It has been a busy start to the year, which is a pleasure and I also have much to look forward to including several anniversaries: I’m celebrating 20 years of marriage, my cider company Bignose & Beardy is 10 years old, and so is the Bucket Project, one of my favourite side projects.
The Bucket has become an annual pilgrimage to the mountains for me, Arno the mountain guide from Alp Adventures, and a group of ordinary people who do not know each other.
We leave work behind for a few days and make our way to the hills, to experience a mysterious adventure, to reflect and slow down enough to get a bit clearer about our lives.
Each year produces a different group, usually from Higher Education Institutions and business: founders, directors, practitioners.
We walk, we talk. The slow pace enables the ebb and flow of alternating one-on-one or small group conversations, then people reflecting on their own but in company.
Possibilities open up in that space. We can reframe our challenges, temporarily lay down our burdens and responsibilities and relinquish control for a few blessed days.
Giving up control, embracing mystery, having an adventure. These are not normal things. And they are rather wonderful.
This is the Bucket Project, a four-day mysterious adventure in the mountains.
What happens on the Bucket
There are certain things about the Bucket that are really important, including that I don’t tell you what’s going to happen. Part of the ethos is that when you don’t know that, interesting things can take place.
So I can’t tell you what we’ll be doing this year. That would spoil the surprise.
I can say you’ll laugh a lot. You might cry. You might find yourself well out of your comfort zone. You’ll make friends, feel appreciated and most likely learn a great deal from others and about yourself.
Last year we surprised everyone with an invitation at the end of a long day’s walking, to climb half way down a 140m cliff to sleep on a flimsy fabric platform.
It was totally safe, but I’ve never been more challenged going to bed in my life. Lying there with nothing but a thin sheet between us and a huge drop. The wind blowing around and over us.
Of course there were amazing views of the Mont Blanc Massif in front of us, but it was the scariest physical experience of my life. I did not sleep. And I learned that I don’t like heights. I am very glad I did it though, and I’m amazed that everyone on the trip did it too.
The good news is that we won’t be doing that again.
Being vulnerable and being brave is part of the Bucket Project. There’s something about being outside your comfort zone and taking a risk within safe limits that is really empowering.
But each year the Bucket is unique. We use different routes or include different activities.
We’ve slept in some pretty unusual places over the years: as well as the cliff edge, there have been ancient mountain refuges, a treehouse, and an igloo.
And we’ve seen signs of wolves, spotted three different kinds of vultures, and eagles, hares, marmots, chamois and ibex…
Over the course of the four days we will do some deliberate thinking. We will make deep connections. It will leave a lasting impression. We will go back into our worlds subtly changed.
Mostly though, it’s about the people, who bring different experiences and challenges.
Why join the Bucket
Often people come with a thing they want to work on. Usually that’s work or career related,
or to think about their most important relationships, but not always. Sometimes it turns out they need the space for something else entirely.
We start a group of strangers, we end friends, collaborators, supporters, bonded by the journey and the stories we share.
Last time a few people got into a conversation about Ikigai, the Japanese concept of finding what brings value and joy to your life including friends and family or work and hobbies.
Entrepreneur Marc Winn created a global meme when he merged purpose with Ikigai, creating a Venn diagram using four overlapping circles:
- what the world needs;
- what you’re good at;
- what you love, and
- what you can get paid for.
In the middle is your sweet spot, your purpose.
One of the group was struggling to find something they could do that would intersect all four circles.
Until another participant pointed out that the circles, including what you can get paid for, were never part of the original Japanese concept. Which was a good spot, as those four circles set a high bar and make it difficult to fulfill all the categories.
By letting go of the ‘paid for’ circle, perhaps finding money another way such as by doing flexible contract work, it would free up time to use their skills and passion to support the ‘needs of the world’. They were thoroughly cheered by that small epiphany.
There is often a riot of little moments of clarity like that on a Bucket Project.
There’s something about the walking, being in the clear air of the mountains, the conversations, the reflective space. The stress drops away. It’s a calm space. There’s joy, and a level of intimacy that you rarely achieve.
If you join us on the Bucket Project, you’ll be able to ask yourself some really helpful questions.
But if you can’t make it, you might like to give yourself some space to think about these reflective questions – useful at any time of year, adapted from similar ones that we use on the Bucket trip:
- What are you leaving behind from last year?
- What do you want for this year?
- What do you need?
- What can you do?
The Bucket Project 2025 is in October (16-20th), in the Italian Alps.
If you’d like to join – and it really is a special space – there are a few spots left. It will be one of the best things I do this year. Come and do it with me.
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