'Yet'

The power of one word can change your thinking.

I’ve never had a bucket list, you? I mean there’s certainly things I want to do before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

The naming of it though - as a ‘bucket list?’. Something about it feels so… fatal?

At my daughter’s school commencement ceremony earlier this year the Principal talked about helping your child overcome difficult challenges they will face.

When your kid says something like “I can’t do this… I don’t know how”, he suggested a one word response.

‘Yet’.

Saying ‘I can’t do this yet’, or ‘I don’t know how yet’ changes the emphasis from feeling defeated to being enticed to try.

A bucket list does acknowledge the reality of the fate that awaits us all but it’s also easy to put those things off. Save it for when you’re closer to the end.

But saying ‘I’ve yet to do this…’ frames it in a way that’s more optimistic and I would argue more achievable.

So (in my other life) I know a thing or two about branding and marketing but I need your help.

I’m rebranding the bucket list to be the ‘yet list’. Things I’ve ‘yet’ to do.

There’s no timeline or deadline on the yet list. It’s just things you want to do, that you’re yet to do.

I’ll go first.

1. I’ve yet to learn how to play ‘Message to my Girl by Split Enz’ on the piano.

2. I’ve yet to live in London.

3. I’ve yet to read the entire works of William Shakespeare as an adult.

4. I’ve yet to make a short film.

5. I’ve yet to dance in public with my Son and Daughter.

6. I’ve yet to fly in a helicopter.

7. I’ve yet to write the RomCom script my friend Harriet and I have been talking about for nearly 10 years.

8. I’ve yet to learn how to do basic coding.

9. I’ve yet to take a photography class.

10. and I’ve yet to make really good home made Apricot Jam.

I’d love to hear your ‘yet’ list…

…and if you can help me spread the word about the re-brand from bucket list to ‘yet list’, that would be ace. It would be great to start a collection of ‘yet lists’ for other people to read. It’s time for the bucket list to, well, you know the rest.

See you in the morning,

Wade