Anti-Bucket List 2017

As soon as Hanson released "I Was Born" this year and started talking about challenging yourself to do exciting and even scary new things, I thought about my own Anti-Bucket List series that I've challenged myself with for the past few years. Here's my 2017--some planned, some definitely unplanned, and all survived and accomplished one way or another:

Anti-Bucket List series posts

Anti-Bucket List 2016

Anti-Bucket List series

Anti-Bucket List 2015

Photo: Joshua Tree, California

What is an Anti-Bucket List?
My Anti-Bucket List 2013
My Anti-Bucket List 2014

Try making your own at www.canva.com.

My Anti-Bucket List: 2014 Edition

We're all familiar with the concept of new year's resolutions, the practice of identifying things you want to accomplish in the next 365 days. On a larger scale, you have the bucket list of everything you want to do before you "kick the bucket." It can be a great motivational tool, but it always leaves room for disappointment.

I've never been satisfied with that kind of goal setting, so a few years ago I came up with an alternative: The Anti-Bucket List. Instead of a giant list of things you haven't done yet, the Anti-Bucket List is a list of things you've already accomplished. I do one every year, but the time frame is entirely up to you. What things have you already accomplished in 2014? Ever? Create your own, and take a moment to be proud of what you've done so far.

More examples:

The original Anti-Bucket List.
Anti Bucket List 2013

If you want to create your own, try my current photo editing website obsession: www.canva.com.

My Anti-Bucket List: 2013 Edition.

Back in early 2012, I wrote a blog post proposing the concept of an "anti-bucket list." The idea is to identify a list of things you have already accomplished instead of setting a list of unattainable goals for the future. Besides, sometimes I find the experiences I never dared to dream up and write down on a list to be more fulfilling than those I've been anticipating. Spontaneity can trump years of plans if you let it.

Since revisiting my original Anti-Bucket List, I thought of all the new things I've done in the last 19 months and decided maybe it's time for an upgrade. Then I took it a step further. What if instead of tallying up all the fun things I've ever done into one big trophy of a graphic, I held myself to a single year. 2013. Could I accomplish enough in one year to warrant a new list? Would such a list be disappointingly barren, or surprisingly full? It's a challenge I may take on yearly from now on--not to fulfill a set of predetermined requirements, or to make myself feel useless if I can't come up with anything--but to take the time to identify the fun, unexpected things I have accomplished this year. It serves as a fun evaluation at the end of the year as well as motivation to keep going in 2014.

So here it is, my Anti-Bucket List for 2013: the traveling fan edition. What's on yours? (think outside of the box; it doesn't have to be travel-based). What else can you add in the next month?

Photo: Negril, Jamaica 2013

Want to make one of your own? Try www.picmonkey.com. It's free and simple to use.

My Anti-Bucket List

I recently joined tumblr, and after swearing to myself that I'd delete it if I started aimlessly killing a lot of time (though I have yet to figure out what it's really for if that isn't the purpose), I keep finding myself browsing the bucket list tags. I've always been a little intrigued by the concept of a bucket list. Should I have one? Would I be more motivated to go out and do exciting things if I did? The more I look at other people's lists, the more I think no, I don't need one. Because instead of collecting things I want to do, I keep finding myself identifying things I've already done. I don't want a list of things I may never do, a collection of standards that I may never reach that might not even mean something to me in ten years. I think it would be too much like a new year's resolution for me--something with good intentions that ultimately falls short.

Instead, I want an anti-bucket list, an ever-growing list of things I've done that I never thought I'd do. Proof that I've put myself out there and lived life in some way. So here it is, my anti-bucket list, made possible in part by viewers like you (who I'm sure some of which were in the car or on the sidewalk with me), and also by my favorite band, who often motivates me to do stupid things like dance in a banana suit.

Photo credit me--unedited, probably taken haphazardly while driving, definitely taken somewhere between Maine and Florida. Make one of your own! You might be surprised by what you've already done.