Bucket List
My life so far has been rather floaty. Early in my adulthood, I made the choice to just go with the flow. When I graduated high school, I started working in the same industry as my father; no thought was given to the future or if it was what I wanted to do. I just took the path of least resistance because nothing was needed to start.
After a while, I did start to actively steer my life a little. I got married, bought a house, and had a child. All of these seemed to work out so well. I must be extremely lucky because these are of the largest decisions in life and I just found myself here without planning. I started college without a plan and changed my major twice. Now I am ready to graduate soon, start a new career, and my daughter is almost ready to start school herself; it may be late but it is definitely time to plan.
What should I plan for? As a novice in being an adult and planning, I think a bucket list is a good place to start. My bucket list will have things that I must do and want to do. After I have a list, I can begin making S.M.A.R.T. goals.
BUCKET LIST:
· Get an internship.
· Graduate college.
· Get a job.
· Get my daughter into a good public school.
· Teach my daughter to read, write, and do math.
· Help my daughter choose a sport she wants to do.
· Go on vacation in Mexico.
· Fix the drainage issue in my yard.
· Buy a rental property.
· Go on vacation in the United Kingdom.
· Sell my 1963 Vespa.
· Lose some weight.
· Play drums in a band.
This bucket list will hopefully be completed in the next five years if I can plan accordingly. Some of these items also seem more like a chore to-do list while some seem like goals. I guess they can be considered the same thing, but to me, a goal takes analysis, careful planning, sustained effort, and has a greater outcome in comparison to a completed task. A narrowed bucket list of major goals that I should concentrate on would be:
- Get an internship.
- Graduate college.
- Get a job.
- Choose a school for my daughter and make sure that education becomes her priority.
- Buy a rental property.
- Lose some weight.
This list could be an outline ready for planning. Now I can make each line-item more specific. Figuring out why these are important, when I need to do them by, where I want to do them, and what would success for each look like. This is the S.M.A.R.T. goal process of making goals specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.
If I could achieve the goals on this list in five years, I think I could be proud of myself, and more importantly, so could my wife.
I like going with the flow too. Here we are talking about planning and setting goals yet some of your biggest decisions, or I'd say accomplishments, like getting married and starting a family seemed to involve no planning. As much as planning and preparing can assist you in life, sometimes unexpected things happen by chance and turn out to be some of the biggest accomplishments you never anticipated.
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing that you can realize so much while pursuing for more. I have always want to have a child and buy a house, but it can be a challenge in San Diego. Good luck on planning for your daughter.
DeleteMan I love your blog because it feel so connected to the real world. I'm 32 but unmarried and I've also floated downriver taking that path that gravity and water carved out ahead of me. Those are powerful influences to try to take control of and it seems like we are.
ReplyDeleteThat crazy how you didn't plan anything but so any amazing this came to you. It is good you are starting to plan now to make sure you get everything done.Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI love how you said so many things in your life happened unplanned and that you are happy with where you are. A lot of people (including myself) plan so much and in the end get disappointed because things did not go exactly how they were supposed to. I think it is good to know what you want and where you want your life to be headed but planning everything step by step is only going to lead to disappointment. I also love how so many goals of your have to do with your daughter. You can definitely tell she is a big part of your life.
ReplyDeleteI like how your first list included lots of dreams, but then you noted that having identified all those dreams, you could then prioritize and create SMART goals designed to help you achieve those dreams in an order of importance.
ReplyDeleteYou've done a lot so far in your life, Ryan, and I think you'll achieve all those things.
Erin