Another Bucket List...really?
1) Volunteer abroad Aug 2015
2) Apply for a job abroad for 1 year
3) Spend more time with my family
4) Get in shape (exercise and diet) the appearance of abs is preferable!
5) Dance class at least once a week
6) Make a difference: brainstorm ideas to start a charity
7) Sky dive in Europe (I nearly did in Dubai but alas, it was not meant to be!)
My bucket list probably looks a bit like yours, doesn’t it? Everyone has the getting in shape, family time and / or traveling related goals that they set themselves every year. And every year, come December 31st, we’ve either conveniently forgotten what we signed ourselves up for or we just think what’s the point in the all this resolution malarchy when no one ever sticks to it?
Well the point is…to make a difference, well at least for me anyway. And although I’ve broken many a resolution in my years, I felt like recently I’ve hit a wall and even though I’m 3 months late this year, I figured better late than never.
And instead of calling them New Year’s Resolutions or a Bucket List (before you grab a bucket to be sick in), I’m going to rename them ‘My Life’s Work’ as a working title. Because that’s what this list is…a work in progress. The list might grow, some of them might even change or get removed altogether. But seeing as it’s mine, I guess I can do what I want.
And if I don’t achieve all of this in 2015, there’s always 2016, 2017 and hopefully by the time I’m 50, I can look back at ‘My Life’s Work’ with a smile.
The top priority on ‘My Life’s Work’ is making a difference somehow to someone somewhere.
As cliché as it sounds, Robert F Kennedy once said, ‘Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.’
Sat at my office desk day in day out, I have this uncontrollable urge to make a change. I wonder what impact the 70 emails I send a day and the 100 I receive are making in this world. What will I be remembered for? (this is the wall I’ve hit!)
For years, its been eating me up inside slowly but surely. And instead of doing something about it, like so many others, I’ve let my job suck me in and take over.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to some amazing places in the world. I’ve met some inspirational people and I have experienced some incredible things which I may write about later if you’re lucky ;) but in all of that travelling, one experience changed my entire mind set and my life if I’m honest.
I never knew that by volunteering for a scheme in Honduras, that I’d accidentally somehow end up in Nepal living in an orphanage caring for some of world’s poorest children.
Poor from a Western perspective but actually they were the richest young people I’ve ever met. Despite their pain and hardships, they were rich with laughter, love, ambition and an understanding of life that some of us in our 30s, 40s and 50s can’t even comprehend.
Lessons learned:
1) Life isn’t money. Money is a means to an end.
2) Having an orphaned child call me mum brought me to tears and I realised that love is all powerful and the impact that you have on others is the strongest currency.
3) I cried when leaving the orphanage in Nepal only to be consoled by a 12 year old child who said, ‘Don’t cry, I miss my family and friends but that’s life. What matters is how you make other people feel.’ (He also called me fat on a daily basis hence #4 of ‘My Life’s Work).
4) Material things, clothes, shoes, cars and big houses are all nice to have but ignorance to the world’s suffering isn’t the way forward.
5) A single mango that costs less than 5p can make a child’s day!
6) Even if you can’t change the world, a single act of kindness can make a difference. It might not be monumental in comparison to the world but to that one person you help, it will be.
So this is my journey to make a change. I don’t know how yet. All I know is I want to make an active effort to do something that means something and that effort starts now…
2087
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