In a recent seminar I was challenged to make a list of the 100 things I would like to do, to accomplish or to have before I die. There was a Jack Nicholson/Morgan Freeman movie with the same theme, using a similar idea.
At first I was reluctant to take on this challenge. Do I really want to emphasize my eventual end? Do I really want to make a list of the things that I haven’t yet managed to do? Might it not just create a “wanting” in me?
But then I started working on the list. What a change in my thinking!
My heart began to open as I thought of the trips I would take with friends, the books I would write and the adventures I would have. My mind started expanding to hold the new ideas and accomplishments. As the list grew, my consciousness started to grow with it and it turned into a marvelous exercise in creating mental equivalents.
Ernest Holmes explains the term mental equivalent in the Science of Mind:
“We must not only believe, we must know that our belief measures the extent and degree of our blessing. If our belief is limited only a little can come to us because that is as we believe. We call this the law of mental equivalents. How much life can anyone experience? As much as we can embody!”
Will we manage to cross off everything on our bucket list? Will we actually accomplish all these goals and desires? Maybe and maybe not. What I do know is that the bucket list helps us to have our minds and hearts ready to receive more good. When we have heart-felt and vibrant ideas of our future good (a mental equivalent), the universe will move mountains in order to provide that good to us.
So, what are you waiting for? Start with number one and keep going! What a grand life we’ll have as we dream wonderful dreams and, as time goes by, cross them off the list!
What’s on your bucket list?