Last week I created a bucket list, this week I will visit a graveyard.
Why should I visit a graveyard?
A graveyard is a great place to calm down and reflect about life and death. Some gravestones are great pieces of art. Life is short and a walk on the graveyard might remind you what really matters.
How do I participate?
Share your favorite gravestone, your reflections, your favorite graveyard or whatever you can think of related to a graveyard in this round of the artist date challenge.
Maybe you already have an idea what should be written on your gravestone? Or you just want to share some quotes about death and life with us.
Please use the hashtag #artistdatechallenge and tag me in your post to participate / link to this blogpost.
A bucket list can be many things. It can be a list of activities that you want to try, a list of goals that you want to accomplish, milestones that you want to reach or simply wishes. Ideally you set a deadline for finishing the bucket list.
A bucket list is a fun way to bring more adventure and excitement into your life. It is fun to make the list itself, but it is even more fun to schedule actions to fulfill it.
Of course you will want to tick all the items on your bucket list, but if you are unable to finish it. That is fine, too. Goals and wishes change and maybe you notice after a while that your current bucket list does not server you anymore. In that case you can archive it and make a new list!
Bucket List Types
Life Time Bucket List
This is the original type of bucket list. You create a list of goals that you want to achieve before you die.
The deadline for this type of bucket list is your next round birthday. If you are under 30 you make a 30 before 30 list, if you are under 40 a 40 before 40 list etc.
This bucket list is scheduled for one year. At the end of last year many people made a 21 for 2021 list. I suppose it will be 22 for 2022 the next year.
There are bucket lists for summer, spring and winter. Not to forget autumn / fall. Every season gives you the great opportunity to set new challenges for yourself.
There are two types of travel bucket lists. The first one is related to the life time bucket list where you collect all the places in the world that you want to see in your life.
Tackeling your goals is fun, but doing it with your loved ones can be even more exciting. So why not make a list with couple or family goals & activies?
As you can see there are many types of bucket lists. But maybe you are not sure whether a bucket list is the right thing for you? It encourages you to think creatively and come up with an exciting perspective of the future. To remove your last doubts I will answer some questions about bucket lists that you might have.
Why should I make a bucket list?
A bucket list is a great way to make your life more creative, exciting and fun. It might lead you out of your comfort zone and make you grow as a person.
If you choose to make a bucket list together with another person this might strengthen your relationship and give you lots of stories to share with others.
Ticking something of your list gives you a strange feeling of satisfaction and will make you proud about yourself.
How do I make a bucket list?
Schedule some time to brainstorm and think about the type of bucket list you want to create. If you need some short time fun in your life then a seasonal or yearly bucket list may be right. If you feel like you want to change your entire life try the lifetime bucket list.
Think of the time span that you have chosen for your bucket list and ask yourself some questions:
What do you want to see, try and experience in the future?
What is something that you always wanted to do?
How can you challenge yourself to leave your comfort zone?
What sounds silly but would be actually so much fun?
What did you like doing when you were a child?
Write down everything that comes to your mind. This first stage is just about collecting all ideas and not missing one. I suggest that you take a break after and let the ideas sink in.
In the next stage you will organise your ideas. You might not want to use all of them for this bucket list. Or maybe you came up with some things that are impossible or not in the right format, so that you have to amend them.
When choosing items for your bucket list you should have them in a form where you can easily see once it is done. For example becoming rich is not a good bucket list item whereas having one million euro on my bank account is.
Where can I find ideas for my bucket list?
The internet is full of bucket lists and you can easily find many ideas that you can use for your own list. Of course I suggest that you brainstorm for yourself as well, but it is always helpful and entertaining to see what other people put on their lists.
The best places to find bucket list ideas online are Google and Pinterest. Once you have decided what type of list you want to create you will find many ideas that you can steal.
Can I change my bucket list?
Your bucket list is yours and you can do with it whatever you want.
Generally I wouldn’t recommend to change your bucket list all the time, but if you have a list with life time goals, it might be a good idea to check it once a year to see whether you can still identify with these goals.
But if it is just a short time bucket list it is not worth the effort. Just leave some things unsolved and enjoy the other activities.
Nobody is going to punish you if you are not able to fulfill all tasks.
It’s time to start a new journey again. Since I am in a phase of experiments, trying to find the right art form for me, I am eager to commit to new practices.
What I am about to do now, is actually not new for me, but something I have tried to implement into my life for a long time.
I am speaking about the artist date.
Where does this come from?
The artist date is one of two regular habits that Julia Cameron recommends in her book The Artist’s Way. I like to think of this book as some sort of bible for creative people.
To become a more creative person you should do two practices:
Write morning pages every day
Go on an artist date every week
What is the artist date
The artist date is a date with your inner child. It is an invitation to play, quality time you spend with yourself and the possibility to try something new or an activity that you do way too rarely.
I don’t want to go into too much detail here. If you are hooked, go read the book: The Artist’s Way.
For me it has always been difficult to commit to the artist date on a regular basis. Let’s face it: Life gets around every time.
That’s why I have come up with a new idea.
The Artist Date Challenge
Every week on Sunday I will post an activity that will be my artist date in the upcoming week. I made a list of fun activities and I can’t wait to share them with you.
I hope some of you get inspired to join me on this journey. Whether you follow my artist date suggestion or make up your own different artist date is entirely up to you!
Just make sure to use the hashtag #artistdatechallenge and link me in your posts.
I will be very happy to see if this habit actually makes a difference and leads to a more fulfilled and more inspired life.
Week 1
The first artist date idea I want to share with you:
Make a bucket list.
I am very excited to make one myself (themed for autumn) and I can’t wait to see your bucket lists!
But since the last new life was started more than 5 years ago I think it’s fair to do it again. I got stuck in the windmills of the daily repetitions. I neglected my ambitions. I failed in so many ways to achieve my goals. But now that will change! I will document my goals and my work towards it. I will not hide my failures any longer.
And eventually I will succeed! Or not. Who knows?
But I want to invite you to be part of my journey.
What’s the deal?
I have neglected my passions and my talents. I have not done any performances for a long time and this needs to change! It will be difficult because I am still working full time, but I need to put in the effort and try my best to develop new skills and expand my horizon.
I am going to learn, rehearse, practise and eventually perform. I will see you as my accountability buddy. I will not hide anything from you. I will show you the good days and the bad days. Maybe not all the bad days and maybe not my worst moments, but you get the point. Please do call out on me!
I think it’s beautiful how many people challenge my guitar learning. Yes, I haven’t done much so far, but every question is reminding me and a motivation to sit down and practise.
So that is the deal: I work hard and you watch!
I want to live a new life. I want to be an artist. But I need some parenting from your side! It is too hard to pull everything out of me. I need the reminders, I need the pushes and I need your love and support. Please be there for me!
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Good Morning, lovely people.
Today I feel like I want to run away from everything.
All the things that I am dreaming of seem so far away. All the challenges that I happily accepted two days ago look like huge and scary obstacles now, while I feel extremely small and weak and powerless.
At the same time I think that I have no right to complain. It was me who chose this path. It’s my very own dream, that I am living. My self-chosen destiny.
Having bad feelings about my big dream feels like betraying myself.
Yet I feel bad. And I am scared. I don’t know what to do and I don’t know where this all leads. I want to hide myself and not go out again repeating the lines of Placebo:
Leila Yuliyah 