How Creating a Bucket List Can Help You Achieve More in Life

A bucket list is, simply put, a list of all the things you want to try, achieve, or experience before you die (“kick the bucket”).

While not everyone is a fan of the term itself, preferring instead the term ‘life list,’ a bucket list can be a great tool to make your dreams known to the universe… and to finally take action toward achieving those goals!

Having a bucket list can make you stop for a moment and think about what you actually want to experience in this lifetime. What is important to you? What do you wish to accomplish? What are you curious about? This type of lists can remind you that life is short and you should live it to the fullest.

By coming up with things that align with your passions, you think out of the box and create a system to break away from routine and old habits. Writing down your goals will help you commit to them as you are able to clarify what is important to you.

Create Your Bucket List

Here are 3 simple steps to get started with your own bucket list:

Step 1 – Brainstorm

Take a piece of paper and give yourself 10-15 minutes to write down anything you wish to experience that comes to mind. No matter how impossible it might seem, this step requires that you have no filter and dream BIG!

Some possibilities:

1. visit a new neighborhood, city, or country
2. attend a new festival
3. set a fitness, yoga or meditation goal
4. set a reading goal
5. learn to play an instrument
6. learn a language
7. take on a new creative hobby
8. see a play, musical, concert or other show
9. volunteer for a good cause
10. …whatever you want!

Step 2 – Details

Organize your ideas into different groups, such as: relationships, career, physical health, emotional health, living, finances, creativity, travel, religion/spirituality, education, and fun and leisure.

Give yourself a clear time frame for when you will achieve your goals. Is your goal short-term (in 3 months, when you visit a specific city), long-term (new year’s resolution, next year, in 5 years) or for a special occasion (before your 30’s, on your graduation, in summer/winter)? Get a clear focus on what is most important to you.

Once your goals are broken down in rough time frames, see if you can narrow it down even more. What can you work towards achieving in the next month, or even next week?

Remember that for bigger goals, such as learning a language, it might take a while before you reach that goal. See if you can break up that goal in smaller pieces that are more achievable sooner.

Step 3 – Accountability

There are likely a lot of items on your list, so to make them more achievable, try focusing on your top 3. Think about what excites you the most or what has to be done before a certain time, for example.

It’s also easy to write down your goals and then just forget about it, so make sure to find a partner in accountability, a real “Bucket List Buddy”. Perhaps there are items you share and can accomplish together!

When you go out to experience the activities on your bucket list, you will realize that these type of lists really aren’t ever finished, and that is the whole point. Life is not a competition about who can tick off as many experiences as possible; it is about doing the things you love and focusing on what is important to YOU.

Keep on dreaming about those things you’d like to achieve in life and keep on adding them to your list. Save a copy on your phone, so you can update it when inspiration strikes and update it when you’ve accomplished something. You can also create a Pinterest board to keep track of your wish list and inspire others to do the same.

Let us know: Do you already have a bucket list? What are the top 3 things on your list?