I love the idea of creating a bucket list. For the uneducated, a bucket list contains any number of things you’d like to do in your life. The items on a bucket list can be simple and personal (be a loving father) or adventerous and outrageous (climb Mount Everest). I am a fan of the bucket list for several reasons. First, by putting our goals and dreams on paper, we are far more likely to accomplish them. It solidifies them, makes them more tangible. It helps to keep them in the forefront of our consciousness. As Mark Victor Hansen says:
“You control your future, your destiny. What you think about comes about. By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands – your own.”
Secondly, the process of creating such a list can help us to know ourselves better. It’s an opportunity to let go of our limiting beliefs and explore the possible. We can discover what is truly important to us, what we authentically want to experience in our lives. In creating my own, I reflected deeply on each list item, seeing if the notion inspired or excited me. If it didn’t, it was left of the list.
Next, the list can serve as a tool to keep us motivated to get out of bed in the morning. It can remind us where we’ve been and where we want to go. It shows us the experiences we’ve already had, and the new ones awaiting us. I particularly like setting bold and exciting goals, things that perhaps seem outside of my reality today. Such goals create a compelling future that pulls me forward with a sense of aliveness and anticipation. When speaking of his own goals, Anthony Robbins wrote “They get me up early, keep me up late, and inspire me to marshal my resources and use everything I can possibly find within the sphere of my own influence to bring them to fruition.” Tim Ferriss, of 4-Hour Work Week fame, wrote that setting “an unusually large goal is an adrenaline infusion that provides endurance to overcome the inevitable trials and tribulations that go along with any goal.”
Lastly, a bucket list can serve to remind us how short life really is. We can spin our wheels daily focusing on the mundane and convincing ourselves we have plenty of time. Frankly, this scares the crap out of me. I don’t want to wake up one day wondering where my life went. With my bucket list in hand, I hope to wring as much inspiration and experience as I can from my short time on this rock.
I started my bucket-list process by reminding myself of some of the bucket list-worthy things I’ve already done in my life. I remembered how it felt to do these things, remembered the enjoyment and felt the excitement. Some of them in my 34 years include:
- Attending Carnival in Rio
- Visiting the Great Wall of China
- Living for 6 months in Australia
- Scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef and Whitsunday Islands
- Spending 7 weeks living in Shanghai
- White-water rafting
- Earning a six-figure income
- Visiting Singapore
- Closing on my first house
- Visiting the Colliseum and Vatican in Rome
- Watching my son being born
- Staying in a Fijian Bure and shared kava with the locals
- Walking through Pompei
- Making love on a public beach
- Completing USMC bootcamp (perhaps not on many bucket lists, but still an accomplishment in my book!)
- Haggling with traders in a Turkish market
- Dressing up and going to the Melbourne Cup
- Celebrating New Years Eve in Las Vegas
With a sense of excitement, I wrote my bucket list, which is shown below. After I was done, and I looked at it, some of the things seem ridiculous; I have no idea how I will do most of them. Nonetheless, I believe I can and will find a way as long as I let the excitement and anticipation drive me forward.
As time goes by, as I grow and evolve, as I check things off, as I learn more about myself and what is possible, this list will certainly change. Still, I will refer to this often, particularly when I sense my motivation and passion starting to wane. Death is the great equalizer, and I don’t intend to the problems of the day-to-day stop me from living as many of my dreams as I can.
My Bucket List – 4.22.11
- Buy and live on a boat
- Make a documentary film
- Play a role in a hollywood movie
- Sail around the world
- Drive the Rubicon trail
- Sky dive
- Take a driving tour of Europe
- Run a half marathon in under 2 hours
- Gaze at far-off galaxies in a scientific telescope
- Complete the Marine Corps marathon
- Hike Yosemite Half Dome
- Join a Pro golf tour
- Party on a balcony at Mardis Gras
- Place a live bet at the Kentucky Derby
- Earn a black belt
- Enter a ball-room dancing competition
- Go surfing in Hawaii
- Learn to speak 4 foreign languages
- Get a PhD
- Publish a best-selling book
- Take a week-long backpacking trip into the woods
- Take a midnight skinny dip
- Ménage à trois
- Find authentic love and get married
- Hold my first grandchild
- Play in a band
- Get my pilot’s license
- Scuba dive a ship wreck
- Ride a bull (not mechanical!)
- Take Drew Barrymore on a date (a man can dream)
- Attend racing school
- Drop below 10% body fat
- White-water raft a Class V river
- Take a photo safari in Africa
- Go deep sea fishing
- Attend the Sturgis motorcycle rally
- Earn seven figures in a year
- Attend a swingers party
- Cliff dive in a tropical location
- Visit Antarctica
- Visit the Taj Mahal
- Go on a meditation retreat
- Read all books in “The New Lifetime Reading Plan”
- Live in South America for an extended period
- Ride the Trans Siberian Railroad
- Master snowboarding
- Go to Oktoberfest
- See a World Cup game live
- Go to a Summer Olympics
- Go to a Winter Olympics
- Go to a Superbowl
- Party at the Playboy mansion
- Run with the bulls in Spain
- Mush a dog sled in Alaska
- Build a successful company
- Own a 1969 Corvette Stingray convertible
- Start a non-profit
- Be photographed with a President
- Set a Guinness book world record
- Attend an international film festival
