Do Everything On Your Bucket List In 12 Months
I live in Manly.
Cue everyone: “Cool… Do you surf?”
Me: “No” (my subtle sense of pride confusing them)
“Learn to surf” was pinned on my bucket list for almost a decade along with a blonde-haired beach babe smiling back at me (apparently) “inspiring” me.
A decade of best intentions later – I hadn't taken one lesson.
You have these. Things you say you want but make little to no progress on.
The dream body
A 4-month trip
Learning a language
Problem is, they're distracting you.
In 2016, a pivotal lesson led me to tick off 80% of my list in less than 12 months.
Here’s how…
I joined a gym that, as well as training “normal” people like me, also trained elite fitness models.
By receiving this intimate insight into the commitment required for the body I *said* I wanted, I was invited to ask myself through a realistic lens… “am I prepared to do what they do?”
The answer - no, I wasn’t.
The reality - I didn’t want it enough. AHH THE FREEDOM!
Thanks to this humbling insight, I audited my entire list through this simple interrogation:
What do I want?
Why do I want it?
Am I prepared to do what it takes?
Two things can happen here:
1. You realise your “why” is weak.
e.g. you think it will make you seem cooler, hotter or smarter.
AND/OR
2. You realise you aren’t willing to do what it takes to have it.
Basically, you want fantasy, not reality.
This is called a pipe dream.
And it’s wasting precious space.
When it came to my imagined future-surfer-self, I saw that tanned girl looking effortlessly cool and asked myself, was I willing to:
Swallow a tonne of saltwater for my perceived future coolness?
Get in the freezing ocean consistently enough to reap the rewards?
Drop a few gees on gear and lessons?
Nope.
So I quit draining energy contemplating it and wasting space entertaining it.
Thanks to this (dis)qualification criteria I also culled doing pull-ups and learning Spanish.
Was I being lazy and non-committal?
No.
I was being ruthlessly honest and in integrity.
The secret to doing everything on your list is this:
STOP pretending you want things you AREN’T willing to do the work for.
Overcoming your romanticised idea of a cooler, hotter, smarter future version of you means you focus on what you’re genuinely excited to sacrifice for.
Then, you get hustling!
After deleting the dead weight, I started taking inspired action on the rest previously lost in the noise.
I went all-in on:
→ My Coaching Studies
→ Kickboxing
→ Hiking
I discovered that the perseverance and pain these required didn’t feel hard at all.
I didn’t want to eat sh&! on the sand, but I was happy to get kicked in the face.
Because the truth is:
False desires of the ego feel like a battle,
True desires of the soul feel like fun.
The hard you *choose* feels easy.
So go on...free yourself by asking yourself:
Am I willing to do what it takes?
If not, delete it.
If YES, go do it!
