Let’s take a step back. Imagine you have 5 buckets. They can be bright red shiny plastic ones or, those cool steel ones that have a metal handle with a wooden bit in the middle to hold on to or, bright yellow and shaped to build sandcastles or, they can look like whatever you want them to look like. So, you have 5 buckets and each bucket represents something that is truly important to you.

So, for example, maybe your five buckets are:

• Health & wellbeing
• Fun & joy
• Connected relationships
• Learning, exploring, creating
• Community

So, what if the point of life is the filling up of these buckets but NOT about them being full. Let me try and explain.

 

What if the point isn’t to get each bucket full to the brim and then stand there and admire how beautiful your full buckets are. What if the point is the filling of the buckets. The act of doing things that fill them up. The practice of paying them attention and giving them a little bit of water each day or week etc. It’s not about putting all your attention into filling one bucket so you can tick that one off as done “I’ve filled that bucket, now it’s onto the next!” I mean, if you were actually filling a bucket with water you’d eventually have to top it up again because the water would evaporate. (Unless you put a lid on it, but that doesn’t fit with the analogy so in this example there are no lids!)

 

Sometimes you might fill each of the buckets a little each day, sometimes you might fill one bucket more than the others and then not go back to it for a little while. Sometimes you might fill a couple of buckets in big chunks. (I know water doesn’t come in chunks but stay with me!)

 

Maybe some days you fill the connection bucket by spending a whole day / a few days really connecting with people, feeling seen, having deep conversations, really listening to other people and then maybe you don’t do that again for a while. Maybe you fill your fun and joy bucket with a few drops each day as you play with your dog or your pet budgie.

 

It’s not about filling one bucket once and then being all “Ok, that’s enough, I never need to put any more water in that bucket again ever.” It’s not like “I’ve eaten enough veggies to fill the health bucket for the rest of my life and I never need to do anything else again, ever” Nope.

 

What if it’s about the act of filling the buckets. The experience of doing the things, having the moments, feeling the feelings, that mean you are adding to each bucket.

 

So my friend, let’s suppose that this is the actual meaning to life, what are your buckets and how are you going to fill them?

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If you want to get really deep into this you might like to check out the upcoming ‘Create a life you actually want to get out of bed for’ retreat in Aireys Inlet, VIC.