How to Write A Bucket List

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Since I graduated in 2009 my life has been different from what I planned. My father passed away in summer 2010 when I was 22 and losing him was the most devastating thing I have ever gone through. My father was full of spirit and passion and had accomplished so much in his 58 years of life. In the days and months following his death I didn’t do myself any favors – I drank too much, I quarrelled too much, I regretted too much, I cared too little about myself. I cut out everything in my life that was too complicated or emotionally draining. In a way, it was good for me to have some time where I wasn’t constantly pushing myself, constantly focused on what to do next. But I know my father, a man filled with curiosity about the world around him, would have wanted me to continue to live my life and so I pulled out a bucket list I had written when I was 14 and reworked it into the below list.

Writing a Bucket list can be one of the most satisfying and eye-opening lifevestments you can do for yourself (though checking something off your list is even more satisfying).

1. Add Diversity. As they say, “Variety is the spice of life” so be sure to include a variety of activities and interests in your list. This helps develop a well-rounded vision for what you want to accomplish in your life. Also be sure to include goals you can accomplish during different periods and decades of your life. One that I added to my list that I am excited about is running a 5K when I am 50.

2. Take Your Time. Rome wasn’t built in a day – your bucket list shouldn’t be written in an hour. Bucket lists are works in progress so revisit and add items often. Really commit to something before putting it on the list.

3. Add Anything Important (no matter how small). Some of you may disagree with me on this but I believe a bucket list is more fun if you are using it often and constantly adding to it. Adding small goals can build momentum and can help you develop more long-term goals. Just this past weekend I made my first pumpkin pie ever and was able to check that off the list!

4. Do Your Research. Read other bucket lists and share yours. Discovering someone else’s bucket list can help you define and refine yours and sharing your list can help give direction to others. Be sure to post links on this page to your lists!

Bucket lists are my favorite lifevestment. They allow us to cultivate our lives and focus on what we care most about. I learn so much about myself every time I add something to the list so I encourage everyone to try writing one.

Ashley’s Bucket List (as of October 24th, 2011)

1. Explore Angkor Wat
2. Memorize Poe’s “The Raven”
3. Be a valedictorian
4. See the Eiffel Tower
5. Own a farm
6. See St. Paul’s Cathedral
7. Discover nutella
8. Learn to love earl grey tea
9. Read all of Harry Potter
10. Write my personal fashion style guide
11. Memorize at least one new recipe every year
12. Visit Lyon, France at least twice
13. Run a 5K
14. Become a beekeeper
15. Train a dog from a puppy
16. Chop off all of my hair (or at least 10 inches)
17. Never dye my hair in my 20s or when I turn gray
18. Run a 5K when I’m 50
19. Explore the English countryside
20. Grow a flower garden
21. See King Lear performed live
22. Go to a book signing
23. Give birth to my child
24. Learn to do a French manicure
25. Get married
26. Never get divorced (and stay true to my family)
27. Eat at Avec in Chicago 
28. Eat at Gibsons in Chicago 
29. Do a traditional british afternoon tea service
30. Go on the Jack the Ripper walk in London
31. Give a large donation to a charity (animal rescue or an arboretum)
32. Go to New York Fashion Week
33. Read every work by Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen
34. See every film version of Jane Eyre (as available)
35. Collect Department 56 Dickens Village houses
36. Collect old books and 1^st editions
37. Keep up Dad’s travel pin map (put a pin on every part of the map you have visited)
38. Be the sole photographer for a wedding
39. Perfect my posture
40. Graduate college (magna cum laude)
41. Pay off student loans
42. Have a zero-energy home
43. Visit Salem, MA
44. See every episode of The Office (US Edition)
45. See every episode of Mad Men
46. See Buffalo Springfield from the concert pit
47. Wear a fascinator
48. See Bizet’s Carmen at the Lyric Opera
49. Learn to bake at least ten different Christmas cookies
50. Write a novel
51. See Lady Jane Grey’s grave at the Tower of London
52. Learn to make felt food
53. Read Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children
54. Meet Patrick Stewart (Love him!)
55. Visit Tokyo and see the cherry blossoms
56. Do dim sum in Hong Kong
57. See a temple in Bali
58. Start a charm bracelet
59. Read Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land
60. Read Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
61. See Dyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait
62. See every episode of Battlestar Galactica
63. Read Byatt’s Possession
64. Read Byatt’s Little Black Book of Stories
65. Own an embosser
66. Visit Iceland
67. Collect vintage absinthe spoons
68. See the Taj Mahal and buy a marble souvenir
69. Learn to love Indian food
70. Make the 1905 salad from The Columbia Restaraunt 
71. Read Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog
72. Drive an Aston Martin
73. Date someone not of U.S.nationality
74. Read Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude
75. Visit Buckingham Palace
76. Visit Versailles
77. Visit Belgium and eat at least ten different types of chocolate
78. See Positano, Italy
79. Visit South Africa
80. Go on a cruise
81. Climb up to Macchu Picchu
82. Do a cart-wheel in the South American salt plains
83. Go zip-lining
84. Visit China and stand on the Great Wall
85. See Stonehedge and other Neolithic buildings in England including a stone with a hole
86. Visit Paris during the springtime when it rains
87. Ride the TGV through France and see Roman ruins
88. See the Parthenon and take a cruise through the Greek Isles
89. Take a cruise down the Nile
90. Go on a yoga/meditation retreat
91. Go on a mountain trek
92. Buy a house in the woods with lots of trees
93. Make homemade French onion soup
94. Have lots of pets
95. Eat at a café in Venice while it rains
96. Eat food off a large leaf
97. Sleep in a treehouse
98. Memorize an entire Bollywood song
99. Memorize grandpa’s biscuit recipe
100. Don’t eat beef for 50 years (haven’t since 2003)
101. Get a custom coat made
102. Learn to fire a handgun
103. Study abroad in India
104. Learn to make pumpkin pie

After re-reading this list I can’t help but feel like many of the things on here are superficial and naive. But that’s the beauty of the bucket list – it’s constantly evolving with you.

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Ashley

Here are some other fantastic posts on Bucket Lists:

http://inthedarkofthenight.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/bucket-list/

http://debsanswers.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/what-is-a-bucket-list/