The bucket list. We’ve all heard of it. Whether it was the
movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman trying to accomplish a life’s
worth of wishes before they died within a year or that mystical list of places
that maybe one day you’ll want to go see and experience.
For me, a bucket list grew out of
a phone call I received in late 2002. My
buddy Dale Gredler called me to let me know he booked his ticket to Spain to go
run with the bulls the following July. After
explaining how cool it would be, his question was simple, yet direct – are you
in or are you out? I thought about it – the cost of flights, hotels, spending
money, whether I could get time off or not from my new job, etc. Running with
the bulls was always something I THOUGHT about doing, but not now. There were other things to see and do,
right? I mean, I’d probably do it next
year if I didn’t do it that year. In my
mind, I remember thinking – no time like the present. The very next day I
called him back with an answer – I’m in.
A group of two eventually grew to
five and it was one of the best trips of our lives. Starting off in Madrid, Spain for 4 nights,
driving north into Pamplona the day before the San Fermin festival, and then actually
running with the bulls. It was such a
surreal feeling standing next to another buddy, T-bone, in Pamplona Town Square
with thousands of other people preparing to run with the bulls. It was such an
iconic experience that Hemingway once wrote about – the running through the
streets, seeing people above in the balconies looking down on us, the sights,
the smells, and of course, the bulls. We
all made it out unscathed except for T-bone who got flipped by a runaway bull
right in front of me in the arena and landed on his forehead. A small scar on his forehead is that “badge of honor” that he
still bears to this day.
From that point forward, it was
now a question for me of where we would go next – the Pyramids at Giza, the Great
Wall of China, or a full-moon party in Thailand. Whatever it was, it was going on a ‘list’ of
things I wanted to do and sights I wanted to see.
Studies have shown if you write down a goal you’re overwhelmingly
more likely to accomplish that goal. Like I said before, no time like the
present – what’s on your bucket list?
Maybe it’s to see Europe next year or a specific city in South America the
following year. It could be much closer
to home like visiting a local town or an historic Civil War site. Or maybe you'll do all of these trips next year. Remember, your bucket list is simply a list of things you want to see, but with a timeline attached to it. So go ahead, write 'em down, and then get to it!
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