Why an Impossible List?

Bucket lists are everywhere — a collection of things we want to do before the candle burns out. I’ve come to think there are three problems with them.

One: for most people, the majority of items never get done. We put them off for some future that may never come, and the list ends up reading like regret.

Two:most bucket lists are too long to ever finish. Life is finite — most of us won’t be billionaires with six-pack abs who do nothing but travel the world. Deep down we know that. So we either get overwhelmed and accomplish nothing, or we pretend we can do everything, inevitably fall short, and feel worse for what we didn’t do than grateful for what we did.

Three:bucket lists are based entirely on a future that isn’t guaranteed. I do hope I get to live to 110 and see three different centuries in my lifetime — but statistically, unlikely. When my last day comes, I want to be grateful for the time I was given and the people I shared it with, not thinking about the things I didn’t get to.

So I made an Impossible List instead. An anti-bucket-list, in two parts.

Part one is an inbox.Every crazy, ridiculous, outrageous, or otherwise impossible-seeming thing goes in. Anything that sounds like “wouldn’t it be awesome if…” or “someday it’d be cool to…” makes the cut.

Part two is the Impossible List itself. Anytime I actually do one of those things, it moves to the list. Over time it becomes a collection of fulfillment instead of regret — a record of someone who did all they could with what they had.

That’s the hope. Go out there. Face your fears. Seek discomfort. Dream big.