Your bucket list or your life

POD #6: Your bucket list or your life

Do you have a bucket list? What’s on it? Is there really, truly any reason you cannot do the items on that list soon? Really?
Will it really take as much money as you think? Or as much time? Don’t you know people who are broke but somehow seem to travel all the time, or are super busy but somehow seem to make time to have all the fun?
What types of adventures appeal to you? Are you aware of how adventurous taking this Writing Challenge is?!?!
What does that mean about you—are you already a secret creature of adventure?
How have you been changed by the adventures you’ve taken, and what adventures are up next for you?

I have a bucket list that I created a few years ago.  It includes travel to specific locations, writing a book, skydiving, bungee jumping, and being debt free.  Those are the things that immediately come to mind from the list as this moment I can not put my hands on it.  Since making it, I have marked a few things off.  The majority of the things, my main barrier is finances.  The bungee jumping and skydiving are on my weight loss reward track. I definitely want to lose more weight before I try either.  My husband is not necessarily on board with my bucket list, but otherwise there is nothing that stands in the way of me doing the things that are on that list.  If I made it a priority I could likely check off a few more than I do each year.

While I have made the bucket list, I do not live for it.  I like adventures that involve travel, whether it is physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually.  Writing, especially with this challenge encourages me to do that.  I may be stationary physically, but I am traveling deeper within myself as I write pulling on spiritual truths, hidden emotions, or deeply engrained thoughts.  Or I am learning new things.

I am not adventurous as I once was in life, but I have always been someone who likes adventure.  I am probably a little more adventurous than most people think.  I like new experiences – not necessarily food wise – unless I can taste first without paying for it or know what is in it.  I love to learn new things, meet new people, explore new places.  Although I have strict personally boundaries, I like to explore the world with no boundaries.

This year I have been on an adventure to grow personally.  I have explored things about myself and learned things about myself that I didn’t know or had forgotten.  I have challenged myself to step out of the comfortable.  I have allowed myself to be more open and vulnerable with others.  I have stepped into some giftings that I have allowed to lay dormant for too long.  It certainly has not been easy, but I can even look back thus far and say I do not regret it.  I have seen God work in mighty ways as I open myself up to His possibilities.

Every day has the opportunity to be an adventure.  They question is, will I choose to live that way.  I am quick to admit I live a pretty scheduled life, so with the exception of what I see and hear it is easy for me to miss life’s everyday adventures.  I live every day on purpose, but I quickly fall into a routine and miss the very thing I want, adventure.

More than adventure, though, I want to make sure that I am living my life with purpose.  t the end of my life, I do not want my family to hold a piece of paper in their hand with every item crossed of and say “Jackie completed her bucket list.”  I want them to look  back on my life and know that “Jackie lived a lift of intention, purpose and made a lasting difference in the life of others.

This post is prompted by Tara-Nicholle Nelson’s 30 Day Writing Challenge for Conscious Leaders.