My Bucket List

A very happy New Year to all of you! I know you would have come out of the excitement and zing of New Year celebrations and parties by now, back to the flow of the busy life. I had a very hectic year end and a new-year beginning packed with back-to-back travel to my native place. I was getting the interiors done for a new apartment. I enjoyed every bit of it except for an untimely back sprain.

BTW my blog is with me for the second New Year running! It is really a great feeling. I wanted to share my New Year resolutions with you as my first post this year. But the process of listing down the points, that would make a ‘better’ me in the coming year, made me feel dull. I revisited my last New Year’s post. And I realized that I was not able to do complete justice to those resolutions. That made me sad.

I did not want to start the new year on a negative note. So I decided to forget making any New Year resolutions as a ritual this year. Instead, I updated my bucket list. A bucket list is nothing but a wish list. It is a list of things a person wants to do before he/she “kicks the bucket“! Though the Bhagavad-Gita says, ‘The key to happiness is the reduction of desires’, I like to believe that a life without desire is worth nothing.

My bucket list is a collection of goals, dreams, experiences, and aspirations that I would like to accomplish in my lifetime. I love to read other people’s bucket lists too. One thing I have noticed is that travel is there in almost everyone’s bucket list.

If I remember correctly I prepared my bucket list 6 years ago. But I started looking at it seriously only last year! The most important tip I followed while creating the list was to set aside all my fears and not think about the availability of time and money. I learned that only then could I make a genuine bucket list and do justice to my true self.

Here I am sharing a few items from my long, long bucket list. My list is not in any particular order. As and when something new comes to my mind I add it to the bucket list. So it is still a ‘work in progress’. Over time, my life changes and so does my dreams, goals, and aspirations. So I delete some items from my bucket list too. Now, when I look at it, I am surprised that there was nothing related to blogging when I first started it!

I have categorized the items in my bucket list. I have also mentally divided them into two groups: long term and short term.

• Lifestyle
  • Get up at 4:30 a.m. without setting an alarm. [This started under the short-term group, but now has been put into the long-term group] 😉
  • Go for a 2 km walk daily. (short term)
  • . . .
• Creativity
  • Blogging (I did it!)
  • Publish a book (long term)
  • Do interior design consultancy (short term)
  • Enroll in a dance school (I did it!) [But couldn’t continue long due to various reasons.]
  • Learn knitting and cross-stitching (I did it!)
  • . . .
• Health
  • Do yoga regularly (short term)
  • Do meditation regularly (short term)
  • . . .
•  Charity
  • Volunteer for a cause (short term) [in progress]
  • Sponsor at least one child’s education (short/long term)
  • . . .
• Travel
  • Explore villages in India (short term) [in progress]
  • Travel solo (I did it!) [planning for more!]
  • Visit beautiful countries in Europe, mainly Austria (long term)
  • . . .
• Social
  • Meet/interview my favorite authors: Ruskin Bond, Sudha Murty, Sugathakumari, Elizabeth Gilbert, . . . (long term)
  • Give a TED talk (long term)
  • . . .
• Skills
  • Learn different languages [Indian – Bengali, Foreign – German, Japanese] (short/long term)
  • Enroll in distant education [MA in English/History/Philosophy] (I did it!)
  • Learn by heart Vishnu Sahasranamam and Lalitha Sahasranamam [just started]
  • Learn digital photography (short term)
  • …

• Adventure
  • Skydive (long, long, long term)
  • Drive a Jeep (short/long term)
  • . . .

These are a few of my favourite bucket-list items. There are many, especially in the ‘Adventure’ category. ‘Once again climb the tree in my grandma’s home that I used to do when I was 12 or 13 years old’ is one of them! I am sure, time and money are not at all a concern for this item. I am just waiting for the approval of my close family members. 😉

Last year I enrolled for a distance-learning Master’s degree in English literature. I am still waiting for the study materials! I am sure I took this step only because it was in my bucket list. Now, I am thinking of changing the category of this item from ‘Skills’ to ‘Adventure’!

I have 2 major phobias: Acrophobia and Claustrophobia. Acrophobia is the fear of heights. I would like to overcome it one day before I die. That’s the reason for putting skydiving in the long, long, long term group! As for Claustrophobia (fear of confined places), the earliest hope I have is in my next birth only, and hence it is not in my current bucket list!

Last month I made my first solo trip. It was a really wonderful experience and now I am proud that I could overcome a major mental block. I am sure, in the future, I can tell lots of stories from my beautiful memories of this trip to my grandchildren! (My children are already fed up with my solo-trip stories!) Anyway, I would love to be remembered by my grandchildren as a grandma who lived a life full of passion, following her dreams and having some daring adventures too.

Updating my bucket list made me realize what I would truly love to do if there are no money and time constraints. I could compare where I am right now with where I want to be. I was focusing on how I can make the next year more fun and memorable, instead of on my negative traits, and this made me feel energetic and happy. Above all I made a novel New Year resolution too: that is to strike off as many items as possible from my bucket list and update it again!

Please create a bucket list if you have not tried it yet. Look at your dreams and make a list. Please don’t think whether something on your list is realistic or not. Just write it down; you can decide later. Life is too short, so do what makes you happy. Don’t go out of this world saying ‘I wish I had…’

Happy empty nesting! 🙂

One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching. ~ Gerard Way