Yesterday I watched a movie in the middle of the day. Yup, I indulged myself instead of doing things on my “To Do” list. At first I felt guilty because I knew I should do these things for my business but I just couldn’t seem to focus. It was an off day for me, with the pain and head cloudiness… (explained reason in a previous article) so I decided that I was just going to give myself a break and watch a movie, besides, today I don’t care what happened yesterday. It’s done and beyond my control.

The movie actually hasn’t left my thoughts since watching it. It got me thinking.

Let me start from the beginning: Once upon a time… just kidding.

I have been reading and listening to audiobooks, podcasts, audio(video, etc) on the mind, thinking and intuition. One thing that keeps coming up for me is, “Listen and follow your gut.” Ok, so they don’t say it that way exactly, it’s more of a “listen to your intuition”, but GUT works for me, so live with it.

We as a people don’t seem to do this much. Few of us, really. My research has shown me about 1% of the world’s population do this on a regular basis and 3% do it about half the time, while the rest of the world does it hardly, if at all. Most go with their logic or emotions. Dumb, in a lot of incidences.

But I’m getting off track…

I randomly picked a movie yesterday, and I’m glad I did listen to my gut on this particular thing. It was a movie about two people who lost their spouses and found each other through a random situation. (Same Time Next Week is the title).

The story line really doesn’t matter here. What matters is the one thing I picked out of the movie that resonated in me. Yes, I’m a hopeless romantic and single (not looking for love thanks) but that’s not what I took away from the movie.

What got me was: This woman, Sara, whose husband passed away from cancer before completing his bucket list, decided to take on his bucket list and complete it.

The guy, Ryan, whose wife died a sudden death, didn’t have a bucket list but offered Sara help in completing her husband’s.

At one point in the movie, Ryan asked Sara if she had a bucket list herself. She said no she didn’t and was quite content in fulfilling her husband’s. She was living his life’s wishlist! When Ryan asked her why? She didn’t really have an answer and just said she’d promised herself she’d do it for him no matter how long it took.

She was living her husband’s life, not her own! Most of what he wanted to do was stuff she had no interest in doing for herself, but she did it anyways.

Hmmmmm… this got me thinking. How many of us live our lives this way? How many of us spend our lives doing things others want and never take time to do what we want? Our bosses wants, our friends wishes, our families needs. We just tell ourselves, “tomorrow, maybe I’ll have time tomorrow.” Or we brush it off as if what we want isn’t important or doesn’t matter.

But this is where we are WRONG! What we want IS important. Seriously, think about it. We go through life doing and being everything for others and never once do anything for ourselves because “it’s selfish”, “it’s better to give than to receive”, blah blah blah… At the end of our lives, people only think one thing, “I wish I had more time to do…” and it’s ALWAYS something that we wanted to do for ourselves.

So I’m challenging you today. Make your bucket list — to do list- whatever you want to call it, of things YOU would like to accomplish, do, be or have in this lifetime. Then at least ONCE A WEEK, do one thing on that list, and mark it off.

Don’t leave this world with regrets, let the world regret you’ve left so soon.

I love this quote:

So make sure you create your bucket list and:

• publish that breakout novel
• Write that song for your favorite singer
• Submit that fantastic movie script and see it come live on the screen
• Own a worldwide consulting business helping women achieve their greatness in what they want to be, do and have
• Start my non-profit programs, Voice for Kids and a working ranch (First Chance) for teens who need a fresh start
• Travel to New York to see the lights at Christmas
• Go to Hawaii or take that Caribbean Cruise
• Fly first class to Ireland
• Eat an exotic food from a foreign country, without an allergic reaction
• Parachute from a plane
• Hang glide from the waterfalls in BC
• Own a pet friendly bookstore/coffee shop
• …

Oops that’s my Bucket List… but you get the idea. Go! Make yours and start living life today, for you!