The hit movie, “Bucket list”, inspired people around the world to pursue their passions.
So what exactly is a bucket list and do you actually need one to live a meaningful life?
These days, people seem to think of a bucket list as majestic travel destinations and experiences. It’s about designing a meaningful and exciting life that’s more than our daily to do list. A recent research by REST Industry Super found that 52 per cent of Australia’s over-55s actually have a retirement bucket list. Bucket list coach Lee Blume explains what it involves.
Young people are also increasingly challenging themselves to a list of dreams to fulfil. With clients ranging from their twenties through to sixties, Blume notices a different attitude in the baby boomers to the millennials.
Blume says a bucket list doesn’t need to contain grand goals that cost the earth.
The list is highly personal and different for every individual. Some of the items can be as simple as organising a group of friends to donate blood together, looking into your family history, taking up a new hobby, or exploring nearby towns.
One of her clients, Ayoma Gooneratne, took the plunge of opening a gourmet deli in the country town of Orange 12 years ago. Gooneratne loves her job as chef and owner of a family business, but since writing down her bucket list, her life is no longer just about work.
While she is still passionate about her work, she looks forward to realising her dreams of swimming with a dolphin, going hiking and visiting Antarctica.
Blume suggests starting with ten items on the list with pictures to help you visualise those goals.
Surendra Prasad may have retired but still wears many hats. He is on the board of the Queensland Ethnic Communities Council, and president of the local Fiji Senior Citizens Association. And Surendra helps in raising ten socially-responsible grandchildren.
Prasad speaks with a sparkle in his eyes. Everything he does links back to his lifelong aspiration of forging intercultural ties in the community. Upon reading about the Australian-Indian soldiers who fought during WWI and WWII, he spent two years establishing a memorial for those unsung heroes he felt so inspired by at the local RSL. Nothing seems impossible for Prasad at 75.
These days, Prasad is slowing down although still devoting much of his time to whatever cause he finds meaningful in the community.
Having rode camels through the Gobi Desert, trekked in the summer heat of Mongolia and then finding herself inside a glacier the next moment, life is still full of wonder for Blume at 63 back at home in Orange.
If you ever find yourself getting lost in the realities of life, why not pause for a moment, pick up a pen and start uncovering your dreams?
