Growth Club: The Bucket List Guy Exercise 

What is a meaningful life? This is a contentious question. Throughout history , people have given differing answers to this question, some going so far as to say there is no meaning at all. But if we add one little word to that question the answers become a lot simpler and perhaps  easier to agree on. 

What is not a meaningful life? 

When a study group of 80-year-olds were asked what they regretted most in their life they answered the following:  

• Caring what others thought 
• Losing touch with friends 
• I wish I had worried less 
• Not travelling 
• Overlooked their health 
• Working too hard 
• Not letting myself be happier 
• Not standing up for yourself 
• Not exploring your career 

Work is an unavoidable and critical component of any life and therefore  plays a massive role in finding meaning.

At ActionCOACH iNala we meet with a lot of business owners who struggle personally because of the amount of work on their plates. Business owners are often the hardest working, least valued employees in their own business. In fact, a lot of these owners barely have time to ask the question: is my life meaningful?  

Growth Club – 90 day planning 

Growth Club is a 90-day planning session we do with clients, and independent business owners, during which we work with clients to  set strategic and meaningful goals for their businesses and their lives.   

Last month, we shared a keynote address by Travis Bell best known as The Bucket List Guy.  Travis Bell works extensively with the global action coach community and has built a career as a motivational coach and speaker, who inspires people to actively pursue a life they find meaningful.  

Below, we would like to share with you his Bucket-List exercise.  

Take a piece of paper and draw 8 rows of 10 squares (80 squares in total). Or open your computer and print a table with the same dimensions.  

Now take a pen and cross out as many squares as the age you are. 80 is a rough global average of life expectancy. 

The squares you have left represent the years you have left on this earth. 

Scary right? 

The questions Trav Bell really wants you to get to is this: What do I want the rest of the squares to be filled with? What do I want to spend my time doing? What brings meaning to my life? 

Back to Business 

Yes, yes. I know that time is ticking, and you have responsibilities -  a family to feed, rent to pay, and a business to run.  

We at ActionCOACH iNala would like to remind you that what you truly have is a finite amount of time in which to fulfill your life's mission, to live a life of meaning and fulfillment. Your business needs to be part of that fulfilment, after all is where most of your time goes.   

We would like to challenge you to take the time to ask what tasks in your day are keeping you from feeling fulfilled at work. Is it that you don’t have enough time? Are your team is driving you crazy and sucking up most of your time? Is there not enough money?  

Whatever it is, it is solvable, and NOW is the time to get on top of it.  

For more information on how to organize your time see Time Mastery: A Business Owner’s Guide.