Bucket Listing

I’ve always been firmly against bucket listing. Don’t get me wrong, I endorse certain aspects of the practice but at the bottom it’s fundamentally flawed. Allow me to explain.

I’m one hundred percent in support of people making lists. For many of my projects the lists are the only things I actually end up completing. The list of tasks. The list of materials. The list of shops I need to visit. The list of the different lists I need to compile.

I am also a huge fan of doing things. This is probably the best part of bucket listing. I try to adhere to a system of continually participating in activities, watching events, acquiring experiences, and eating food. In fact right now I’m engaged in a quadruple-header of sorts. I’m attending a professional hockey game, writing my blog, practicing my German, and eating a huge burrito all at the same time.

It’s also important to do things before you die. Life is short and you have to make the most of it while you can. There are even some things you can only accomplish at specific times. For example, if you want to try underage drinking you have to do it before you turn of legal age.

Surprisingly, there is only one adverse aspect to bucket listing. It would seem after so many positives that it would be next to impossible for a single negative to counteract all that goodness. But because it’s so fundament to the practice, it nullifies all the previous points.

What I don’t like about bucket listing is the random factor. Take the following pretend, three-item bucket list:

1. Go see a professional soccer game in one of the top European leagues
2. Visit Europe
3. Visit New York City

Now if you were assigned this list in a normal manner, it would be a straightforward process of completing it. You would simply fly through New York on your way to Europe during the soccer season and go see a game. But when you bucket list you have no control over the order in which you have to complete your tasks. You run the risk of reaching into your bucket and pulling out the Visit Europe task and then after you visit Europe getting the New York task. Because there’s only one item left you’re going to feel like a real chump when you have to fly all the way back to Europe to go see the soccer game.

I’m not being a hypochondriac here – I also have a list of things I want to do before I die. But unlike those bucket listers, because I’m not selecting my activities at random, my system is way better. At the end of the day I stand a much greater chance of actually completing all the items on my list.

I don’t care if he’s here for a charity fundraiser, dressing up as General Motti three days after actor Richard LeParmentier passed away is not cool.

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