There is a space between having a dream, making a wish, setting a goal, and knowing when to work on the destination. In the book “Getting Things Done,” David Allen refers to this limbo as a Someday/Maybe list. ¹ The list can consist of dozens of intentions whose time has yet to come or maybe never will. Apart from day-to-day projects, the list is a holding area so that you can pay full attention to those things demanding your time now, waiting for a time when you can pay full attention to them someday.

The Someday/Maybe list lost its common name when the movie Bucket List arrived on the scene. With Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman creating a list of what they would like to do before they die, the manic character played by Jack Nicholson uses his billions to ensure a comic romp around the world. But unfortunately, the term Bucket List still pervades our vocabulary 15 years later. ²

The term Bucket List is unfortunate, or at the very least, the confusion between having a Someday/Maybe list and a Bucket List is contradictory. A Someday/Maybe list is a repository for all your hopes and dreams. Because unlike a “Bucket List,” which consists of a flurry of things you’d like to do, a Someday/Maybe list can hold anything you have your mind on that “maybe,” “someday,” you’d like to read, learn or visit.

A Bucket List, like the movie, conveys the manic pressure to cram your life full of stuff. “Can you imagine ‘cramming’ on the farm?” Stephen Covey asks. “Ripping the soil up, throwing in the seeds, watering, cultivating — and expecting to get a bountiful harvest overnight?” ³ Exactly, how do we “do” the northern lights?

“The richest activities derive their value from being, not from doing,” ⁴ says Nathan King in his inspiring blog article encouraging people to ditch their bucket lists in favor of more profound ventures. In the article, Mr. King provides an example of the 18th-century poet William Wordsworth planting, cultivating, and reaping a bountiful experience from his trip to Tintern Abbey.

“He didn’t ‘do’ Tintern Abbey,” Mr. King explains; William Wordsworth visited a place and allowed the experience to wash over him, shaping him through reflection and contemplation. ⁵ The moment changed him, and his poem “A Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” ⁶ has changed countless others.

How about we plant, cultivate, and reap a bountiful experience from our someday-maybe lists instead of manically running from one adventure to another (billionaires excluded).

First plant. Add everything you want to go, do, have, and learn.

Second, cultivate. Like farming, cultivating takes time. Cultivation is the watering, weeding, and anticipating role of the someday-maybe list. Cull the items that, over time, you can honestly answer, no, I’ll probably never do this. ⁷ Of those dreams that remain, watering the idea will help build and clarify your intent. For example, if you “planted” Visit Tokyo in your someday garden, watering would appear as “discussing life in Japan with an uncle who used to live there.” or “finding a well-written book on Japanese customs.” ⁸ If nothing else, you’ll gain an accurate “measure of (your) willingness” to cultivate the potential experience. Without water, the goal will wither and die. Cull it out of the list so you can focus on those remaining.

Finally harvest. Savor, explore, and allow yourself to be shaped by it. ⁹ Nothing tastes as good as a fresh meal from the garden. So, stop nibbling at our world; pull up a chair, sit down, and enjoy the fabulous banquet before you.

Written March 5, 2022

Published simultaneously on Medium.com.

Footnotes

Allen, D. (2001). *Getting things done: How to achieve stress-free productivity*. London, England: Penguin Books. p.167.
The Bucket List, released January 11, 2008 (USA).
Covey, S. R., & Merrill, A. R. (1993). “First things first.” New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. p.55.
King, Nathan. “Why You Should Ditch the Bucket List.” Hope Walking, 18 Dec. 2019, www.hopewalking.com/blog/why-you-should-ditch-the-bucket-list.
Ibid (King, 2019)
The full title is “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45527/lines-composed-a-few-miles-above-tintern-abbey-on-revisiting-the-banks-of-the-wye-during-a-tour-july-13-1798
Caolo, Dave. “The Someday/Maybe List Is a Guilt Factory (and How to Change That).” *52 Tiger*, 4 Feb. 2011, 52tiger.net/the-somedaymaybe-list-is-a-guilt-factory-2/
Ibid (Caolo, 2011)
Ibid (King, 2019)