LifeQuest

Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

In April 2013, the LifeQuest organization chose to adopt the Have You Filled a Bucket Today? initiative and program, which is based on the children’s book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today written by Carol McCloud.

Through sweet, simple prose and vivid illustrations, this heartwarming book encourages positive behavior as children see how easy and rewarding it is to express kindness, appreciation and love on a daily basis. This metaphor for life offers concrete ways for children to connect their feelings with their behavior with simple, everyday examples about making emotional deposits into invisible buckets: smiling at someone, writing a thank-you note or giving a compliment. When people fill someone else’s bucket with a kindness, their own bucket also fills up, generating positive feelings and self-esteem. 

Conversely, it also touches upon emotional withdrawals. People who take away our happy feelings with negative actions like ignoring, teasing or bullying are bucket-dipping. People cannot fill their own buckets by dipping out of someone else’s.

The simplicity of the message and the concepts presented in the book are understood by “children” of all ages and present the ideal opportunity for our organization to adopt an organizational initiative and program that is applicable to everyone from the small children in our child care programs, to our seniors in our nursing centers, to our clients in the community, and to each and every one of us privileged to be part of their everyday lives.