The obsession I have with lists is well documented on this website. Particularly bucket lists. However, when you are in a position where you can’t escape the house and tick tasks off you may need a re-think.
Just because you can’t get out and about doesn’t mean you can’t work on improving your current list. Perhaps you could even add to it?
Everyday is a school day
My children have all left primary school now. In fact, 75% of them have left school entirely. But I still remember the days when I used to go to those old school parent evenings. (Pun unintended, but smugly amusing, so I am keeping it).
These would involve the teacher presenting me with my child’s drawer. It would be full of exercise books, half drawn pictures and chewed pen lids. I would then be invited to look through their work while waiting for my turn to talk about how things were going.
There would be a confusing code that the teacher had written in their books, but it turns out that one of the acronyms is very transferable to non-academic life. It was EBI… Even Better If…
Writing your list is just the start
So often we complete a job, or a task and then rest on our laurels, but what if we took a page from the ‘teacher speak’ book and tried to go that bit further?
What if we took that extra step towards adding some more value to what we were doing? Could our lives be ‘even better if’?
Just because you may not currently be able to work on your bucket list, there is no reason to pack it away. Have a look through now at the tasks on there and see what you could improve upon. If you haven’t written one then you need to have a read of my post: “5 tips to get you started”
Upping your game
There were a number of challenges on my original 40 x 40 bucket list that involved me either trying out new things, learning different skills or engaging in some basic ‘life maintenance’ (that is posh for weight loss; I basically need to lose some weight!)
Things like: drive a car, or go into the sea up to my waist ( this sounds lame, but I am terrified of being in the sea), learn a language and lose a stone (that’s 14 lb or 6.3 KG in new money)
Imagine if I had applied ‘EBI’ logic to any of these challenges?
Want to drive a car?
Wouldn’t it be ‘Even Better If…’ I learn to drive and get a driving licence. This is exactly how this task progressed for me, culminating in my passing my test in February 2020.
Stand in the sea up to my waist?
Wouldn’t it be ‘Even Better If …’ I conquer my fear of the sea once and for all and go for a full-on swim? (There is a vague swimming task on the list, which I hope to complete once we can get to the seaside)
Learn Japanese?
I think you are getting the idea here!
Even Better If… I practice daily so that I can take an exam and be ‘officially’ proficient. (This lockdown has seen me rise up to the Diamond League on Duolingo, and I am still able to chat to Yumi via Facetime).
Challenge accepted?
You get the general idea.
Without even realising it at the time I had actually already done this with one of the tasks on my list. I had challenged myself to make a YouTube video, and I managed to make a 2+ year series, documenting my 40 x 40 bucket list journey.
It is a mantra that can be applied to pretty much every aspect of your life. But in terms of your bucket list, I want you to pick a few things that you can work on now.
Skills, Crafts and Life Long Learning
If any of these appear on your list you are now in luck. There are a number of each on my list, and as I mentioned about I have been using the time to practise my Japanese, as well as work on my TEFL course, fold a number of my 1000 cranes and declutter the house.
During my decluttering, I came across a small cross-stitch kit, and as ‘complete a cross-stitch’ is on my list, I am considering making a start on it. (It is admittedly fairly low on my ‘to-do’ list though!)
Perhaps now is the time for you to finish – or indeed start- that novel you have been planning to work on? Or you could research watercolours on Youtube?
If learning just about anything is on your list, now is the perfect opportunity as there are a number of online courses, many being offered for free:
But…
Maybe everything on your list involves travel, or being outside, or… (Insert excuse to not EBI!)
But, if you are reading this, you have access to the internet. If you want to travel somewhere, why not start planning? You could create a vision board of all the places you would like to go to, maybe you could use Pinterest as inspiration?
If one of your tasks is to climb a mountain or dive with sharks? You could research it online, look into the equipment you will need, or perhaps just how much money it will cost you? There is always something you can be doing when you have a bucket list, whether that is dreaming, planning or improving.
Over to you
What are you doing with your time? Could you go over your own Bucket Lists? Are there any possible upgrades that could be made to give yourself an extra challenge?
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