Remember when we were kids and we let our imaginations run wild with ideas of things we wanted to do? Somewhere in our 30s, sometimes way before, we almost stop dreaming. It’s a shame really but just because the 80% of the herd (me included) dream too little or not at all, it’s not a good reason to have it be okay.
If you haven’t seen the movie The Bucket List starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson it’s one of the first things you should put on your own Bucket List – see the movie.
A part of the “Alice in Wonderland” movie based on the classic book by Lewis Carroll has Alice asking the Chesire cat what direction she should take.
“Which road do I take?” (Alice)
“Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then, said the cat, it doesn’t matter.”
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
The above is exactly how most live their lives–not really knowing what is most important to them, not really knowing where they want to go, not really knowing what they want to do but feeling quite angst-ridden with a nagging sense of what’s missing but not really knowing just what.
I have no right to act as though I can give you permission to dream. I know I cannot but I want you to consider doing it anyway–or better yet–just do it. Create your own bucket list. Start with 5-10 things and give yourself permission to add to it as things strike your consciousness.
- Do you have sports/athletics events you want to try or milestones you want to reach?
- Maybe you want to learn a foreign language.
- Is there something involved with music you’d like to try?
- Are there adventures you’d like to go on? Water, sky, land, with animals?
- What natural wonders do you want to see?
- What travel dreams do you have?
- Books to read? Movies to watch?
- People to meet?
- One life you’d like to add value to?
- An educational accomplishment?
- Financial goals?
- Work you’re passionate about? Career goals?
- Shopping?
- Creating and raising a family?
- Where would you live? What’s the house look like?
- Contributions – who would you help and how?
- Entertainment – What or who must you see?
Here’s a site with lots of ideas too. http://www.squidoo.com/100things
No matter how far you take this I want to encourage you, and in doing so I encourage myself, to dream a little more. Get more clarity on exactly what it is you want and through the dreaming and the increased clarity we can move in a direction with more purpose and increased daily satisfaction.