by Marvin Double

Created on: January 09, 2009   Last Updated: January 15, 2009

Life moves along at its own relentless pace. It easy in the rush of things to be left feeling perhaps that we've missed opportunities or perhaps been short changed in one way or another.

In the recent movie, "The Bucket List" the two main characters, each battling cancer and facing the end of life, draw up a list of things they want to do before they "kick the bucket" - their combined "life list".

Having at their disposal unlimited financial resources allow them, over the course of the film, to indulge their every whim and desire. The plot is of course fantasy in the finest Hollywood
tradition.

Few of us have the unlimited means as do the characters in the movie.
However, even without the benefit, freedom or latitude of a Hollywood screen play, creating our own bucket list can still be a wondrous, grand adventure; a life changing experience on a very personal scale.

Making a life list is really a journey of self discovery. The process is deceptively simple. When done right it can be enlightening, inspiring, even a spiritual process.

The technique used is easy and pretty straight forward. To begin get a blank sheet of paper and start writing down things you want to do.
Advocates of making life lists commonly advise to do this exercise by thinking like a child.

Don't preconceive, rationalize or over think, just write.

Allow yourself absolute freedom of thought, unrestricted and unobstructed by the rational, logical and critical you.

Let your thoughts and feeling flow unedited.

After you're finished, look for keywords or patterns that point to the big things you want to do or change have fun with the process and let your imagination run freely.

Sifting through words and phrases you may uncover interesting even surprising things about yourself.

Now, using a second sheet of paper organize the free flow of thoughts from your first sheet into list of goals. Remember the life list isn't rigid or formal; it can be changed or modified if you wish.

It would be fair to ask, why even bother with doing something so apparently trivial? After all, many of us feel trapped by jobs or responsibilities making such an exercise seem perhaps futile.

Ah, but that is the whole point of a bucket list. The exercise is designed to help us break the free of the feelings of futility. It allows us to consider those ways in which we might enrich and improve our lives.

Uncovering our hidden thoughts and ambitions can be very liberating. To plumb the depths of our psyche, unbounded by rules, restrictions or limitations can also be good therapy, if nothing else, but it can of course be the start of something more.

By acknowledging those things that make us happy new pathways, potential or possibilities may emerge. It is after all, only when the faint whisper of dreams are recognized as intentions then set out as goals that they can ever become the substance of reality.

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