The Top 5 Things To Consider When Revising Or Creating Your Midlife Bucket List

Episode 36 | (00:00):

Hey there, friend, today, we are talking about the top five things to consider when revising or creating your midlife bucket list. We may have created these bucket lists when we were 20 or 30 years younger, but the reality is, this is now. This is midlife.

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Let's have bucket lists that are going to fit our lives perfectly for right now, for what we really want. And if we keep our bucket lists handy and we keep them close by and have them top-of-mind and review them regularly, they can even spice up our daily lives.

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A lot of people put bucket lists on hold, thinking "someday." Someday I'll do this and someday I'll do that. But you know what? Start enjoying your someday today. Why not? Stop putting it off. Let's start doing this.

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Let's find out the top five things to consider as you're revising or creating your own bucket list. All right? All right, let's go. Let's do this!

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Hey there, Easy Ager, before I get started, just a reminder: If you are not already on the Easy Aging® Insiders' list, go to TheEasyAgingShow.com and sign up right after this episode.

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So I had a birthday on Monday. Not a big one, although at this age, they're all kind of big, aren't they? The fact that we're going, "Thank you, Jesus. We're on the earth for another year." Woohoo. So, yeah, so I did have a birthday.

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When I was talking to a friend on my birthday, she was talking about traveling to one of her bucket list destinations and I go, "Oh my gosh, that's so exciting." I was so excited that she got to do that. And I was thinking, "Hmm, I don't really have a bucket list."

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I used to feel guilty about not having one. And I started thinking, "Why don't I have a bucket list?"

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And I think a lot of it for me is, most of the bucket lists I've seen are centered around traveling. And it's not that I don't like traveling. It's just that I don't put traveling as a bucket list item, and that's okay. That's perfectly fine. For me, if I wanna take a trip, I go do it...now.

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If I find something interesting, I wanna do it...now. You know, I wanna enjoy it now. I don't wanna be old and feeble and not even remember that I went, right? So I wanna have fun now, or at least in the next few years.

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I think the main reason I don't have a bucket list is because that's just my personality. I like being spontaneous. I do like planning, to a point, but there are a lot of folks who enjoy the planning process and getting excited about this and doing all the research, etc., and that's great too.

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I think whatever your personality lends itself to is what you should be doing. So I started thinking, "Do I want to create a bucket list?" And I think I kind of do. I mean, I really do have a few things I would like to do before...

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(You know, I hate saying this. I don't really like this term)  ...before I kick the bucket. But we all know what a bucket list is, right?

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So I started putting together a few considerations for my bucket list, and I thought I would share them with you. Now this will work if you already have a bucket list and it needs some revisions, or if you are starting your midlife bucket list. So here we go.

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Number 1: What do you want? What will bring you joy? What will give you a sense of adventure in your life? How will you achieve a new, personal best? These are the questions you can be asking yourself as you're putting together this bucket list.

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When I was young and dumb, I had a ton of interests. I was all over the place. I was bouncing from new idea to new idea. "Oh my goodness, this is so interesting. Oh my goodness, I wanna do this." I can guarantee you that if I did have a list, there would've been many, many changes to it over the years because I'm a different person now.

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I'm a different person than I was in my twenties and thirties. I know who I am. I know what I want. And I'm pretty confident of the direction I'm going in. And that's what these bucket lists are about. It's all about creating something that's perfect for you at this particular phase of your life.

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Not from your twenties or thirties, not for your nineties. But for right now. So stay focused on that. Get clarity on what you really and truly want at this point in your life.

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And think about the process and enjoying the process as you're doing this. If you're doing something that requires training or education or some kind of preparation before you can do the actual goal, you need to think about the process and make sure you're enjoying that as well.

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For example, if you say that you wanna run a marathon but you realize you don't actually like running every day, that's probably not a good bucket list item for you. Because you are going to be running five or six times a week to train for this thing.

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So it's really important that you enjoy the process. It's not just about the end goal. It's also about the process, so take that into consideration whenever you are putting together or revising your bucket list.

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Number 2: Can you edit or revise an item for your current situation? Now, back to the marathon example. I don't know about you, but I used to run. And then I stopped running because I realized I did not enjoy the sprains and the pains and the aches and the owies and everything that I was having to deal with because I started getting injured regularly.

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Also my knees were getting a little cranky, so I moved to walking. At some point, I just said, "Okay, yeah, I'm out. I'm gonna start walking." And now I love walking. I really do. It's actually one of my favorite pastimes.

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But what about you? If you have some physical limitations, instead of running a marathon, can you maybe walk a half-marathon instead? To me that still sounds like a lot! Half-marathons are about 13 miles but whew, if you can do it, go for it.

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Or maybe you can do 5Ks. 5Ks are about 3.1 miles long, and maybe you wanna do that instead. Maybe you set a yearly goal for hitting a certain number of 5Ks. You could say, "This year, I'm gonna do eight 5Ks in and around the area where I live."

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Now, the great thing about doing this too is 5K's are generally parts of fun runs and parts of fundraisers for nonprofit organizations. So if you adjusted your bucket list to hit 5Ks around your area, you would not only be achieving your bucket list item, but you would also be supporting the nonprofits in your community. That would be kind of cool too, right?

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Number 3: You don't have to do what everyone else is doing. Remember, for Easy Agers, things don't have to look a certain way. Things don't have to look like everybody else. So you do you.

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Maybe instead of finishing the race at a certain time, maybe you just go for finishing the race. You just finish the race when you finish, how's that? You do what works for you. Don't worry about anybody else because they have their own bucket lists, and they can put whatever they like on it.

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Number 4: If it's something you just don't want anymore, let it go. No guilt, no shame. Take it off the list. No harm done, right? You're not quitting. You're just freeing up space in your life to do the things you really wanna do, the things you really wanna have fun with.

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If you said you wanted to visit the 7 Wonders of the World but now with the Pandemic, maybe you don't like flying or you don't like living out of a suitcase, rethink this. Instead of the 7 Wonders of the World, maybe you should just focus on certain places that you've always thought would be cool to visit.

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Places like the Grand Canyon or New York City, or maybe you wanna see the leaves changing during the fall in the Northeast. Be very specific about what you really want. Get clarity on this.

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This is really important to make sure that you're excited and enthusiastic about doing this bucket list item, because you don't want stuff on your list that's kind of like, meh, whatever, right?

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And if you like to travel but you're still working and you don't have a lot of vacation time, why don't you look at changing things a little bit, mix it up a little bit. Think about weekend road trips or even day trips that you can get to in a few hours.

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You could head out really early on a Saturday morning, do the do wherever you're going, come home Saturday night or even come home Sunday morning. And that'll give you a nice little refreshing break in your routine. You'll feel like you've had a little breather from the every day and the mundane, and you'll be a lot more enthusiastic when Monday starts up again.

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And number 5: Keep the years close to you. I would suggest one- and three- and five-year bucket list items. By keeping them close, you're gonna get excited over them. They're gonna be top-of-mind. You can review your list regularly because you're doing things for that particular year, that one-year goal.

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You'll have something to look forward to, and you'll have this new sense of adventure and exploration from doing something new. And isn't that what makes life interesting? Isn't that what life is all about?

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So if we keep these bucket list items right in front of us on a regular basis — and we may be adding to that list as we go along — but we'll also be having that hope and excitement, and it'll make life look new, just like when we were younger. ;)

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And if there's something that isn't possible in five years, just stick it on your five-year list and move on. I mean, you can change it later but just keep it top-of-mind because this is the spice of life. This is what's gonna make you go, "Yes!" whenever you're thinking about your life and what's going to happen to you in the future.

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And it'll give you this new enthusiasm and new perspective that you may have never had before. All right, Easy Agers, that is it for today. I hope you can put some of these ideas to use as you're putting together your bucket list.

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Once again, if you want to be an Easy Aging® Insider, go to TheEasyAgingShow.com and sign up right now. And until next time, peace, love and blessings to you and yours. Take care, bye-bye!