Treat Your Goals Like Your “Bucket List”

What I love about life is that it always gives you opportunities to learn, grow, and challenge yourself on a daily basis. Those who say otherwise must be rich bastards. A big part of having a life is living it, and that means deliberately. How does one live life deliberately? Goals.

It would be pretty cool to be born with a life-long itinerary filled with prearranged activities, events, and things to do until the day you die. Even if each and every one of those activities tickled your fancy in a positive way, your personality would be as dynamic as a cave door. I don’t know about you, but I want me some personality!

We all have goals, but it’s crazy to think about how many of them we actually see completed even if they lead to failure. How can a goal lead to failure? If your goal was to go to college but you flunked out, guess what, goal completed but you, my friend, failed. That’s why goal specificity is VERY important. Moving on…

Chilo, one of my best friends from high school, moved in with me last year for about 6 months. He always talked about buying an accordion and playing his favorite corridos and banda music…Mexican country, if you will. Chilo had a heart for it. It’s what gave him a lot of his personality. Yet, he never managed to fully manifest that kick-ass personality with an accordion in his hands. He had the goal, but even today, he lives on without ever getting his hands on one. What Chilo did is something that we all do. We place some of our most reachable goals in a “bucket list” that will be completed at some point in the distant future even though we want them NOW. We put them off even though they’re important to us. That’s why I believe you should treat your goals like a bucket list. You become a “go getter” and enjoy them now instead of when you’re old, frail, and being held down in your wheel-chair by your adult grand-kids on an airplane, because they remember you telling them you wanted to go to Antarctica when they were children and they never forgot.

So Chilo, thanks for the inspiration. I finally bought my guitar this afternoon. Get your accordion and come jam with me!

Which reminds me, I used to think fulfilling my “bucket list” of things I want to do before I die was something I would do when I’m older. Like if doing them once was enough. F-that! I’m gonna be that old man going through his bucket list for the tenth time reminiscing and living each time with those I love the most. My grandchildren will know that their grandpapi is no joke, maybe a little crazy, but with a lot of personality 😀