Building A Bucket List To Inspire Living

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Tina Dubinsky

Creating a bucket list when depressed isn’t as easy as it seems. I’ve struggled with this personal goal for several months.

Back in August, in my article, Live Your Best Life Now, I mentioned using a bucket list to create something tangible to work towards and look forward to.

My aim was to create a bucket list to see me to retirement.

Then, I wanted to write about how I came up with my list and share the process with you.

However, I found it challenging to come up with a list of the things I wanted to do and instead became lost in how I would present it.

What is a bucket list?

A bucket list is a record of experiences you want to explore before you die and kick the bucket. This idiom, kick the bucket, is where the list gets its name.

The experiences focus on positive outcomes, things you’ll enjoy or have always wished to do and new successes you want to achieve, like learning a new skill or an accomplishment.

Bucket lists can help you choose what to do with your life. They can help with life planning, but they should also be flexible and change as you change too.

Justin Zackham, writer for the film The Bucket List, is frequently credited for coining the term and making it popular.

Many of us have unwritten bucket list items stored in our heads. We just haven’t formalised what we want to do.

Have you ever thought or said, “I’d like to do that before I die?”

Writing your aspirations down can make your goals and dreams more concrete and inspire you to pursue them.

16 Polaroid photos on a board of Bucket list destinations.

What does a bucket list look like?

When I think of bucket lists, I am reminded of a past work colleague who brought her bucket list into the office to show to others. She presented us with an A3 board with cut-out images of things she wanted to do. It was creative and inspirational.

I wanted to forge something similar to hang up on my home office wall. However, I’m not as crafty. So, I turned to other options for a visual presentation, such as Canva or Adobe Express.

After starting and failing to create a bucket list using templates from Adobe, I turned to inward reflection to figure out what I was doing wrong.

Aside from struggling to enjoy the process, I realised I was suffering from a bucket-list block, like writer’s block, but for a bucket list.

It was in the early hours of New Year’s Day when I had an epiphany. I sat in my study, opening my journal with a pen in the other hand.

Of course, I was approaching it all wrong.

You see, I thought a bucket list had to be a beautiful poster, and that’s what my focus was on, not the actual details.

While creating a visual presentation of the list works for some people, it isn’t necessary or practical.

So, I reverted to what worked for me, beginning with my journal.

Why start a bucket list

My dad died in April 2024. He was 93. A month before, a cousin on my mum’s side died of cancer. Then, the week of Dad’s memorial, my stepbrother also died of cancer.

Since my August blog post, my Uncle (the last living sibling on my father’s side) also died, aged 98.

All this death in one year is jarring. It reminds me of my mortality and the many things I aspire to do before I die. So, making a bucket list seems a good starting place to concrete those possibilities.

By working on ticking off items on my bucket list, I hope can pull myself up out of the dull drums and make the most of my remaining life.

You may decide to create your own bucket list for different reasons. Generally, a bucket list:

  • Keeps dreams and aspirations in focus.
  • Inspires you to achieve your goals.
  • Reveals what is personally important to you.
  • Compels you to look at where you are in life.
  • Encourages you to imagine the things you want to do.
  • Raises questions about the possibility of your goals.
  • Rewards past achievements with a joyful tick. ✔️

Who uses a bucket list?

The research documented in the paper, Common Items on a Bucket List, published by Periyakoil, Neri, and Kraemer in the Journal of Palliative Medicine in 20181, discovered age and “faith/religion/spirituality” influence the adoption of a bucket list.

Age is my motivator, as I’m just over a decade away from retirement age. Faith/religion/spirituality, not so much.

From reading other people’s positive experiences, you will enjoy making a bucket list if:

  • You’re a control freak.
  • You enjoy planning and organising.
  • You’re determined.
  • You love ticking things off lists. ✔️✔️✔️
  • You want to experience more from life.

Should everyone make a bucket list?

Bucket lists can aggravate depression. If you don’t complete and tick things off, they can make you feel like a failure. This is why I advocate for enjoying simpler pleasures in life.

Jonathon Look, a writer for Forbes, thinks bucket lists are disheartening2. He believes many people limit their journey through life to the items on their list because if it’s not on their list, then why do it? Instead, He recommends being open to new opportunities as they arrive in the moment.

And that approach to maximising life experiences without a treasured list works for many people.

I view my bucket list as something flexible that will change as I change.

You can still enjoy spontaneous life adventures even if they’re not on your list.

For instance, I’ve already jumped out of a plane and gone skinny dipping without having a bucket list. Both fun experiences I could re-add to my bucket list even though I’ve been there and done that.

Where to start your bucket list

So, rather than create my bucket list on coloured cardboard with cut-out images or in a graphic design app, I turned to writing tools, AKA my writing journal and a pen.

Step-by-step bucket list creation

1. Set the time limit to the end of days.

First, set the time for reaching your goals.

Traditionally, a bucket list contains end-of-life goals, that is, the things you want to achieve before you die. They don’t necessarily have a specific date to achieve them. Although you may have goals that require completion to achieve others.

Perhaps you’ve read you need to apply SMART goal setting to your list.

Poppycock!

I mean, it’s not a bad idea, except when you’re just trying to get your ideas onto paper. You can worry about applying the logic of specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals later.

Right now, we want a list of things you truly desire to do during your lifetime.

(Is anyone else channelling Lucifer Morningstar’s voice from the Netflix series, Lucifer?)

2. Relax.

Second, take the pressure off by making your environment relaxing.

You might enjoy listening to music or the sounds of nature or laughing children.

Perhaps doing a guided meditation, yoga, tai chi or imbibing in the fruits of the earth before you think about your longings will open your mind to the possibilities of life.

Take stock of where you are. Perhaps the kitchen table, lounge chair or study isn’t the right environment for a deep and meaningful discussion with your inner thoughts.

Perhaps you do your best thinking at night around a campfire or by the sea while sitting on the sand. Or maybe you feel more relaxed in a park, garden or pool.

Use what works for you to create a positive and relaxing environment where you mull over the various possibilities that have meaning for you.

3. Reflection.

Third, reflection is a massive part of building a bucket list, but where do you start?

To asked myself, what are some of the things you miss doing that you’d like to start doing again.

The first ideas that popped into my grey matter were old hobbies I miss doing. I would like to:

  • Re-join Toastmasters.
  • Listen and sing to music more regularly.
  • Walk around my neighbourhood a few times a week.
  • Chat with my neighbours.
  • Ride a bicycle regularly.
  • Read fiction daily.
  • Play the violin more often.

Then, I began to categorise my wish list into personal, creative and professional goals. The seven items above would all fall into personal. While Toastmasters could also be a career goal to improve public speaking, I like doing it because it is fun.

While it is unnecessary to sort your list items, thinking about categories could help boost your ideas.

The research paper written by Periyakoil, Neri, and Kraemer1, identified six common desires in their research. These were:

  1. Travel.
  2. Personal goals.
  3. Life milestones.
  4. Quality time with friends and family.
  5. Financial goals (and stability).
  6. Daring activities.

Another way to boost your ideas is to familiarise yourself with other people’s bucket list examples. There are many blog posts and articles on this topic which you may find helpful.

Here are a few tips I collected along the way:

  • Bucket list ideas should come from your true desires. Not from what society says you should do.
  • Your list should be flexible, not set in stone. People and circumstances change, as do aspirations.
  • Don’t just think big ticket items like expensive holidays or luxury experiences. Consider the beauty and simplicity of smaller moments that often get overlooked.

4. Record your ideas.

While I have some basic ideas on paper now, I decided to use KnowledgeBase Builder by InfoRapid, a 3D mind mapping tool, to further explore them.

KnowledgeBase allows me to edit and print the mind map of my bucket list and stick it on my wall.

There are many other apps which you could use for creating your list, such as:

  • Microsoft To Do.
  • Bucket (in the Apple store).
  • Microsoft Excel and Word and other similar apps, such as Google Docs, where you can create and update lists and tables.

Writing your bucket list down makes you think about what you want to do and creates accountability. Your list can inspire you to achieve other things that you may not have thought of too.

5. Work towards ticking off your bucket list items.

Your list is active. Hooray!

Now comes the hard work of planning and organising your experiences and actioning those experiences.

What actions do you need to take to make these goals achievable?

Now is the time to turn your list into smart goals if it works for you.

Don’t expect to come up with a completed list all in one session. Be open to adding and subtracting ideas. As life shifts around you, you will change, and things you felt were important may not hold as much meaning.

However, bucket lists are tools for making meaning out of your life and providing hope and purpose.

Do you have a bucket list? What worked for you when choosing what to add to it? Let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear and chat about your experiences.

References

  1. Periyakoil, V. S., Neri, E., & Kraemer, H. (2018). Common Items on a Bucket List. Journal of palliative medicine21(5), 652–658. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2017.0512
  2. Look, J (2020). Your Bucket List Isn’t Worth A Dime, Next Avenue, Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2020/02/18/your-bucket-list-isnt-worth-a-dime/

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