The “No” Bucket List

As the results-oriented women that we are, we understand the importance of the to do list, daily
schedules, annual business plans, goal lists, and the proverbial “bucket list”.

Each of these points us to the accomplishments we want in our lives daily, annually, or for our lifetime.

It seems the “bucket list” is the one most often with the biggest and maybe even the most extreme
goals we have. I have been knocking off my list of things over many years. Traversing the Panama
Canal, ballooning over the desert, seeing Mt. Rushmore, walking on a glacier in Alaska. Ascending to the
top of the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, the Space Needle, the CN Tower, Pikes Peak.
Swimming with Dolphins. Drinking wine at a vineyard in Tuscany. All things I dreamed of doing for years
that finally came to fruition because I focused on them as an important goal.

But I recently read an article that suggested that to be sure to meet your goals, it is even more
important to have a “no” bucket list. This is a list of things you will never do, or never do again, as they
take away from your ability to focus on your goals and focus on those things that give you pleasure in
life.

On my “no” bucket list is, saying no to:

• Letting someone talk me into buying a car I don’t like
• Keeping someone in my life who does not treat me well
• Risking making it to a gas station when the dial is on empty
• Pretending to be someone other than myself
• Buying cheap shoes
• Cutting my own hair
• Camping in a tent
• Going shopping on Black Friday
• Supporting a cause I do not believe in just because someone I know asks me to

Happiness in life depends not only on being able to do what we want to do, sometimes it has to do with
saying “no” to the things that we should not or would not like to do. So, the next time there is a choice
to be made as to what to do, check your bucket list and pick something you would like to do. But, don’t
forget to check your “no” bucket list to be sure you are not doing something that you do not want to do.

Happiness in life can be a matter of remembering to “just say no”.

– Mary Grace Musuneggi