Only when faced with the near certainty of imminent death did writing and accomplishing a bucket list seem important.

They could have written and pursued their “bucket lists” at any time in their lives up until that point, but never did. “on hold” until “someday.” When they become ill, it brings “someday” into the NOW.Ī few years back, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman starred in a wonderful movie called “The Bucket List.” Faced with only six months to a year left to live, they compile a “bucket list,” a list of things they want to do, see and experience before they “kick the bucket.” Basically, it is a written listing of their innermost dreams and longings. So many put their hopes, dreams, needs, etc. As Napoleon Hill states in Think And Grow Rich, “Every adversity… carries with it the seed of an equivalent or a greater benefit.” (4) One of the biggest potential benefits of a major illness is that it forces some to take action.

Finding the rose among the thorns is no easy task, initially. Long-term survival rates for some of the more serious ailments (think: cancer) are highest among those who are able to re-frame their illness as a positive experience more than just a negative one the “best worst” experience of their lives, so to speak. Every major life transition such as marriage, divorce, job loss, illness, retirement and loss of a spouse or loved one tends to re-connect us with our inner longings, begging the question: When would NOW be a good time to resuscitate those dreams? How about you? If you knew for certain you would die tomorrow, could you honestly say you would do so without any regrets? Or, is there still something, deep within you, yearning for expression, burning to get done? Before you know it, decades may have passed. Some, perhaps most, give up their dreams, at least “temporarily” to: raise a family, pay the bills, follow a career, not upset another (spouse, parent, teacher, etc.) and on and on. Unfortunately, the realities of life have a way of setting in, chipping away at and eroding our dreams. Most of us start life starry-eyed, full to the brim with dreams, hopes and aspirations. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.” (3) You may have to work for it, however.” (2) Jim Rohn, America’s Leading Business Authority On Success, says, “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. In his classic work, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, Richard Bach states, “You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true.

“The average person goes to his grave with his music still in him.”

Confessions of a reluctant messiah