The Bucket List

Unlike you dear reader, I have seen the movie the Bucket List, in theaters no less. I also made a bucket list with some friends after seeing it. We set it for things we wanted to do in a decade. Remembering the bucket list that I made it was about very superficial items. The list was basically to have a million dollars in the bank, sleep with super models and learn to surf, get a six pack of abs, travel to Europe, and volunteer with the Surfrider Foundation. I only did one of these things in that entire decade. You’re welcome Surfrider. 

This last semester was pretty rough on me for a large variety of reasons. In order to get back on my feet I did a full reevaluation and reset a bunch of goals in several different categories. I’ve had varying degrees of success but having goals that are SMART (specific, measurable,attainable, relevant, and timely) can really impact the likelihood that you achieve them.

Some of my smart goals were:

Finish Bachelors- Register for classes, Make appt with academic counselor, look at internships
Personal- Running (sign up for a 10k), plan visit to Portland, Build orchard in backyard.
Meal Planning-Cook on Sundays

I continued to break these goals down until they were easy step by step. For instance, I did actually put in an orchard in the backyard! Here it is…

Not pictured were the old diseased trees that I first had to dig out.But before I could do that I had to cut off a lot of the limbs of the tree until I could lift the extremely heavy trunks out of the ground. Then I had to pick the trees. This was a committee process as this land belongs to my parents who had different opinions on how many and what types should go in and where. Once this was decided I had to buy them, and plant them, put amendments in and then relevel all the ground around the trees. 

I use Todoist (Still not an affiliate link) to keep track of all of these tasks so that I have a step by step path to complete these goals. For a complicated goal that can seem overwhelming it is invaluable. You might not think that replanting an orchard is a big deal but once you get into the nitty gritty suddenly there are a lot of factors and research that go into it. Where should you put what tree. How to setup the irrigation network, what plants can even grow in this climate. On and On.

This goal is SMART because it’s specific; grow an orchard, measurable, see above tasks to gauge completion percentage, attainable, relevant, and timely, bare root trees are only available for sale in San Diego in January and February. I’m still working on the orchard. As we speak I have three orange trees on my porch right now waiting to be planted.

The rest of my goals are all “SMART” goals also, but consistency is the mother of success as they say. And you only YOLO once. But sometimes like right now I feel like this: