The “Bucket List.” Often seen as the list of things you want to see, do or accomplish in your lifetime – before you “kick the bucket.”

I have read so many bucket lists lately. I’m not sure why so many bucket lists are suddenly coming to my attention. Maybe big birthdays are on the horizon or maybe people are just ambitious in life and want to achieve things, and as such are sharing to aspire others.

Either way it has made me take a step back and look at the bucket list I made in my twenties, to see what achievements I have made and what is left to “cross off my list.”

So we go back several, dare I say ten years, to see what I have accomplished:

Travel

• Take city day trips to Edinburgh, Brussels, Paris, Lille and Cork
• Go on a Baltic Cruise
• Kiss the Blarney Stone
• Be a tourist in my home town
• Fly First Class
• Wine tasting in the “Wine Country”
• See Niagara Falls from both sides
• Walk the Great Wall of China
• Climb Kilamanjaro
• Watch the sunset in Santorini
• Visit the Valley of the Kings

• Drink bubbles in Prosecco
• See La Sagrada Familia 
• Run in a foreign city    Running in the one and only Central Park
• Drink a pint of Guinness in Dublin 
• Visit the Blue Mosque in Istanbul

• See the Astronomical Clock in Prague
• Visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa
• Swim in the Great Barrier Reef
• Hike down the Grand Canyon
• Visit the Roman Baths, in Bath
• Take a walk in the Lake District
• Complete the Lord of the Rings Tour in New Zealand
• Visit Loch Lomond
• Take a city break to Madrid, Lisbon, Prague, Dublin, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin, Amsterdam, Dubrovnik, Zurich, Vienna, Venice, Istanbul, Barcelona, Budapest, New York, Rome, Nice, Hamburg, Milan, Bucharest
• Go on Safari in Africa
• Shop at the Christmas markets in Europe

Adventure

• Take a ride in a Hot Air Balloon
• Go on a Glamping Trip
• Climb a Mountain
• Go Paddle Boarding
• Go Coasteering
• Jump off a Cliff (safely)
• Learn to Ski
• Go Powerboating

• Ride a Zipline
• Walk on a suspension bridge
• Swim with the doplhins
• Take pole dancing lesson
• Fly in a Helicopter

• Drive a quad bike
• Climb the O2
• Dine at the Shard
• Take a Floatation session
• Watch a match at Wimbledon on centre court

Achievements

• Learn to drive
• Complete the Great North Run
• Run the Royal Parks Half Marathon
• Learn Italian
• Complete a 10k race under 60 minutes
• Start a Blog –   almost two years in to my blog and I still have things to talk about.
• Run a half marathon – there have been one, two……and a few more
• Become an organ and blood donor – becoming a blood donor meant I discovered I have a rare blood type. B+ – only 8% of the UK have this blood type.
• Go on a fitness weekend
• Run an OCR race  to name a few: Rat Race Dirty Weekend, Nuclear, Commando. There is nothing like a muddy OCR race.

 

• Run the London Marathon

Looking back on my bucket list; I am rather proud. The majority of the accomplishments I have ticket off the list are physical. Those that require an element of determination and discipline.

I remember the day I added some of these to my bucket list. The London Marathon in particular was added after watching the marathon on TV, crying my eyes out and thinking ” I can do that, that is a piece of cake.” So easy to say when you are sitting on the sofa and when, in fact at the time – I could not even run a mile.

But it was added to the list none the less. If I only ever run one marathon in my life I was determined that it was going to be my home town – London.

And between the time I added that to my bucket list I have ticket so many physical accomplishments off my list it is hard to imagine what I did before.

Then we come to the travel bucket list. A list I think will be never ending until the day I actually “kick the bucket” as quite frankly I cannot imagine a life that did not allow me to travel, to see the wonders of the world and to experience everything that it has to offer.

So as I review my bucket list I start to wonder how long the list will become over the next few years, where my travels will take me and what more I can achieve.

Because life is for living. You should never stop trying to achieve things in life. You should aspire to see more, to do more and experience everything you possibly can.

Keep ticking things off that Bucket List.