The Bucket List and Semantics of Planning

I heard references to the term “bucket list” last week and asked a friend if the term replaced what I’ve always called a “life list” (incidentally John Goddard has an impressive life list).  Perhaps this is semantics.  She asked if I ever saw the movie The Bucket List.  I rented it the same day and now understand how the term popularized the concept of creating lists with an end goal in mind.     

Whatever you call the list, it is the process of reaching specific goals aligned with your personal vision, mission and values.  You identify goals, create strategies, objectives, tactics, budgets and timetables to get you to the end point.  The bucket list is essentially the same thing that organizations call strategic long range plans. 

A lot of time is wasted, in planning meetings, because people don’t speak a common language.  We tend to trap ourselves in the semantics of planning.  The following may help you head this off at the pass.

VISION:  What’s the picture of what we want to be in the future?

MISSION:  What’s our purpose?

VALUES:  What drives us at our core?

GOALS:  What generally do we want to accomplish in the future?

SWOT:  Strengths  –  What are we good at?

               Weaknesses  –  What are we not so good at?

               Opportunities  –  What can we take advantage of?

               Threats  –  What stands in our way?

POSITION:  How does what we are match up with what people want?

STRATEGY:  What’s the essence of our plan to get there?

OBJECTIVES:  What specifically do we want to accomplish in terms of time & degree?

TACTICS:  What specific actions will we take to accomplish our objectives?

BUDGET:  What will we spend?

TIMETABLE:  When will we be done?

EVALUATION:  How will we monitor progress?

Good luck as you create, implement and accomplish your own bucket list.