Pete Alexander2x TEDx Speaker and best-selling author helping transform burned out workers into engaged colleagues.

Stress Relief Tool - Your Bucket List

27 Jan 2021 · 2 min

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1:58

In this short self‑help monologue, Pete Alexander urges viewers to treat each day as if they only have a year left, drawing on Steven Levine’s book A Year to Live. He proposes keeping a personal bucket list of meaningful experiences—big or small—and explains that checking off each item brings a powerful sense of euphoria and stress relief. Alexander shares two personal anecdotes—a long‑desired visit to Lambeau Field and the fulfillment of writing a book—to illustrate how completing bucket‑list goals can boost satisfaction and impact others. He concludes with a clear call to action: create your own bucket list, pursue the items that matter to you, and enjoy the stress‑relieving excitement that comes from honoring your own aspirations.

Chapters

We've all been blessed with one life to live, and once it's gone, we can't get it back. And if you're anything like me, we won't be on our deathbeds regretting that we didn't spend one additional hour per day at work. What if next year was your last? That's exactly what Steven Levine did in his book, A Year to Live. Levine outlines how to live each moment, each hour, each day mindfully, as if one year was all that we had left. It is a much more detailed version of writing your eulogy that I spoke about in a previous blog post. I haven't done what Levine suggests, but what I have done is kept a bucket list of items I want to accomplish before my time is over. Each time I check off one of these bucket list items, I have a sense of euphoria because I have honored myself. These bucket list items can be small or large. It really doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that it is important to you. For example, I wanted to watch a football game at Green Bay's Lambeau Field ever since I was a kid. It wasn't until I was on a business trip in 2014 that I got the opportunity to do just that, and I had an unforgettable experience. I also wanted to write a book to make an impact on people's lives, and once I started getting the feedback on the impact that book had, the satisfaction I received was through the roof. So create your bucket list, and as you check off those items Enjoy the excitement and stress relief that comes with accomplishing something that's meaningful to you.