#357: The Reverse Bucket List: Inspirational Ways to Shed 2024's Weight & Inspire Growth in 2025

Today is the day that you listen to episode 357.

Hey, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and you are listening to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

What's up, my friend, and welcome back to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Today, my friend, I want to get real for a quick moment.

Let's skip all the mumbo-jumbo fluff of social media. You know, all the posts that you made throughout 2024 about how amazing your life was?

Yeah, well, today, let's get real. Because if your year was anything like mine, 2024 is one that is not going to be one that I want to repeat.

Not at all. And here we are, January of 2025, and I am determined to not let that crap follow me into this year.

And that is where today's whole idea came from.

This whole symbolic idea of reversing the bucket list. I call it the reverse bucket list because we are using this rather symbolic exercise to help us shed the weight of the past.

If you've had a bad year, if you've had some bad experiences, you know the kind of weight I'm talking about.

The weight of regret, the weight of disappointment, of loss, of frustration, of things that just didn't go the way you thought they would go.

Well, what if there's a way that we can just let it all go, put it onto paper, put it into a physical sense, and therefore helping us to set ourselves free of those burdens?

So my first step is, is I want you to take the time at some point to just sit down and acknowledge the year that was 2024.

I want you to give attention to the stuff that happened, all the bad stuff, the stuff that you honestly wish you could forget about.

Maybe it was a breakup. Maybe it was you getting fired from a job.

Or maybe it was just a year of things that never seemed to go right.

I totally understand. Or maybe it was the year of you being sick.

You were laid up in bed more days than you were out enjoying life. I feel you.

Whatever it is, I want you to recognize it. I want you to bring it to the front of your mind.

Because it's important as we move in to step number two.

Step number two involves you writing it all down. I hope that you can grab out a piece of paper and you can just start making some notes.

Now, what is important is that I want you to be able to cut the paper into little pieces.

You know, almost think like the paper you get inside of a fortune cookie.

Little pieces of paper, little pieces that you can write down all of these things on.

This is your opportunity to get out everything that's been in your head onto paper.

And you might think that it sounds silly, but I'm telling you, it works.

It's kind of like when you've been keeping a secret tucked away inside of you, and it's just been eating you alive.

And then you finally get an opportunity to tell somebody, it's like this weight has been lifted off of you. Well, the same thing can be accomplished by you taking your thoughts and putting them onto paper.

So each little piece of paper, I want you to write each thing down that you would like to forget about.

All the bad stuff, put it all down onto paper.

Now, step number three, after you have all those little pieces of paper, all written all over with all the stuff that happened last year, I want you to be symbolic.

And I want you to put them in a bucket.

Now, understandable, maybe you don't have a typical bucket laying around. Well, grab out a cup.

Grab out a Tupperware container.

I don't care what it is, something that you, one by one, can just dump all of that crap into what we're considering the wastebasket, the trash can.

This is transferring all that weight of the year right into the bucket. We're getting rid of it.

You are done with it. It no longer serves you. It certainly doesn't fit you.

It darn sure doesn't describe who you are. So it's time that we get rid of it.

The last step is the best step.

It's my friend, it's time to get rid of it.

Now, you can take this however you want. Maybe for you, it's as easy as it being trash day.

And you walk outside early in the morning and you take that bucket of all these little notes and pieces of paper and you dump it right in the trash can.

Once and for all, you are done with it. You have completely taken that weight, the regret, the disappointment, the fears and anxieties, the disappointments, the failures, all of that is gone forever.

Now, maybe that's not enough. Maybe you want to take it one step further. Do you have a fireplace?

Do you and your friends ever do a bonfire on the weekend?

If you have access to a fire, well, my friend, there is no better way to dispose of the crap from 2024 than to set it up in flames.

So take that bucket of paper of all those little notes and just dump it in the fire.

And symbolically, you can watch it all go up in smoke. There is nothing more satisfying than that.

Now, of course, I urge you to please use all safety precautions.

Do not hold me liable for anything to do with you getting a fire out of control.

No, I'm going to assume that you have people there who know what they're doing, that you know what you're doing when it comes to a fire.

So I just had to make that quick little disclosure. Now, the truth of the matter is, is that once we're done with all of this, it doesn't mean that we've erased the past.

It doesn't mean that you'll forget about it. But what it does mean is that it no longer has a hold on you.

Because this is probably one of the most powerful steps forward you've maybe taken of acknowledging the past, the hurts and making them realize that they no longer.

Hold weight on you. They no longer have grasp of your life. They no longer are dictating what this year will be.

You're leaving all the baggage in the year that was 2024.

So remember, my friend, the whole point in this, honestly, is it's the beginning of a new year. It's 2025.

If you want to make room for good stuff to enter your life, well, then you have to be willing to let go of the bad.

So let it all go. Let it all out. Put it on the pieces of paper.

Put it in that bucket and take it out to the trash. Or better yet, send it up in smoke.

My friend, I want you to get to be the best version of you.

And the only way that that is going to happen is if you are able to ditch the baggage that's holding you down.

My name is Kevin Lowe. This was another episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

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So with that, my friend, get out there and enjoy the day now that you're feeling a little bit lighter. Thanks to today's exercise.

Music.