4 REASONS WHY I'M QUITTING MY BUCKET LIST

Last fall, I put together a pretty intense Bucket List.  And I was actually stressed about it.  I had to do all the things.  I had to document.  I had to blog.  You know me, I'm the Bucket List Queen.  I love a good Bucket List, but I also feel like there's a right/wrong time and right/wrong reasons to work on it.  Before I add new items to my Bucket List or cross off old items, here are a few questions I want to begin to ask myself:

1.  Is now a good time to work on my Bucket List?  Our Fixer Upper has been pretty stressful for the past two years, so thinking and concentrating on other things has been harder than normal.  Bucket List's are meant to be fun, but last fall I ended up feeling like it was just one more burden.  Maybe right now isn't the right time for us to be working on crossing things off of a Bucket List, but who knows where we will be next fall once our Fixer Upper is done!

2.  Do I really want to cross this item off of my Bucket List?  When I looked back at my fall Bucket List from last year, I noticed that I had put a few things that I really didn't care about.  Like, "jump in a pile of leaves".  Sounds all fun and cute, but in reality, I don't want to rake leaves and I hate spiders, so why?  I think I felt like I was supposed to do because it was fall and that's what all the other bloggers were doing (or saying that they were going to do).  My Bucket List should reflect what I truly want to do and will look forward to, not what I think I should do.  Side note: I just went to my Bucket List and removed stuff that I really don't want to do, but thought I was supposed to want to do.  It felt good.

3.  Am I taking advantage of positive things in my everyday life?  The problem with a Bucket List is that my everyday life can tend to be pretty boring.  I wake up, tidy my home, exercise, do some laundry, run errands, work some, blog, fix dinner, eat with my husband and then watch Netflix together or read books.  Not too exciting right?  I don't want to feel like life is only exciting when I'm crossing off an item on my Bucket List.  I want to enjoy everyday, do things each day that I enjoy and look forward to.

4.  Is my Bucket List making me feel bad about myself?  Sure, I'll never do it all, but it's fun to dream right?  As soon as it stops being fun, it might be time to step away from the Bucket List.  At least for a little while.  If you have a Bucket List make sure you have a plan of how you are going to check those items off.  Save your money.  Plan your trip.  Take time off work.  And go.  If you are always saying "one day", you'll feel worse and worse.  Don't say one day.  Say "when" and make it happen.

Long story short, I won't be working on a fall Bucket List this year, but I'm keeping my regular life-long Bucket List.  Don't worry.  I'm not that crazy.  I still love Bucket Lists, but I want to focus this fall, instead, on things that I know that Ironman and I love to do together.  We love to carve a pumpkin.  We love to go camping.  We love to watch ELF.  We love doing these things each fall.  So, I'm keeping it simple and going to just focus on doing things we love, without checking them off of a list.