When creating your bucket list, there’s no time like the present. Here are a few tips to help you make the most of your list and stay focused on making its contents a reality.
Find the Right Medium
You can’t write your bucket list on a scrap of paper or the back of a receipt. Instead, we recommend getting a journal to write it in. This notebook can be as simple or as extra as you want, but it should be someplace special. Now, if pen and paper isn’t your thing, you can create an online doc to keep track of your bucket list – just don’t accidentally delete it!
Consider the Length of Your List
Now, we aren’t saying to guess how much time you have left; we just mean that your list probably shouldn’t have 2,000 items on it. There needs to be a balance of small and big things, and you want to make sure they are relatively realistic.
Include Little Things
It’s easy to come up with all the big things you want to do in your life, but what about smaller goals you can accomplish on, say, a day off? If you aren’t actively making progress on your list, you may get frustrated and quit pursuing it altogether. However, by including seemingly small things – like cooking a certain dish or visiting a local attraction – you can begin checking items off almost immediately.
Add a Timeline
There are several ways you can create a timeline within your bucket list. For the little things, consider setting certain milestones by which to complete them (like your 30th, 40th, or 50th birthday). For the bigger items, give yourself X amount of years to meet them.
Get in Touch With Yourself
As you begin to create your list, remember that it’s your list; the goals of others don’t matter! A great way to determine what you want to do in your lifetime is by interviewing yourself and considering where you want to travel, what cultures fascinate you, what food you love, what experiences you always dreamed of having, and so on.
Devote Time to Your List
Maybe it’s once a month or once a year, but make sure you set aside some time to consider how you will accomplish the things you’ve added to your bucket list. For example, if one of your goals is to visit Paris, start looking into flights, hotel rooms, and the things you want to see and do there.
Add Some Things You’ve Already Done
This is like when you have a to-do list for your day, and you have the satisfaction of checking off things you’ve already done. It can be intimidating to stare at a long list of things you want to accomplish. Checking off a few things from the get-go will make a huge difference in your attitude toward your bucket list.
What’s on your bucket list? Share with us in the comments below!