LIFE'S TOO SHORT

A month after I turned 50 my ex-husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Eleven months later he was gone. He was 54. He left behind our three beautiful children to try to come to terms with a chasmal loss that they don’t yet fully appreciate. Life is too short.

With the diagnosis of a terminal illness there is no hope. There is just a decline - sometimes slow and sometimes devastatingly quick, where you have to bear witness to the process of death. You are forced to grieve the loss of someone before they have even gone. It is brutal and life changing.

The paramount decision I made after my husband’s death was to stop putting ‘life’ off until later on the assumption that I have all the time in the world. I rejected the idea of creating a Bucket List and instead I have fully embraced the joy of creating a Life List

What is a Life List and why choose it over a Bucket List?

A Life List is a long list of everything you want to achieve or experience while you are still young enough to fully achieve, experience, and enjoy it. It is the exact opposite of a Bucket List - which is generally defined as a list of the things you would like to experience before you die — that is, before you ‘kick the bucket’. It’s time to embrace a Life List over a Bucket List if:

• You are not focused almost exclusively on travel and adventure. What about everything else that’s important to living such as learning, being of service to others, and nurturing your relationships?

• When it comes to travel, you don’t necessarily want to just experience crazy adventures that might actually hasten you kicking the bucket - such as swimming with sharks.

• You are not simply looking to create a list of obligations — the things you never, ever made time for in your life but which now you need to get through lickety-split and tick them off the list before you die … from exhaustion.

• You are not interested in asking: What do I want to do before I die? Instead, you want to ask: What do I want to do while I am still young enough to enjoy it?

Create Your Own Life List

Pick up a pen. The act of writing your Life List will significantly increase your chances of achieving your goals.

Include 3 types of goals on your Life List:

• Go Big Goals - The big, hairy, outrageous goals that take planning, or are new experiences, or will take you outside your comfort zone (for example, last year I walked The Larapinta Trail in Central Australia; and I have been cold water swimming almost every single morning for 2 years…)

• Go Small Goals - Include a range of smaller, life-affirming, inspiring goals that provide the daily fuel that makes your soul sing. Go Small or short-term goals can be implemented in the near future and generally without extensive planning.

• Go Now Goals - Engage in acts of spontaneity to keep you on your toes.

Life is too short to the point that we need to live it every single day. We need to think deeply about what is most important to us and we need to prioritise those things - today. We need to invest our time in the people we love most. We need to invest our time in creating memories, in being of service to others, in generating happiness and fulfilment and wonder. And we need to start doing this right now. Because later might be too late.

Kate Christie’s book ‘The Life List: Master Every Moment and Live an Audacious Life’ is available from Booktopia and Amazon.