not ‘wasting’ your life if you don’t make a bucket list! Some people need more structured direction – it makes them feel calmer/safer to have a general idea about where their life is headed – but if you’re more go-with-the-flow and/or generally not the kind of person who needs to check things off a list to feel accomplished, then trying to make a bucket list wouldn’t be a good idea for you.
In fact, it might actually make your life worse, because now you have some arbitrary standard of what you think your life should look like, and if it doesn’t follow that path, it might stress you out.
But as I said above, you can change, re-arrange, and even completely take things off if you want. Life, and people, are constantly changing, and I actually think it’d be healthier to take an honest look at your list every few years to see if you’re reaching for goals that are still things you want vs things you just think you should want.
Or worse, things you’ve been pressured into believing you need, but don’t actually want.
By taking time to revise your list every so often, you’ll get to see the ways in which you’ve changed, and are able to keep a clearer picture of what a ‘good life’ looks like to you. You’re not the same person you were ten, five, or hell, even one year ago, so it makes sense your priorities no longer fit with those versions of you.
Life doesn’t always look like what you thought it should when you were fourteen, and that’s okay!
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