I remember when I first started to write a bucket list. It was during the pandemic, I had moved back with my parents and was trying so hard to stay afloat and resist the depression that was expanding its wings embracing me in darkness.
For me, that bucket list was my way of fighting, my way of trying to survive, my way of living with good and bad and what life was throwing at me.
It’s not surprising that though I had decided to write a bucket list that I thought of like a life vest, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was searching for things that I wanted to do like one is searching for an object in a complete dark room.
When writing a bucket list, one usually puts all the hope, the positivity, the determination, the fears, the passions down on paper. I only felt the fears and that’s what I thought I had only.
On my first bucket list I copied a lot of the things other people wanted to achieve, or I adapted them. I also read an advice on the Internet that said that you could also let your inspired by the movies you watch or the books you read to complete your bucket list and that with time you would get to write your own. And I just did that. I also wrote things that seemed impossible and I allowed myself to dream big without judging myself.
I started with simple things and my life became richer with every new experience; my confidence and hope grew bigger with every check mark on the list. In time, my list expended. I would check it again every few months which helped me to learn what felt important and what was really coming from inside me, what I really wanted, not what others wanted.
When I started to feel better and more aligned with myself, I eliminated what didn’t feel like me, what was borrowed only to help me find my own direction, and I added what I really wanted to try, my dreams and my visions.
No matter how silly it may seem, for me bucket lists are like street lights, they make it easier even when is dark. Even big procrastinators can benefit from these bucket lists because they contain a big goal that actually translates into the intention to achieve that goal.
Having a bucket list is like putting your intentions on paper, a silent promise to yourself and a written proof that you tried your best. Another benefit of the bucket list is that it improves your self-confidence. To become confident that you can achieve your goals you don’t only need the knowledge or the skills, you actually need to take action. The process and the results will build your self-confidence and will prove to yourself that you can do it.
And if there are times in life where you get lost and become confused again, go back to your bucket list, they will show you the you who tried, the you who won, the you who learned. Trust your street lights.
Slow productivity 
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