7 Ways to Fill Your Bucket

You’re In A Storm..

?..on board a flooding boat. You’re the captain and you have your crew with you. You grab a bucket and begin to shovel water overboard in hopes to slow the fill.?

But you soon realize your bucket is leaking, leaving most of the water you scoop up right back in the boat.?

You could:

1. Work 10x harder and faster to shovel the water out in hopes to outpace the leak,

or

2. stop shoveling water out to patch the holes before you continue.?

Which one is better for you, personally?

Which one is better for the crew as a whole?

?How to Live With a Full Bucket

?We all go through life carrying around a metaphorical bucket. Some moments and interactions fill it, others empty it.

A full bucket opens the door to optimism and purpose.

An empty bucket is heavy.

And if your bucket is leaking, you can’t fill your own bucket even when water is presented to you.

While this is not an exhaustive list, here are seven ways to fill your own bucket.

1. Practice self-awareness.

This is the root of it all. How can you fill your bucket if you don’t know what fills it? How can you take steps towards being your most confident, fulfilled, badass self if you don’t know what stepping stones will get you there?

Make it a priority to get to know yourself. Raise your awareness around how you react to pieces of your life, involuntarily and voluntarily.?

Plus, with the rise of publicly curated lives and social comparisons, it’s challenging to differentiate between who you are and who you feel like you should be.

2. Practice gratitude.

Make gratitude a habit. Doing so rarely means checking more off your wish-list, but is more rooted in your perspective.?

The power in gratitude is when it’s made a habit. Similar to health, if you always have to decide to prioritize it, it’ll be too easy to slip back into old ways and not do it.?

But when it’s a habit, it happens involuntarily.??

Make gratitude a habit by carving out time every day to note what you’re grateful for in your life.

In business and in life, there are immense ups and downs. The pieces that you’re grateful for will help provide the drive and perspective to push through the challenges.

3. Surround yourself with the right people, and be present in your relationships.

We’ve all heard that you’re the combination of the 5 people you spend the most time with, and it’s true. The people you spend your time with are also likely people you listen to, and learn from and are influenced by. Don’t underestimate the impact this has on you. Surround yourself with people who challenge you, lift you up, think differently than you, and truly support you through.

Avoid people who are friends with you only to benefit them, are flaky, don’t celebrate your success, or simply don’t make you feel good.

On the flip side of the same coin, be intentional about nurturing your close relationships.

4. Ensure you’re abiding by the self-care trilogy (eat well, sleep well, move your body).

You don’t need to be “perfect” 100% of the time on these (or any of them for that matter), but you should be aware of all these areas at all times, and particularly if they aren’t optimized for you.?

If one of these three pieces is neglected, it will have a more-than-tiny impact on your mental and physical health.

5. Set and maintain appropriate boundaries.

Being everything for everybody is a slippery slope to exhaustion. As difficult as it can be, it’s important to recognize necessary boundaries for yourself and enforce them, both personally and professionally.

6. Carve consistent time out for activities for the sole purpose of enjoyment.

Allow your mind to turn off from your professional responsibilities every now and then. Take time to disconnect, and do something purely because you enjoy it. And do that with some consistency.

Not only does this help your mind think in new ways, it helps keep you energized about your work and helps avoid exhaustion and burn-out.

7. Be intentional about filling other buckets when yours is full.

“Unexpected kindess is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.” – Bob Kerrey

The way you treat others is a ripple effect. Hurt people hurt people. Don’t be a source of negativity for others — life is already hard as it is.