The Experiment: Day 116 ~ I’M On My OWN Life List!

I saw this quote today, it was anonymous, and it stopped me in my tracks. I had planned to write something else entirely but this just had to be it today.

I have said before that I don’t believe in “Bucket” lists. Heaven’s no! I’m here now. It’s got to be a life list!

When I saw it it kind of jolted me awake. I mean what do our Life Lists usually include? Ride a hot air balloon, climb a mountain, go to Paris, go home one more time… There are so many things we put on these lists but what if we started out where we really should, by putting ourselves at the top of that list?

What if before we ride that hot air balloon we decide to love ourselves, really, truly, madly, deeply? What if we decide to lose that weight we’ve put off losing, to take our health in hand and get as healthy and strong as we can, whatever that might mean? What if we decide to celebrate ourselves, sing ourselves! and what if we decide that we want to be happy, and by God we’re going to be no matter what it takes? Isn’t it time? I think that’s exactly what I did a few months ago without even realizing it. Somewhere deep inside of me I was waking up to the realization that I mattered! Imagine that? I don’t have to grow old and die overweight and out of shape, depressed, and never able to do the things I’ve imagined and dreamed of. And what I’ve realized is that it’s all in my hands. Nobody is going to lose the weight for me, nobody is going to seek and find the things that I need to do to be well, to be more than well, to be GLORIOUSLY ALIVE! I mean for heaven’s sakes folks, what have we been waiting for? And the other thing — and this is really important — is that you can’t just sit back wishing and hoping and dreaming but not doing something — you’ve got to get out there and make it happen! (And when I say “out there” it is a metaphor because you may be a person like me who rarely leaves the house — for now! — but you can live a big life right where you are.  The internet has made so much possible.) You’ve got to take yourself in your hands, march over to the mirror right now, look at yourself, really look at yourself, and then say to yourself with deep love and affection, “I love you, and you deserve the best, you deserve to be happy, so dammit, let’s DO this thing!” And then do what you need to do, for you.

I can’t tell you what that should be, only you know that, but I do know that you can’t keep hiding under the covers, so to speak, and expect things to happen. Only you can make them happen, only I can, and once I started doing that, I mean once you get the ball rolling, hang onto your hat because it keeps rolling, faster and faster. Once you begin you will find yourself on the ride of your life! Wake Up! From my favorite Dr. Seuss book, “Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!” I hear the lines, “The time has come, the time is now…” What in the world have we been waiting for? Like Alice’s Rabbit said, “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date!” Well, that’s no lie! The very important date is our life! Goodness Gracious I almost missed it. I am 63, I will be 64 on April 30, I have no more time to lose. I intend to be gloriously alive and there’s just no time like the present to do just that!

You know all the things I’ve been doing, I’ve talked about them over and over. This blog experiment, the search for happiness, seeking and finding and living my way into it. My health, the ketogenic diet — I wrote about that enough yesterday. Meditation has become huge for me. Living mindfully is key, as Ram Dass said, “Be Here Now.” Where the heck else would I be? And you know what? Something on my Life List. I want to roller skate again! And if I’m going to roller skate I have to take care of me first. I mean I’d kill myself out there in the rink if I tried to go like this! But I’m going to get there, I promise you I am.

And how many things have we decided we can’t put on our Life List because we’re not in shape to do them? Well DAMN girlfriend/boyfriend, isn’t it gosh darned time? I mean are you really going to live and die without doing the things your soul calls you to do? Unless you have a serious condition that will not allow you to get where you need to get to do what you want to do — and I’m betting that in most cases a person can get better enough to enjoy at least some of the things they dream of, and if past dreams won’t work, well, don’t just sit there, DREAM NEW DREAMS! There are an unlimited number of things that we might dream and do. It’s 2018, it’s a whole new year, and I don’t know about you but I’ve wasted enough time just sitting and doing nothing, feeling sorry for myself, curling up in a ball and hiding. I’ve taken a running start into this new year and I am flying now and it feels good. I won’t hold back, nothing can stop me besides myself and I’m over that old way of living and being. I don’t know how much longer I’ll have on this planet but I sure as hell am not going to waste whatever I have!

For many years when I was younger I had a poster on my wall that I dearly loved. It was a ballerina sailing through the air, she was so beautiful, and the poster said, “If you can imagine it you can achieve it, if you can dream it you can become it.” Well that’s all well and good but what they forgot to put on there was, “Now get off your duff and DO IT!” Well, I’m serious now, really serious, wishing, hoping, and dreaming are fine but unless you TAKE ACTION you’re never going to get where you want to go.

Where do you want to go? First, make that Life List. You can put all the things you want to do or accomplish while you are alive on there, but FIRST AND FOREMOST put YOU at the top of the list. Do all the things you need to do to get “in shape,” body, mind, and spirit, to DO all those things you’re dreaming of. And don’t leave a single thing off your list because you think you can’t do it. You don’t know what you can do until you try, and you won’t be in a place to try unless you are navigating from a self that puts himself or herself at the top of the list! When you feel better than you’ve ever felt you’ll do things you never dreamed you could do. I promise you that.

Now tell me dear one, have you started that list? Put yourself at the top of your list and then DREAM BIG, put EVERYTHING on that list that you may have wistfully been holding in your heart because you thought it would never be possible. Well it may be and it may not be but you will never know if you don’t try, and you simply cannot imagine in this moment what is possible until you get the ball rolling, and I can guarantee you that countless things will come up along the way that you never dreamed possible, and you may find that you end up with a whole new list, the new you you are becoming will very likely want new and different things, or bigger or more wondrous things than you ever imagined because you never dreamed you’d feel as good as you’re going to feel. Are you with me? There’s no time like the present!

What is the first thing you need to do? Go slowly, think carefully, one baby step at a time is plenty to get the ball rolling, and add to what you’re doing along the way. When you get firmly on your path with one thing add the next thing and keep going. All of life becomes an exciting adventure if you approach it this way. And what else are you doing, really?

Make this the best year of your life, don’t look back, what we have is now, and by golly let’s do this thing! I’m ready. Are you? Let’s go…

The Experiment ~A 365 Day Search For Truth, Beauty &
Happiness: Day 1 ~ Introduction To The Project
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
Yoda