Kicking the bucket list

Bucket lists. Is this what I need? I guess there is some similarity between the life less ordinary and a bucket list. The result of both is to look back on your death bed and think 'wow, I did a lot of fantastic things during my life' or maybe just have some great tales to tell the grand kids and the lads down the pub. 

The internet has allowed people to share their bucket lists and a number of books and magazine articles similarly publish lists of 'things you must do before you die'. A side effect of this is that it suggested ideas rather than prompting people to look at what THEY would really like to do. Writing this I can't help but keep thinking of 'swimming with dolphins', brain-washing in full effect.

My first issue I have with many bucket lists is the income levels required to complete them. Judging by many I've seen, the first item on my list should be 'make my millions' (or rob a bank) at which point the completing the rest of the list will become a whole lot easier. By publishing such lists they're effectively creating markets for experiences and we can't ignore the fact that everyone is after our hard earned cash these days. If there's a common desire amongst people then someone will have identified it as an income opportunity.

So for many bucket list items that were once symbolic of 'off the beaten track/life less ordinary' experiences have now become package holidays or off-the-shelf experience-in-a-box (or red letter) solutions. In doing so surely they have made less ordinary things ordinary!? Surely, this is robbing the experience of  it's very essence leaving you in the pub regaling your tale of glory only to have a friend interject with a 'yeah, I known a couple of mates that did that'.

The second key difference between a life less ordinary and a bucket list is that the bucket list has a deadline, quite literally as it happens. Deadlines are great, especially the whooshing sound they make as they whizz by, but that is part of the problem. Assuming my deadline is age 71 then I have thirty years to complete my list, plenty of time, now pass me a Pringle and we'll see what's on the tv. There lies the problem, we're back to doing our school homework at 10pm on a Sunday evening. Procrastination.

Yep, a life less ordinary is a way of life, not a check list. It's not about spreading the to-do list over my remaining time, it's about cramming as much fun into my life every year, month, week or day. Putting things off is how I got to this mid-life ... situation. No, what I need is not a bucket list but ideas. Ideas and self-discipline.