So if you don’t already know, a few seasons of Bob Ross’ painting show, The Joy of Painting have been available on Netflix recently. I’ve been binging on it lately, as his attitude of effortlessness in both painting and hosting fascinates me to no end. Since I didn’t know much about the guy, I decided to do some research. Apparently there’s more to him than his hair and paint brush..

He’s well known for his calming disposition and soothing voice, but what I didn’t know until recently was that before his show (of which he filmed a whopping 403 episodes - all for free) he was actually a Master Sergeant in the Air Force.

“I was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work. The job requires you to be a mean, tough person. And I was fed up with it. I promised myself that if I ever got away from it, it wasn't going to be that way anymore."

I never would have thought that someone so breezy in demeanor could ever have had past characteristics such as that - I just had figured he had always been that way. And I’m sure he didn’t become the patient calming guy he wanted to be the day after he got out of the Air Force. I’m sure there were many failed attempts - but it goes to show that with a conscious effort and practice, you can change old habits and form the characteristics you want to be known for.

Many people love making a bucket list or reading other people’s but I found an interesting post on why bucket lists are not as beneficial as people may think.

Here’s what happens when you make a bucket list:

1.) You put this huge burden on yourself to get the list accomplished. As if we don’t already have enough on our to-do lists already!

2.) If you don’t do well at pursuing the things on the list, you feel guilty or under accomplished.

3.) If you do well at pursuing the list, you are probably pursuing less-than-meaningful activities. They’re usually just there because they sounded cool to do.

The truth is, most of the things we put on bucket lists are just ideas that popped into our heads, not anything connected to meaning. We put things like “skydiving” and “learn to surf” and “visit the Amazon rainforest” -- all of which are excellent activities. However, we rarely put things like, “change someone’s life” or “find meaningful work that I care about” or “be compassionate toward my family”. 

Why put pressure on ourselves to achieve a huge list of things that aren’t that meaningful? Why feel guilty if we’re not pursuing them? Why not let them go?

Life isn’t a big to-do list, nor is it about optimizing all the things we do in life.

The most amazing things are right in front of us, right where we are. Right now. We don’t have to go anywhere or see some incredible sights or do daring activities to experience the wonder of life.

And we can do meaningful work, right where we are. What would a shorter list of meaningful activities look like? What would your anti-bucket list contain?