You may know Jill Kudryk’s story. An idle Tuesday morning you laughed with her about the new movie, Animal House. That afternoon she died from heart failure. By Friday, you and a stunned group of teenagers listened to eulogies for this life cut short by a weak heart. Yours truly made a decision that solemn day. Do everything at least once! Thirty-four years later, this motto can define your What Shows Up List too.
A celebrated concept, The Bucket List, is easy to comprehend. Write all the things you wish to do in your life, and check them off. Yet, this assumes you know what’s best to do in your life.
What if it were the other way around?
What if life knows what’s best for you?
There’s a different way to approach the uncomfortably forced and egocentric Bucket List. Have your BIG GOALS in short order emerge. Let go of what you want to achieve in life and let in what shows up. Think BIG this way: Your What Shows Up List reveals itself when something NEW, DIFFERENT or REPEATELY IGNORED appears.
NEW: Something you’ve never tried but at least heard of. Maybe it’s racquetball, riding a cutting horse, skiing in a pink rubber suit. Life is far too short to say, “No, I don’t look good in pink rubber.” Clearly, if safety is in question, then a qualified yes is in order. It always makes sense to minimize risk but never, ever make a decision based on fear. If it’s new and you’ve been approached to try it, it’s waiting to be added to your What Shows Up List.
DIFFERENT: When something different shows up say, “Sure, I’d love to do it.” Let’s say someone asks you to play Wiffle Ball Polo. If it’s legal, moral and ethical, then why not? Say yes! What have you got to lose? Mark Twain had an answer to that. "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Ummm, buuuuut, if someone figures a game of strip poker in the shopping mall is a good idea, you might just keep those bowlines tied up. Just sayin’…
REPEATEDLY IGNORED : You know the answer to this one. You know it! Don't let a lack of motivation get in the way. Stop procrastinating give it a go. Friend and author of The War of Art , Steven Pressfield says you must overcome Resistance. “We are not born with unlimited choices... Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal that we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.” Your What Shows Up List is ready and waiting to be made longer, even if that thing scares you, is uncomfortable or appears to be that loathed word, ‘unrealistic.’
Pay attention! Your What Shows Up List is waiting!
Until next time we connect, it’s full speed ahead,
Vince
PS Want you or your team to know what's on the What Shows Up List? This Ant and Elephant Workshop in a Box is the fastest way to discover it.
