About Cullen's List
I first created my own life's to-do list when I was in college, and sometime before they were actually called bucket lists. I had just gone through a break-up and was questioning the direction my life was headed. Like many people, I was waiting for my life to unfold, thinking I would one day find myself, discover who I was supposed to be, and be directed to my purpose. At some point, I realized that I didn't want to be a passenger in my life and wait for things to happen for me or to me. How could I know that they were ever going to happen for sure? And what if my life wasn't going to be what I wanted it to be? I had decided that I needed to make sure I could look back on my life when I'm 80 and be happy with how it turned out.
Often I have been told that everything happens for a reason, but I am not a big fan of having a destiny or this idea that God has the minutia planned out for us. Whether you believe in God or not, I believe life should be enjoyed and celebrated. And there are many different ways to do that, we just have to find what we enjoy the most. When I finally understood this, it allowed me the freedom of figuring out how I wanted to spend the limited time I have on this planet.
Now, there are a few rules I do live by that apply to the things I put on my bucket list. And the movie "The Bucket List" has a scene, when Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson are at the top of the pyramids in Egypt, that provides for a good guide in thinking about what you want to add to yours. The two general rules that I use to quality-check my items are adapted from this scene:
1. Will this item help me enjoy life?
2. Does this item interfere with others enjoying their lives?
If I can't answer yes to the first question and no to the second question, the item is not list-worthy.
Aside from that, as long as I want to do it, I can add it to my list. It is important to mention that I have regularly evaluated my list to make sure the items are still important to me and that I want to do them. Nothing would be worse than working toward an item just because I had decided at an early time in my life that I wanted to do it. As I grow older and change, so do my interests and things I think are important. My list is a reflection of that fact.
Often I have been told that everything happens for a reason, but I am not a big fan of having a destiny or this idea that God has the minutia planned out for us. Whether you believe in God or not, I believe life should be enjoyed and celebrated. And there are many different ways to do that, we just have to find what we enjoy the most. When I finally understood this, it allowed me the freedom of figuring out how I wanted to spend the limited time I have on this planet.
Now, there are a few rules I do live by that apply to the things I put on my bucket list. And the movie "The Bucket List" has a scene, when Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson are at the top of the pyramids in Egypt, that provides for a good guide in thinking about what you want to add to yours. The two general rules that I use to quality-check my items are adapted from this scene:
1. Will this item help me enjoy life?
2. Does this item interfere with others enjoying their lives?
If I can't answer yes to the first question and no to the second question, the item is not list-worthy.
Aside from that, as long as I want to do it, I can add it to my list. It is important to mention that I have regularly evaluated my list to make sure the items are still important to me and that I want to do them. Nothing would be worse than working toward an item just because I had decided at an early time in my life that I wanted to do it. As I grow older and change, so do my interests and things I think are important. My list is a reflection of that fact.
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