Reverse Bucket List • How to Use Awe to Fuel Motivation and Drive

Did you know that for every thought of fear, scarcity and/or shame, it takes 3 thoughts of courage, abundance and/or love to counteract its effects?

This is because the ego is doing its job: protection. It protects us by keeping us small, in the known, in the past. But the grandeur of our souls knows that the magic happens outside that comfort zone, in the unknown.

Instead of letting our egos pour fear, scarcity and shame into our engines as fuel for productivity, what if we switched fuel source? What if we poured inspiration, awe and wonderment into our tanks to fuel fierceness, fulfillment and freedom

Awe (n.)
A moment of grace, synchrodestiny, enchantment, oneness, and pure ease.

The Reverse Bucket List

Similar to the Post-it Wall of Greatness [link], the Reverse Bucket List (RBL) is a celebration, a practice, and a remembering of truth and greatness. Just like awakened humans have turned from fossil fuels toward solar, wind and biomass fuel, awakened entrepreneurs are using the Reverse Bucket List to turn from fear/scarcity/shame toward inspiration, awe and wonderment fuel.

Instead of making a Bucket List of all the things we're still striving for, let's make a list of all the things that we've already achieved. This way, when we are on our death bed (or ideally, well before that), our final thoughts will be, "F*ck yeah, I liiiiiived!"

Ellany's Reverse Bucket List (Travel Edition)

1. Almost falling off an elephant from laughing too hard (Chitwan National park, Nepal)

This is by faaaaaar the top memory I will conjure up on my death bed: A bestie and I went on an elephant ride. She had to pee, so she climbed down the elephant and wandered out of our sight to squat in the bushes.

Suddenly, the mahout tensed up. So I tensed up and followed his line of sight. It was a rhino! Do you have any idea how effin’ rare they are to spot?!? it appeared out of the trees just 2 meters (6 ft) away.

The mahout gestured for her to move ever so slowly back toward us, since rhinos are known to charge forcefully if feeling threatened. Talk about being caught with your pants down!! 😂

I laughed so hard I almost fell backward off the elephant. I had to snuff my laughter by clenching both my hands over my mouth, so not to startle the rhino or get my friend killed. I will NEVER forget the feeling of my shoulders and diaphragm pulsing in hysterical silent laughter.

THIS is what I will remember most on my death bed. Not my certifications, nor my work, but this.

Buy experiences, not things.
– Jean Chatzky

2. Hearing music from when the Aurora Borealis danced in the sky (Trömso, Norway) and discovering that I have synesthesia!

3. Handgliding off a mountain and soaring over the ocean (Brazil)

4. Getting a PADI Open Water Diving Certification from a live-aboard boat (Thailand)

5. Whale watching, listening to mothers sing to their calf and teaching them to breach (Madagascar)

6. Soaring in a hot air balloon over thousands of temples (Bagan, Myanmar)

7. Playing with dolphins and being shot up in the air by them propelling my feet :D (St. Kitts)

8. Microlighting over Victoria Falls to observe the Big 5 (Zimbabwe / Zambia)

9. Watching a lion stalk a zebra (Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania)

10. Flying in Antigravity Yoga hammocks at the Four Seasons (Bali, Indonesia)

11. Sipping blueberry lassies in the Blue Lagoon (Iceland)

12. Safari-ing in The Serengeti during mating season (Tanzania)

13. Swimming with turtles (Gili Air, Indonesia)

14. Practicing yoga at Inari Prayer Gates at sunrise with no one around (Kyoto, Japan)

15. Swim with sharks, the vegetarian kind, not the carnivorous kind (Ambegris Caye, Belize)

16. Ziplining through jungles and rivers to Machu Picchu (Peru)

17. Having a luxury spa all to myself all day long (Curaçao)

18. Quadbiking in Santorini with the wind in my hair, the sea in my heart and the sun in my toes (Greece)

19. Standing inside the inner circle and touching Stonehenge (United Kingdom)

20. Twirling out my freedom on the Avenue des Baobabs because I can, because I mofo earnedit (Madagascar)

21. Parasailing over the ocean at sunset (Costa Rica)

22. Praying in holy waters for freedom from cultural conditioning and patriarchal indoctrination (Ubud, Indonesia)

23. Horseback riding off-trail in the great outdoors (Costa Rica)

24. Riding a canoe through hippos in the Okavango Delta (Botswana)

25. Tracking down giant turtles (Galapagos, Ecuador)

26. Wiggling into a turtle shell thinking it'd be funny, but craughing (crying + laughing) so hard when I got stuck and my friends just left me there, after much pointing and laughing of course (Galapagos, Ecuador)

27. Floating in the Dead Sea, shoulda brought a magazine! (Jordan)

28. Going where the wind blows all over Andalusia (Spain)

29. Swinging like a monkey on a vine (Guinea)

30. Paragliding from mountain peak to mountain peak (Pokhara, Nepal)

31. Straddling the Northern and Southern hemispheres at the equator (Gabon)

32. Standing between yesterday and today (Fiji)

33. Shenanigan-ing on the salt flats of Uyuni (Bolivia)

34. Climbing to the top of Dune 45 (Sossusvlei, Namibia)

35. Learning to surf after two attempts (Nicaragua)

36. Singing "The hills are alive... with the sound of music 🎶"" in the mountains (Kyrgyzstan)

37. Hiking to the top of Mount Sinai to watch the sun rise (Egypt)

38. Standing over the land of my ancestors on the Great Wall of China (China)

39. Thinking about swimming across the river to Afghanistan (Uzbekistan)

Live fierce, fulfilled and free!

I remember the first time I posted my RBL in 2016. I got a lot of 🖕 🖕 🖕  responses back 😂  But for every 🖕 , I got 4-5 messages from my readers, students, clients and soul family about feeling inspired, uplifted, motivated and renewed. Not because of the content of my RBL, but because of the full permission it gave them to do the same: to live fierce, fulfilled and free.

With each passing year, that ratio improved:

• 2016 - from🖕 to 👊 👊 👊 👊
• 2017 - from🖕 to 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 
• 2018 - from🖕/👊  to 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 
• 2019 - from 👊  to 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 
• 2020 - from 👊  to 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 
  
• 2021 - from 👊  to 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 👊 
  

(Hmm... I wonder what the ratio was before 2016.)

Change Your Freedom Ratio

Make your own Reverse Bucket List and post a picture in the comments! It can be your Travel Edition RBL, Besties Edition, Family Edition, Teachers/Mentors Edition, you pick whatever feels the most awe-filled!