Steps for achieving our dreams

have you ever heard of

a bucket list it comes from the phrase

called kick the bucket which means to

die

so bucket list is a list of things

and dreams we would like to accomplish

within our lifetime

i have made the bucket list since i was

15

and have achieved many of my dreams

today i would like to share some

episodes

and the benefits of making the list

when i was 11 i made a list of things

i would like to achieve within a few

years just for fun

for example i want to pass the entrance

exam and go to this school

i want to be able to speak english i

want to study abroad

i want to become a kinder person

after finishing making the list i put it

on my bookshelf and i forgot about it

but four years later i accidentally

found it

when i was cleaning my room i stopped

cleaning

and started reading what i had written

when i was 11.

and i was taken completely by surprise

because many of the dreams were

already achieved well i had to pass the

entrance exam and

went to a junior high school i wanted to

go to i was able to speak

english not fluently but good enough to

make small talk i found that

15 year old me was able to do what i

wanted to do

and become who i wanted to be at that

time

i thought wow i can make my dreams come

true

even though i completely forgot about

them

so if i make this list more organized

and make use of it i may be

able to make more dreams come true in my

whole life

that’s why i started making the list

which is

known as a bucket list

i didn’t recognize it at that time but

when i think about this event now it was

my turning point

the bucket list helped me clarify my

future goals

for career hobby and personality

by qualifying my dreams it becomes clear

what i have to do and how i can prepare

to achieve my goals

this is my bucket list i categorized my

dreams

into some topics for trip for example

see aurora or go to christmas markets in

germany

and for personality be a trusted person

and always be curious

the number of dreams is increasing every

year

and now it reaches almost 100.

i also make goals for the year

which includes smaller dreams and easy

to achieve dreams

i would like to talk about why i think

these small dreams are important later

but before that i would like to share

two important steps i learned to make

our dreams come true

and how the bucket list helps us

the first step is visualizing

our dreams visualize

what we want to do what kind of life we

want to live

what we are passionate about this

is the first and most important step

when i made my first bucket list at the

age of 15

i realized that one of my interests

is traveling since it was impossible to

travel alone or with my friends during

junior high school

i decided to save money so that i can

use it

when i become a college student

last october i achieved one thing

on my bucket list which is going to the

golden gate bridge

in san francisco i realized that

i had a full day holiday because of the

school festival

when i saw the college schedule in april

since participating in the school

festival was optional

i thought i had to use this opportunity

to travel somewhere

it was a big idea at first and

i had forgotten that i wanted to go to

san francisco until i saw the bucket

list when i was deciding where to go

fortunately i saved enough money

over the past five years and

i found that i thought it would be great

opportunity to

make this dream come true

now the problem was

who do i go to san francisco with

unfortunately many of my friends from

college

took part in a school festival and i

couldn’t find anyone to travel with me

so i contacted my friend from high

school

she also likes traveling but she lives

in kyoto

but i texted her anyway

hi i’m planning to go to san francisco

from

thursday night to monday night i know

you’re busy

and you probably have classes on friday

but can you go to san francisco with me

it sounds crazy idea and i didn’t expect

her to say yes

because because she was also college

student and

very busy with studying but

next morning she texts me back

hi i really want to go to san francisco

fortunately i only have optional

lectures

on friday so i think i can go

there’s one thing though i don’t have

time to transfer at narita airport

so can you meet me at san francisco

airport

it was one of the most surprising but

happiest moments in my life

actually it was the first time for both

of us to meet someone

at the disney airport so we were a bit

nervous

but we managed to meet and manage to go

to the golden gate bridge

by bicycle these are the pictures i took

there

it was so beautiful it was

absolutely most memorable and

unforgettable trip i’ve ever had

among many things i think i was able to

make this trip possible

because i visualize my dreams

by making the bucket list and keep

reminding myself

what i wanted to do when i have a

holiday

if we don’t have the bucket list or

any other tools to remember our dreams

we easily forget them in our busy daily

lives

if we don’t know what we really want to

do

we might miss the opportunity to achieve

our goals

if i waited a year with coffee 19

traveling to san francisco would have

been very difficult this fall

without the list we may make decisions

not based on our dreams but based on

other things

such as money or fame or other people’s

opinions

that’s why making the bucket list is

important

and useful not just to make our dreams

come true

but also to navigate us based

on our true voices within

another important element is to always

have courage sometimes

all we need to achieve our dreams is

courage

or in another world not being afraid of

trying something new i tried many things

last year

i got driver license i took part in a

volunteer work

i took toeic exam for the first time and

i started learning kung fu

actually none of these goals require

any special skills or any qualifications

but our strong feeling and courage

to take a step forward well

i want to try bungee jumping this year

to be honest i’m achieving one thing

on my bucket list thanks to my courage

to take a first step now

please look at my bucket list again

do you see making a speech in ted talk

i put this dream into my bucket list

after

i entered college and started listening

to ted talk

in english classes so it was less than

two years ago

honestly i didn’t think i could have

such an opportunity

this early i thought

ted talk speakers should be should be

excellent at something

such as making great discoveries in

their specialties

or or experience something only he or

she can talk about

i never thought a normal college student

like me

can make a speech and tedx

i thought it would be many many

years away to achieve this dream

but the opportunity came

in a totally different way from i

expected

i heard that iuhw narita organized this

event

and that they were looking for some

speakers

with a great opportunity luck

and my courage to take the first step

in this case applying for this event

i was able to make one of my dreams come

true

in an unexpected way

well i just told you having courage is

an important factor

to achieve our dreams however

i understand it’s not easy especially at

first

i also hesitated whether to apply for

the speaker

because because i wasn’t sure i can do

it

so how did i get the courage

to take the first step for my dream

now i would like you to remember the

first part of my speech

do you remember small dreams and easy to

achieve dreams

these small dreams help us to have

courage

to take action for our big dreams

small dreams can be anything for example

trying new food we never tried seeing

a movie at the theater instead of

watching it with amazon prime

having a barbecue party with our friends

taking part in our volunteer work taking

toeic exam

practicing a new song on the piano

important thing is think many small

dreams

and then carry them out one by one

step by step starting from the easy ones

and then move on to challenging ones

if we make one dream come true even if

it’s a small one

we are proud of ourselves and

we probably think we want to feel that

positive feeling

again by making

our dreams come true repeatedly we can

gradually get confidence and courage

to challenge ourselves

that’s how i got the courage to applying

for this

tedx and making a speech

and such a big event

after listening to my speech i would

like you to

make your own bucket list

big dreams small dreams easy to achieve

dreams

or challenging dreams visualizing

our dreams help us to find our

ultimate goals how we want to live

our lives the bucket list

helps us guides us to

follow our true voices within

thank you