Writing a Not-a-Bucket List

June 11, 2009

Hold a PlantI’ve gone through my life steal­ing the best ideas of my friends. Any­thing inter­est­ing I’ve done has been some­one else’s plan first. How­ever, it’s always worked for me, so I’m not about to change my strategy.

I’ve taken some time this week (and again in Decem­ber 2009) to re-evaluate my sense of what I enjoy doing and have writ­ten it down as a life list. Here are the 62 ideas I’ve had so far.

This is a list of goals, but it is NOT a bucket list. Why? it’s not a list of things I think I have to do to-have-lived-a-good-life list. It’s just a list of  just some things I’d like to do. Things are things I think I’d ENJOY doing (I think goals can actu­ally get in the way of enjoy­ment.) So this isn’t a bucket list. It’s just a list of fun things I’d like to do.

So ah-hem, I’d like to:

  1. Learn to play the gui­tar, write a good song and sing it. Sta­tus update: We just won a gui­tar in a Christ­mas raf­fle. :-)
  2. Help build a com­mu­nity cen­tre or a school.
  3. Throw a party on a trop­i­cal island (Thahiti anyone?)
  4. Write a book that I’m proud to recommend.
  5. Visit 100 coun­tries (37 to go)
  6. Become flu­ent in 5 lan­guages (5 minute con­ver­sa­tions). Update: Liv­ing in Brus­sels now, so watch­ing TV in Flem­ish and gro­cery shop­ping in French. Baby steps.
  7. Go to the Olympics
  8. Vol­un­teer after a nat­ural disaster
  9. Climb the Syd­ney Har­bour Bridge
  10. Run a marathon. Update: Done! I ran the Toronto marathon with my friend Peter Nose­wor­thy and fin­ished in the more-or-less-adequate-for-an-unfit-guy time of 4 hours and 15 min­utes. Never again.
  11. Paint an abstract paint­ing that looks expen­sive (or at least looks good). Update: tak­ing some art les­son one Sat­ur­day a month.
  12. Give a nearly per­fect speech and/or get a stand­ing ovationStingray - Tim and Bettina
  13. Scuba dive some­where amaz­ing. Update: Done! Bet­tina and I went to Figi and found a guy who let me scuba dive alone through caves and coral. He didn’t tell me he was going to aban­don me down there, but it’s hard to argue with a guy using scuba sign lan­guage, 30 feet under water.
  14. Be acknowl­edged or thanked in a book
  15. Fly a plane
  16. Build a piece of fur­ni­ture. Update: Does Ikea count?… No? Oh.
  17. Host a fun fam­ily reunion
  18. Kite surf (with­out look­ing foolish)
  19. Walk or cycle across a coun­try Update: What was I think­ing when I wrote this one?!
  20. Run for a gov­ern­ment office Update: Ditto #19
  21. Help on a sus­tain­able build­ing project
  22. Raise $10,000 for a good cause. Update: Some real progress on this one. Bet­tina and I have started to get involved in Kiva, mak­ing small donations/loans to aspir­ing small-business own­ers in devel­op­ing countries.
  23. Cook a roman­tic five-course din­ner for my wife
  24. Go on a week-long sail­ing tripPenquins
  25. Fly or boat to Antarctica
  26. Build (and sleep overnight in) a hut made of sticks and leaves
  27. Help to change a law
  28. Do an ori­en­teer­ing race
  29. Raise a chicken
  30. Have a veg­etable garden
  31. Build a wood oven
  32. Swim with sharks
  33. Spend a night in the outback
  34. Plant 1000 2600 trees Update: I real­ized I need to plant at least this many to cover my car­bon foot­print
  35. Design and build a dream house (prefer­ably my dream house, but my wife’s dream house would do)
  36. Make fire by rub­bing sticks together
  37. Read the Bible, Quran, the Bha­gavad Gita and Mao’s Lit­tle Red Book Update: So far I have read the Bible. It’s long.
  38. Sky­dive and bungee jump
  39. Make my own maple syrup
  40. Learn to spit fire and do it myself. Prob­a­bly just once.
  41. Fly over the Grand Canyon
  42. Ride in a fighter jet. Update: Appar­ently in Rus­sia and South Africa go can ride in old fighter jets.
  43. Swim with a whale
  44. Visit Machu Picchu
  45. Go hang glid­ing and paragliding
  46. Ride in a hot air balloon
  47. Make a piece of pot­tery Update: I have almost fin­ished this one! There is a sweet lit­tle mug half made in an art stu­dio in Brussels.
  48. Learn to make a pot of chili that’s so good peo­ple say “wow!”
  49. Skate out­side Rock­e­feller Cen­tre at Christ­mas time
  50. Enjoy an after­noon of surfing
  51. Swim with a dolphin
  52. Get another degree (prefer­ably an hon­orary PhD, so I don’t have to come up with any new ideas) :-)
  53. Do a fire walk
  54. Visit Vic­to­ria Falls (which I believe is some­where on the bor­der of Zam­bia and Zimbabwe)
  55. Go to Dis­ney World or Dis­ney Land (or Euro Disney)Northen Ontario
  56. Ride the scari­est roller­coaster in the world
  57. Bring atten­tion to a wor­thy stranger (i.e. see that a good per­son gets a prize they deserve)
  58. Men­tor some­one. Done.
  59. Hit a home run in a base­ball game again. (Last time I played I struck out more times than I hit the ball).
  60. Rebuild an engine
  61. Blag an upgrade to First Class. Update: Done. The lovely peo­ple at Delta gra­ciously upgraded us on our honeymoon.
  62. Go a week with­out elec­tric­ity (prefer­ably on a canoe trip in North­ern Ontario, or maybe on a sail­ing trip some­where warm).
  63. Spend at least a week boat­ing (and snorkelling) around var­i­ous islands in the Caribbean. Bar­ba­dos looks incredible.
  64. Ice Fish.
  65. Go deep sea fish­ing. Done! I just did this in Zihu­atanejo, Mexico.
  66. Take a capoeira les­son
  67. Start and develop a suc­cess­ful small business.

I’d love to get some more ideas. As I said at the begin­ning, I’m not good at com­ing up with these on my own. If you have some good ideas for enjoy­able things I could set my mind to, please share them as a com­ment below.

*Or bet­ter yet, do this for your­self and put a link to your site in the com­ment box. Doing this is quite the inspir­ing lit­tle exercise.

Related Posts with Thumbnails
  • Kathryn
    Hey team! Great list. You inspired me to write my own:
    http://chocolatemartinipaper.blogspot.com/2010/...
  • JayC
    If you're looking for company on that sailing trip. You know how to get ahold of us.
  • This is so nice, I gave 10/10.
  • 18. Kite surf.

    The two best places to learn Kiteboarding: Cape Hatteras North Carolina at REAL. And Maui Hawaii. I live in Maui and work for Cabrinha kiteboarding. If you want to come ride sometime let me know. You can get lessons here and I can get you gear to try.

    * I'm trying to convince Ferris to come down here to Maui again. He LOVES hana.
  • Nice list! I like a bunch of those... might steal some. :-) Here's my list: http://www.nerdynomad.com/99-things/
  • Alicia Elliott
    63. Explore Toronto, and contemplate (very seriously) moving there...no pressure. Actually, this is multi-media pressure...can't wait for your visit!
  • .
  • Maureen Kaplan
    Hey Tim...I really enjoyed your list of things you would like to do. I am so totally impressed that you have been to 60+ countries already. I've been to 3. Can I tell you which ones I have accomplished from your list and then I'll add an idea...#12, 14, 17, 26 (ok does a tree house count - not really made of leaves but I lived in a tree house with a tarp for a roof for one week during girl scout camp!, 29, 30, 31 - again girl scout camp, 36 (uhmm...girl scouts- there seems to be a theme here), 39 (yes gs again), 47, 48, 55, 58(does that include being a parent?!), 61...no comment!, 62...see #26.

    Ok now something I would like to do that I've never done is to ride in a subway as I have never had the opportunity.
  • Matt Hickling
    Here's one that I've done...that you might enjoy as well. Take a foreigner to Fenway Park to experience American culture and explain baseball. As for one I haven't....visit every national park/national historic site in Canada and the US. Hike the Appalachian Trail. Go deep sea fishing Hemingway-style. Yeah...those would be on my list. Cheers!
  • Nice one. There is something so compelling about that kind of American experience. --singing in the seventh inning stretch, looking around and feeling like that whole stadium is your family. I like that one.

    I like your other ones as well. I was actually thinking of the deep sea fishing one too. Hmmm. Let me know if you need someone to do that one with when you get around to it. :-)
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