I stumbled upon this concept from a podcast interview of Jonathan Fields, author of the book “How to Live a Good life” on my hour-long drive to work to Anchorage. It’s a good segue from my previous blog regarding “Passion and Purpose” . A lot of the concepts we intellectually know deep down but don’t practice because of “busyness and noise” of life. I find it worth revisiting, I’m alongside with you, I need to do some bucket- refilling myself.
According to Jonathan Fields, there are three Good Life buckets: Vitality bucket, Connection bucket and Contribution bucket, the fuller your buckets, the better your life. The buckets leak or run dry or bottom out; when that happens we suffer or tend to not have a life. Likewise, you can fill the buckets up.
Your Vitality Bucket is the state of your body and mind, we want to feel….
• Energized
• Fit, strong, and flexible enough to participate in life
• As free from pain, disease, and disability as possible
• Aware of and capable of being in the moment
• Optimistic about the future and what it holds
• Peaceful and calm, able to dissipate stress
• Able to bounce back from adversity
• Immersed in a process of growth
• Grateful for what’s right in life
• Fueled by a sense of meaning
• Happy
Our body has a huge effect in our state of mind and vice versa, our state of mind trickle to physical symptoms. I think I mentioned already that I’m a big believer that our body is our vehicle to fulfill our purpose in life, we need to take care of both our body and minds. The practice of yoga as well as meditation is totally in alignment of this concept, there are so many beautiful benefits to our body and ultimately our minds, and it cultivates awareness from being reactive to being intentional. In this day and age our lives move so fast that it becomes so important as well as difficult to fill this bucket up.We have to have an intentional vitality building practice in our daily lives to top off the nourishment of our bodies and minds.
Your Connection Bucket is about cultivating meaningful relationships, we want to feel like:
• We give love and receive love, without condition
• We belong—we’re seen, understood, and embraced by friends with shared values, interests, and aspirations (and sometimes culture)
• We are connected to something bigger than ourselves, be it natural or ethereal
Filling this bucket is a personal challenge of mine. I love sense of community and deep connections; I believe this is so important in life.I also only have twenty four hours in a day, like everyone. Work, family and business take the big piece of my pie. So I gotta be honest that sometimes I struggle with this, it can feel lonely especially in the sense of belongingness outside my immediate family. I try my best to be as present and aware in my interactions even the short ones focusing in all types of connections not just physical ones but also online, the connections I developed within yoga community and friends worldwide and hopefully the connections I’m developing with you.
Your Contribution Bucket is how you bring your gifts to the world. It’s about feeling like…
• You’re accessing your full potential, your strengths, your gifts, the deepest parts of your humanity, leaving nothing unrealized or untapped.
• You are fully expressed, seen, and heard.
I touched this topic in my previous blog about Finding your Passion and Purpose. This may or may not be your job. It could be as simple as being the best parent you can be, or the best artist, so on and so forth. I do believe that to fill this bucket up fully we have to fill the Vitality and Connection bucket first or along with it.
There are three laws of the buckets…
1. The buckets leak- filling each one of them is essential never letting one dry to avoid imbalance.
2. Your emptiest bucket will drag the others down with it- All buckets are connected and go along side of each other. See where you’re spending more of your energy and where you need the most filling. Focus on filling up the emptiest and driest bucket; it’s counter-intuitive but will definitely help the other buckets and get us unstuck to be able to grow.
3. The buckets never lie- If you are like me…I can make tons of excuses, I can think my way out of admitting that one or more of my buckets leak. We know deep within if we need to work in the buckets of life, let’s not fool ourselves. You cannot think it full, or be overly optimistic about it. The book says it best, knowledge is meaningless without ACTIONS. The good part is we can fill our buckets anytime.
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