The Importance of Having a Bucket List

April 30, 2015
To prevent boredom and personal complacency developing a bucket list (or whatever you want to call it) is extremely important. You work stressful and sometimes all-encompassing jobs that can take over and affect all aspects of a life...

“What’s on your bucket list” is a question we all understand and perhaps have asked or had asked of us.  “The Bucket List” is a phrase that’s been around awhile but entered the common vernacular in 2007 following a film of the same name, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two aging and terminally ill men who strike out together to cross accomplishments off their bucket lists – their term for those things they hope to achieve before kicking the bucket.  The idea of reaching certain goals and milestones before crossing life’s finish line is nothing new, really, but now we have a name for it and countless people have embraced the idea since. 

But not everyone has such a list of desired accomplishments or goals, preferring instead to take life as it comes.  We can understand the desire to “take it as it comes” to a degree; being overly planned or rigid in our goals and expectations can undermine spontaneity, produce undue stress and anxiety, or get in the way of enjoying the unexpected and exciting twists life can throw at us.  But we also believe balance is necessary and developing a version of a bucket list is healthy, focusing, and adds a layer of meaning and excitement to life and what the future holds.  Having and working toward both short-term and long-term goals is extremely important.

Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.    - Aristotle

We dream big, plan big, and view the world around us as something to be explored, experienced, and conquered.  We are driven to growth, personally and collectively, and we aspire to greatness as we define it.  At least most of us do when we’re young; remember your childhood dreams, or the sense of adventure you had as a young adult or brand new cop? 

But something happens as life sets in.  A great many of us become complacent, simply satisfied with where we find ourselves and without any desire to push beyond.  Contentment is one thing, and we’re certainly not knocking anyone’s contentment if it is well-earned and built on accomplishing goals and dreams.  Giving in to motivational inertia is altogether different and something to guard against.    

Motivational inertia comes about for many reasons: reaching an impasse between objectives and ability; finding ourselves thwarted by outside forces over which we have no (or limited) control; fear of failure; uncertainly over how to proceed; lack of time, resources, or energy to continue planning and pursuing goals.  Sometimes we just get tired.  No matter what the reason, when our human drive to make and pursue goals meets our equally human tendency to founder when adversity upends our best laid plans, for far too many of us it’s simply easier to give in than to drive forward.

“Complacency kills” is something you’ve no doubt heard many times as LEOs, cautioning against ever letting your guard down or accepting as routine any stop, any call, any encounter.  We’ve gone even further, exploring how complacency can destroy relationships, careers, physical and emotional health, and now motivation and dreams.

The importance of a Bucket List

To prevent boredom and personal complacency we believe developing a bucket list (or whatever you want to call it) is extremely important.  You work stressful and sometimes all-encompassing jobs that can take over and affect all aspects of a life, sometimes with serious consequences.  Our goal with More Than a Cop is to encourage and teach practices to stay balanced and healthy for a career and lifetime, and having a bucket list offers the following benefits:

It gives hope

Setting goals and planning for their achievement gives us hope for the future and something to look forward to.  Getting caught up in the day-to-day grind easily overwhelms and puts us in a type of survival mode where one day looks pretty much like the last, and predicts the next.  There is great power in having hope for your goals to add happiness and an edge to life that otherwise gets suppressed.  Redundancy and the boredom that comes from it creates its own kind of stress that working on a bucket list reduces.

It counteracts cynicism

Part of the cynicism that so permeates law enforcement comes from the tendency of a lot of cops to so completely immerse themselves in the culture.  They gradually exclude anything not having to do with the job, even if unconsciously, losing sight of vast swathes of life they used to find great satisfaction in.  Living and breathing any single aspect of life – let alone a career that, let’s face it, is a petri dish for cynical thoughts – blinds us to the simple fact that life can and should be fun!

It puts us in the driver’s seat rather than merely being a passenger

You are given one life on this earth; wouldn’t you rather be in the driver’s seat than swept along by forces beyond your control, risking regrets and disappointment at the end over what you “coulda, shoulda, or woulda” done if you had another shot ?  Decide to take the wheel now.

It teaches you about yourself

Putting our goals and dreams on paper helps define us, teaching us what is really important and clarifying our nature and character.  This might seem silly; of course we know ourselves right?  We’re intelligent, fully actualized adults, in command of who and what we are.  Or are we? 

Life is actually a journey, and self-discovery an ongoing process.  A lot of us fall into roles that seem right, or responsible, or just expected of us, without a lot of thought or real insight.  Taking a hard look at our bucket list might redefine what we think our roles should be, or even prompt us to change course or cast off the expectations of others. 

It helps you live out your dreams

The simple act of creating a bucket list lends focus to the dreams you put on it and increases the likelihood you’ll actually try to achieve them.  In other words, it makes them real and you responsible to go after them.  This is especially true if you share your list with family or friends, or are working with someone toward shared goals.  Not only do you not want to let yourself down, but sharing goals with someone else and promising to chase them together and bragging to others about what you’re up to are powerful motivators to succeed. 

And when you succeed and cross one of your goals off the list you are energized to keep going.  Success is a powerful motivator in its own right.  Sharing your experience with friends and family and celebrating achievement is both bonding and encouraging, driving you onto even more adventures, and possibly the addition of even more goals to accomplish.

It keeps us young

It is said “age is just a number.”  We agree (especially as we’re getting older), and would like to add that “growing old” can be as much a psychological and mental state as a physical one.  If we’re lucky to live long enough eventually all our bodies will tap out, of course, but as long as the body is able, the mind and heart hold great sway over whether we remain young in spirit despite our number.

Being ambitious, idealistic dreamers is the province of the young.  It has no age restrictions, however.

Building your Bucket List

Our bucket list has taken us on a cruise through the Panama Canal, island hopping French Polynesia, zipping through France, England, and The Netherlands on a bullet train, ziplining through a cloud forest in Costa Rica on a steel cable, and a year of Improv training, to name just a few things.  There are many more adventures to come, and our lists remain malleable rather than carved in stone. Checking items off and adding new ideas is rewarding and fun, and strengthens us as a couple. 

If you have some version of a Bucket List already we salute you!  If not, consider building one.  We suggest starting with hobbies you used to have and would like to revisit, old dreams and goals you may have let go but still linger in the back of your mind, and new ideas that simply seem like fun.  Start with the outrageous and find ways to make it happen.  Maybe you’ve always dreamed of driving a Porsche but you live a minivan life on a minivan budget.  What’s stopping you from saving up to rent one for a week, leaving the kids with the grandparents, and taking a top-down, high-end driving vacation?  Move to the nearly forgotten “I don’t know why I’ve never gotten around to this” tasks, and don’t forget to always keep your eyes open for things you haven’t thought of yet.

Rank things by “Must Do,” “Hope to Do,” and “It’d Be Nice to Get To” to prioritize and make your list manageable.  And then make your bucket list a priority by regularly planning for your next adventure or goal.

Because it should be; it’s really that important to collect memories instead of regrets.

So… Be Safe, and go Have Fun!

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