A Fall Bucket List (But Better)

The Lazy Genius Podcast

Host Kendra Adachi introduces a way to enjoy autumn by creating a 'fall favorites' list rather than a high-pressure bucket list. She provide

Key takeaways

• Replace high-pressure bucket lists with a 'fall favorites' list focused on things that make you feel alive.
• Prioritize one key item per category, such as golden milk or chili, to ensure they actually happen.

Main topics

• Seasonal intentionality
• Fall favorites list creation

Notable quotes

Do not spoil the wonder with haste.

Conclusion

By naming and scheduling small, sustainable seasonal joys, listeners c

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Welcome to the Lazy Genius Podcast, where we all get to be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Every Monday, you'll learn to compassionately manage your time, wisely solve problems, and kindly live in your season. I'm your host, Kendra Adachi, and I am so very glad you're here. Today's episode 488, a fall bucket list, but better. Why better? Well, Bucket lists, while wonderful, also carry like a lot of pressure and, and frankly, morbidity to them. I mean, the origin is from the phrase kick the bucket, which means to die. And while I think it's great to have a list of things you'd love to do before you die, that is a less appropriate list and energy when like, I just want to, I don't know, enjoy October. Also, since one of the 13 Lazy Genius principles is to live in your season, and many of us, like we're enjoying the parts of the season that we love, that make us feel happy and alive. Some things that are usually limited only to fall. And it's fall. I want you to have things that you love about the season. that actually make it onto your calendar and into your life. I think that when we're intentional about those things, the stuff that we have to do, it feels lighter and better. We have the emotional capacity to be present and enjoy where we are. So today we're going to create a better list for fall, your fall favorites. We're going to make a list of favorite things that you love about fall. Things you want to eat, drink, cook, see, smell, watch, listen to all the things before we hit Thanksgiving. But then the important thing here is to make sure they happen. Like making the list is not going to be hard at all. Like that's a really fun part. But how can we ensure that your fall favorites actually happen? I feel like it's simpler than we often make it out to be. And I've got some ideas for you to incorporate your fall favorites into your life. In some ways, I think this episode is almost like What's Saving My Life, but in reverse. Like we're preemptively putting things into our fall lives that make life feel really good right now. I'm really excited. So let's set the stage a little bit for this season. The wide expanse of time between summer and like the winter holidays is stereotypically a favorite time of year. September, but especially October and the beginning of November. People love fall, myself included. You're in a routine, but you're not overwhelmed by Thanksgiving and Christmas quite yet. Maybe the weather is cooling down, but it's not freezing outside. It's just like a good time. There are so many things that feel like it's almost like they belong in October and nowhere else. Also the fall season, it can feel really busy. That's the other side of it, right? There's kids sports and school activities. There's, you know, some workplaces, they start to get a little crazy at the start of Q4 to hit annual goals that still have a ways to go. October really does feel like it flies by. It holds so much fun and coziness and magic, but it can also like be gone in a blink because there aren't like really big holiday anchors. Like I know there's Halloween, but it's quite literally the last day. And then suddenly we realized we did not enjoy the season that we. had hoped to. This quote from Tolkien, this is going to be our guide today. Okay. Do not spoil the wonder with haste. Legolas says this to Gimli in the Return of the King, and I'm saying it to you now. Do not spoil the wonder with haste. Let's take our time this fall season, enjoying what we love about it, what the season offers, how we can experience in a way that matters and like do it in a really small, sustainable way so that we are enjoying. the wonder and what we love about the season without like rushing through the whole thing, right? So we're going to make, we're going to make our fall favorites list. I'm very excited. Obviously yours will be different from mine and everyone else listening, but I do want to give you just some ideas and categories to think about so you can catch the things that really matter to you. What I would really love for you to do is to take like a little bit of time over the next couple of days, and you can keep a list of what your fall favorites are. like as things come to mind or, you know, as you even do like a little research on, you know, what, what movies or shows are coming out or books you want to read or whatever it is, like you can put those on your list as you sort of think through things. You, you might not leave this episode with a complete list per se, but you will have some, some tools to make one and to also like make it happen. Now, before we get into making your list, I want to lay down just a few, a few ground rules. You need to keep these things in mind so that you don't turn fall into like, I don't know, like some sort of memory robot situation. You know, we want to make sure that you're doing this with like soul and humanity and you're not forcing anything. So the first thing I want you to keep in mind is to say yes to what matters first. That's honestly the point of today's episode is to name what matters the most to you, what your favorite things are. So you can actually say yes to them in the season. It doesn't mean that other things in the fall season won't happen, but it is also important that you say yes to what matters first so that those things definitely do right. Number two, I know right now is not a no forever. There may be things that you love about fall that cannot happen this year for whatever reason, many of which are probably out of your control. Just because you have to let something go this year, it does not mean that you're letting it go forever, right? Now is not forever, thankfully. Three, be careful about manufacturing memories. We are creating space for enjoyable fall things to happen, but hold a very loose grip on how things go or how your people react to them. Like you cannot, you cannot manufacture memories. So just take a breath and relax. You're going to have more fun that way. Anyway, number four is to combine your senses. Okay. So like, hear me out on this one. When you link sensory experiences. When you like combine a couple of things like listening to fallish music while also lighting a candle or having a mug of something like spicy and warm next to you, like even if you're doing work or chores, that enhances everything. It's like you're injecting fall into your just regular daily life in a tangible, tactile way. And it's pretty great, especially if you combine multiple senses at once. It's immersive. It's so great. And then the fifth thing that I want you to remember is it's basically a repeat of number one, which is say yes to the things that matter first. But please, please choose the most important thing from each category or whatever that we're going to talk about. Please don't choose everything. It's fine and fun to make a really long list of like recipes that you want to make or, you know, books you want to read or things you want to watch, like all the different things. Like you can have the longest list ever and it's so, so fun. But here's the thing, as you make your list, I just want to make sure that you are prioritizing, even like putting a little star next to the one thing in its category. so that you're sure to do it. It's a real gift you're giving yourself because if you just do that one thing and nothing else on that list, it's still going to feel like fall to you because it's like your top thing, right? You'll still have done your favorite thing and loved it, even if the other things didn't quite make it. So even though making this entire favorites list is super, super fun, and I hope you get to enjoy everything that you write on it, I just want you to be aware of starting small. Start with the thing that's like the most important thing so that you will actually do it. So let's start with the fun part. Let's jump in and we're going to make our, we're going to make our fall favorites list. I'll share some like typical categories and then my favorite thing from within them as you think about yours. So let's start with, let's start with beverages. Let's start with fall beverages. Okay. There's so many to choose from the PSL. Certain kinds of beer, apple cider, hot chocolate. I don't know. The thing that I personally love to drink in the fall the most is golden milk or my own version of it. There's an old post on my Instagram page that shares how I make it, but it's basically like, here's how I do it. It's like brewed spice tea. with turmeric added, and then any extra spices that I might want, which I don't usually need them because of the tea itself. And then like a generous pour of creamy milk. I love both oat milk and heavy cream. It makes this absolutely luscious, like golden drink that's warm and spicy and creamy and super delicious. It's so good. And listen, it is something I only want to drink in October, November. Truly. I don't care that much about drinking like special fall lattes or making homemade cider or hot toddies or whatever. I mean, if it's like there, I'll drink it. It's fine. But my, my fall favorite is golden milk. So that's the only beverage going on my list because it is my favorite and I want to make sure that I enjoy it. Right? So do the same for you. Like, what is the drink that you're like, man, this is the one. Same goes for foods. What about foods? So your fall favorite food, it might be, I don't know, like soup as a category or some other comfort food like chicken pot pie, or maybe it's an ingredient, you know, like anything with apple or anything with pumpkin. Maybe your fall favorite food is tied to an experience like baking a pie or roasting marshmallows or having like a huge pancake dinner with maple syrup, something like that. Mine. is chili and homemade cornbread. Oh my goodness. So I usually make it about three times throughout October and November, and it makes me so happy. I don't usually make it other times of the year. Like I can sometimes, but not really. So my, my cornbread recipe, I will share in the, um, the next newsletter. If you would like it, I think I've actually shared it before, like a year or two ago, but if you want cornbread, that's like just a little sweet. which is how I like it. You can sign up for the newsletter at thelazygeniuscollective.com slash join, or you can just like use your favorite cornbread recipe and make it like, or from a box, like it doesn't matter or not do it at all because you don't like cornbread. The point is that is the fall food. That's the meal that I am prioritizing. The other stuff is fine if, and when it happens, but I am most definitely prioritizing chili and homemade cornbread and my cast iron skillet because it is without question my fall favorite. And again, I highly encourage you to take the same approach. What's your absolute favorite or very, very, very, very, very small set of favorites. I will give you a very small set that just like have to happen in order for it to feel like fall. That's the point here. Like, what is it for you? Prioritize those, do them. And then you will feel like fall is definitely fall and it doesn't pass you by. So that's like food and drink. So what about sensory kind of vibey things, you know, like fall aesthetics. Like what's your favorite fall aesthetic? Is it candles? Like you like candles or maybe it's the smell of the candles. And so it's like pine and, you know, sandalwood or whatever. Is it wearing cozy socks around the house? You know, dressing like you're