Everyone should have a bucket list. To quote the movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freedman, it’s a list of things to do before you “kick the bucket”. Coming up with a list that really excites you can be a great way to get you thinking about setting goals and moving toward creating a life “on purpose”.
I’ve followed my own advice and have come up with the first 50 items that make up my bucket list. Here they are:
1. Go parachuting
2. Become a black belt in Karate
3. Learn to play the piano
4. See the Great Wall of China
5. Go scuba diving off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia
6. Take a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon
7. Go wine tasting in Sonoma County, California
8. Spend a week at a world-class spa
9. Be on the cover of “Time” magazine
10. Be interviewed by Oprah or Larry King
11. Write a book, have it published, and have it be a New York Times Best Seller
12. Have something public named after me (like a street or a building)
13. Have my portrait painted
14. Meet the love of my life
15. Marry the love of my life
16. Have a child
17. Go on safari
18. Go whale-watching
19. Learn to belly dance
20. Learn to tango in Buenos Aires, Argentina
21. Fly in a hot air balloon (could be above the vineyards at Napa Valley, California)
22. Run a marathon
23. Stand in the Oval Office in the White House
24. Celebrate New Year’s Eve in Times Square, New York
25. Have a Zen Garden
26. Learn to create mandalas
27. Donate a million dollars to the charity of my choice
28. Visit Machu Picchu in Peru
29. Invest $50,000.00 in the stock market
30. Get a degree from Harvard (even if it’s an honorary degree)
31. Learn to speak French
32. Go to the Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas
33. Shake hands with the President of the United States and at least 5 European Prime Ministers
34. Visit Amsterdam
35. Be an extra in a film
36. Visit Ireland
37. Go to Rio de Janeiro during Carnival
38. Learn to juggle
39. Buy a house and make it “the perfect” house over the years
40. See the Eiffel Tower in Paris at sunrise from the subway (I saw this in an episode of ER)
41. Help entrepreneurs in third world countries through www.kiva.com.
42. See the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses
43. Attend a fashion show in Milan
44. Visit Japan (“Memoirs of a Geisha” is one of my favorite books of all time)
45. Have a great aquarium in my living room
46. Create a non-profit foundation to help the needy
47. Spend Oktoberfest in Germany
48. Meet Donald Trump
49. Shop in Rodeo Drive
50. See Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”
Creating a list of 100 things to do before you die (or a “bucket list”) is a great way to expand your sense of who you are and what you’re capable of. Even if your day-to-day life is routine and completely unglamorous, doing something outrageous once a year–such as jumping out of a plane or visiting an exotic destination–can bring back the sense of life as a daring adventure.
For hundreds of ideas of things you can consider adding to your bucket list, visit my Squidoo lens, 100 Things to Do Before You Die – Create a Bucket List.
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(The “Bucket List” Photograph is courtesy of ks_painting).
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