Bucket List: Your Map to Satisfaction and Adventure

By Rhonda Collins, I Start Wondering Columnist

Made famous in the 2007 movie The Bucket List with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, a bucket list includes all the special things you want to do before you “kick the bucket.” 

But a bucket list is not about dying. It’s about living your best life – a life you will be proud to reflect on in your final days, a life with few regrets, a life full of meaningful experiences with people who mean something to you.

What is a bucket list?

A typical bucket list includes the author’s dreams, wishes, goals and ideas for accomplishments and experiences. Lists can include anything from completing a degree to sailing around the world, from making a quilt to writing your memoirs. 

A Stanford Medicine survey  revealed that the most likely items on the lists of people who make bucket lists are travel, personal goals and specific life milestones. 

Bucket lists are popular with seniors because they can be a map to adventure and satisfaction in our remaining years. Once we hit retirement age, we often begin to reflect on both triumphs, as well as ideas not tackled and dreams unfulfilled. Thus, a bucket list can be one way to keep the senior years exciting and allow us to continue to make new memories. 

Why you should create one

Some psychologists say bucket lists are a way to keep our goals front and center and to remind us that life is about more than going to work and doing laundry and mowing the lawn. 

It’s also good for your heart. The American Heart Association says bucket list activities bring both physical and emotional benefits including getting us outside and moving, as well as providing joy that comes from planning adventures and relaxation when we vacation from our everyday lives.

Bucket list items

The accomplishments and activities you select for your personal bucket list should reflect your values, interests, personality and budget. You can get inspiration from this list of items that often appear on bucket lists:

• Travel, national park visits, landmarks, tours

• Museums, galleries, concerts, festivals, sporting events

• Jobs, inventions, starting a business, other income sources

• Ways to help others, philanthropy, leaving a legacy

• Food, drinks, entertaining, cooking classes

• Adrenaline boosters – sky diving, tattoos, climbing mountains

• Learning new skills, completing degrees or certificates

• Hobbies, art, writing, other creative outlets

• Revisiting childhood dreams – pets, roller coasters, playing an instrument, competitions

• Life-altering ideas – living abroad, adopting a child, changing gender, buying a new home

Steps to create your personal list

1. Your list should be dynamic. It’s not a write-for-10-minutes-and-you’re-done job. Play with it for a few weeks, adding items as they come to you. 

2. Be daring in your first draft; dream big. You can trim it back later if you like. 

3. Research the items to identify the decisions and tasks needed to accomplish each one, along with how much it will cost.

4. Attach a timeline, date or deadline for each item. Some goals may require time to save funds, and others may need to happen at a certain time of year.

5. Consider making your bucket list in conjunction with your spouse or best friend. If you have similar items, you can do them together. For other items, you can attend/help as a cheerleader.

6. Let your list naturally evolve over time as new opportunities arise (10-minute flight into space, anyone?) and as you check items off your list.

More Words of Wisdom

• Make sure you don’t select items just to keep up with the neighbors or to give you bragging rights at the next cocktail party. Your bucket list should be activities you truly want to do and will enjoy and be proud of even if no one else ever knows about them.

• Start with the easiest and lowest cost item to give yourself momentum and motivation. Then, begin working on the hardest one because it will likely take more time to plan and implement. 

• Post your bucket list somewhere you can see everyday as a reminder to work on it. Even better, share the list with a trusted family member or friend who will hold you accountable.

• Only put items on the list that are under your control. For example:

  • OK for list – Buy a farm and grow 5 acres of corn.

  • Not recommended – See the price of corn triple, so I can make money on a corn crop.

• Remember this is supposed to be fun! Every goal shouldn’t be the most challenging adventure in that category. For instance, if you have no climbing experience, instead of choosing to “Climb Mount Everest,” maybe start with “Join local rock-climbing club.” After that adventure, decide if Mount Everest is still something you want to conquer.

Finally, don’t stress if you aren’t able to get to everything (or anything) on your bucket list. It doesn’t mean you haven’t led a great life! 

As Psychologist Christopher Peterson says about bucket lists: 

“Remember George Bailey in the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, who never achieved anything on his own bucket list (school, travel), but did – when given the opportunity to reflect – conclude that he had lived a worthwhile life. He never let his own wishes get in the way of other people, and that's why we still cherish this film 60+ years later.” (Psychology Today, February 2011)

Now, grab that pencil and journal or pull out your phone. It’s time to start making plans! And, don’t forget to let us know what’s on your list.

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