Create Your Bucket List in 5 easy steps
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For those of us who are middle aged, we have worked really hard at our careers for many years, and we’ve raised our families. Now it’s OUR turn to build new memories for ourselves. It’s time to make a Bucket List and then start achieving it!

Some people only create one when they suddenly learn they have a limited amount of time left on earth.

But smart people make a Bucket List much earlier so they can tick things off, a few at a time. I often advise young people to create one in their 20s, and then try to check off one box a year while they are busy with school, careers and raising a family.

Whether you’re retired or not, now is the time to make a Bucket List and devise a plan to make things happen. Keep on reading!

Woman sitting on couch looks over paperwork in her hand. Perhaps she is working on a plan to make a Bucket List?
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Don’t Wait – get started now!

So many people think “maybe some day I’ll…” or “eventually I want to…”, but they never quite get around to taking the first step.

Stop dreaming and waiting for “some day” to finally happen. Now is the time to get exploring and start achieving your Bucket List goals, even if it’s in baby steps.

A large white boat with a blue tarp canopy, lying on it's side in the grass. A red arrow shows where Kari was trapped underneath the boat.
Where I was trapped under the boat!

It’s cliché, but seriously, tomorrow is NOT guaranteed. Things can change in a blink of an eye without any notice. I had a near-death experience a couple of years ago that really motivated me to get off my couch and start exploring. I’ve had friends suddenly lose a spouse or a child without any warning. Completely life changing.

So set aside some uninterrupted time today and follow these 5 steps to start making an amazing Bucket List for yourself.

If you have a spouse or partner, I strongly recommend you each make your own Bucket List independently, then compare notes after Step 4.

Here’s a FREE worksheet you can use to complete all the steps below. Click here to DOWNLOAD it.

Step #1 – Make a list of your hobbies and your passions

What you are interested in and passionate about is so important when you make a Bucket List.

Maybe it’s History, Food, Nature, Travel, Wildlife, Sports, Wine, Art, Hiking, Photography, Skiing, Yoga or something else. Write them all down.

Kari standing on the red deck in the grassy backyard with her camera on a strap around her neck. Her love of Photography features heavily on her Bucket List.

If you can’t think of any, is there a new hobby you’ve always wanted to try?

Really, the focus should be on “What makes me happy?” or What brings me joy?”
Passions can also include things like volunteering, giving back, living like a local in a different area, continuous learning and so much more.

Another way to think about it is to finish this sentence: “Before I die, I want to experience….”

Ad for Facebook Group Achieve Your Bucket List. Community of travelers helping each other achieve travel dreams.

Step #2 – Brainstorm ideas for your Bucket List

Now that you know what you are passionate about and interested in, it’s time to brainstorm a list of possible things to do.

  • Anything goes at this point, no matter how simple or ambitious.
  • Keep an open mind with NO LIMITS.
  • Don’t stop to worry about how you will make it happen or how you’ll pay for it.
  • If it pops into your head, write it down!
  • Don’t worry about what others might think – this is YOUR list and yours alone.

A Stanford University study about Bucket Lists found that:

  • 78.5% of people had bucket list items involving travel to see and experience new things – where have you always wanted to go?
  • 78.3% of people wanted to accomplish a personal goal such as starting a band, learning a new language or skill, publishing a book, running a marathon, etc.
  • 51% of people listed achieving a specific life milestone such as getting married, reaching retirement, having grandchildren, downsizing their house, going back to finish college, etc.
  • The remaining bucket list categories were spending more time with family and friends, being financially stable or doing a daring or thrilling activity.

A great bucket list has a combination of all these things – new places, new experiences, new skills, and new feelings of accomplishment.

To get you started:

  • If Baseball is your passion, your Bucket List might include seeing a game at all of the MLB ball parks.
  • If you love Art, seeing all of the major Impressionists in museums might be on your Bucket List.
  • If Cooking and Food is your passion, you may want to take a Food Tour and a Cooking Class in every place you visit to learn how to make the local and regional cuisine.
  • If you love being out in Nature, you could make a plan to visit every National Park (Note, other countries have fantastic National Parks too!).
  • If you’re a Yoga Lover, you could make a trek to find all of the unique places in the world that offer sunrise Yoga classes.

See where this is going? You can make a Bucket List around any of your interests and passions.

Elephant doing "trunk aerobics" as he stretches and bends it
Safari in Tanzania
Cooking Class in Tuscany
The famous Sydney Opera House sits on the edge of the Sydney Harbor in eastern Australia
The Sydney Opera House, Sydney Australia
The Golden Hands bridge in Vietnam - they are not golden at all, but still a magnificent item to add when you create a bucket list.
The Golden Bridge, Ba Na Hills, Vietnam
Lake Lucerne, Switzerland
Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico

For Travel Goals – Where can you get some more ideas?

  • Ask your friends and family “Where’s the best place you’ve ever visited and why?” If what they describe sounds interesting to you, take note of it.
  • What places are your friends posting photos of on Facebook? If it looks interesting to you, add it to your list
  • Sign up for some travel emails. Every day, thediscoverer.com and www.dailypassport.com each send me three short articles. If something looks interesting in those, I add it to my list. They cover both US and international travel destinations.
  • Check out Pinterest – you’ll get all kinds of great ideas from looking at the visual search results.
  • Watch the Amazing Race on CBS. Watch the Travel Channel. Visit Rick Steves’ website if Europe is on your mind. Watch movies that take place in other parts of the world like Under the Tuscan Sun or Crocodile Dundee.
  • Look at the Destinations page here at Achieve Your Bucket List

What method should I use to organize my Bucket List?

Find some quiet time to work on creating Your Bucket List uninterrupted

I keep a Microsoft Word document on my computer called “Places We Could Go” that I keep adding items to, organized by continent. I copy/paste items into it, sometimes I screen shot something and add it to the document. It’s over 50 pages long now! 

You could also use a journal, a notebook, or an app on your phone to jot down Bucket List ideas as they come to you. Some people like to use a spreadsheet like Xcel or Sheets to track their items.

Blue checkmark in a blue box - indicating completion of a task or a Bucket List item.

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What about Non-Travel Goals?

We can’t travel all the time, right? So it’s great to have some non-travel goals on your list too. And goals that don’t involve travel (like taking a class or learning a new skill) can be accomplished at home in between your travels.

Here’s where to look for some ideas:

  • Look at course catalogs from your Community Education Department or the Extension Center at a local university. Even look at the actual college courses that nearby colleges are offering – sometimes you can audit them for free.
  • The city I live in offers several speakers a month at the Community Center on a wide range of interesting topics. One of these may spark some Bucket List ideas.
  • If you’re looking for volunteer opportunities in your community, ask in your local Facebook Group for ideas of who needs help.
  • Join Facebook groups for topics you might be interested in to see what other people are doing around that topic

Step #3 – Organize your Bucket List ideas by Category

Now it’s time to organize your whole brainstormed list into categories:

Travel Goals

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Personal Development/Skills Goals

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Life Milestone Goals

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Time with Family & Friends Goals

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Financial Security Goals

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Bold & Daring Goals

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Now circle the top 3-5 items on your list. These are the ones that excite you the most!

Step #4 – Make a timeline for your Bucket List goals

What do you want to achieve in the next month? In the next year? In the next 5 years?

Some goals will naturally take longer because they involve more research and planning, or you need more time to save up money. But some are free and take place in your own town. You could literally go do them next Saturday if you wanted to!

Organize all your goals above (not just the top 3-5) into a timeline as shown below.

One-month Goals

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Six-month Goals

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One-year Goals

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Three-year Goals

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Five-year Goals

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Write it all down and save it. If you used a computer to make your Bucket List, print it out. Tape it up on the refrigerator where you can prominently see it. You can always change it, but having it present and visible will help you stay focused.

Here’s a FREE worksheet you can use to complete these steps. Click here to DOWNLOAD it.

Step #5 – Share your Bucket List with friends and family

Don’t be shy! Now it’s time to share your list widely. First with your spouse or partner. Then with your kids. Then with your friends.

This helps keep you accountable to working towards your goals.

After you create your Bucket list, share it with loved ones

And you never know, someone might want to do one or more of your Bucket List items with you.

Even better, someone might want to help you achieve one of your goals. People have many resources that they are willing to share (expertise, local connections, and more), but they can’t help you if they don’t know what you are trying to accomplish.

What if my spouse’s Bucket List is different than mine?

After you create a bucket list, share it with your spouse or partner.

That’s okay! I wanted you each to create your own list without limits or influence of another person.

When you’re ready to share with your partner, trade lists.

IMPORTANT: Please don’t make any judgements about the items on your partner’s list – that’s not your role. Instead, keep an open mind and respect that they had a good reason for writing that item down.

If you’re not sure why they listed a particular item, ask them about it. “What excites you about XYZ?” or “I didn’t know you’ve always wanted to ABC – tell me more about that.”

When you compare your lists, consider:

  • If you have some overlap of things that are on both of your lists, great – that’s exciting!
  • Compromise is at the heart of any strong relationship – I’ll go do your thing with you and you come do my activity with me.
  • When traveling, you can do most things together, but split up occasionally to pursue different interests. I take a cooking class while you go birdwatching. Then we’ll reconnect at the end of the day to share each of our adventures.
  • Or you can take some solo time to do the things that you really want to do that your partner has zero interest in.

Any of these solutions are fine. Just keep talking about them with open and clear communication.

It’s up to you and your partner if you want to combine your lists into one joint shared Bucket List, or if you each want to maintain your own Bucket List with lots of common things on them.

Ad for Facebook Group Achieve Your Bucket List. Community of travelers helping each other achieve travel dreams.

Next Steps to Achieve Your Bucket List

Congratulations! You’ve just made an epic Bucket List that is unique to your interests, hobbies and passions. Now it’s time to create a plan to make it happen and remove any barriers that are in your way.

Additional Inspiration

I don’t normally link to other blogs, but these offered additional great insights into how to make a Bucket List.

Bucket List FAQs

How many items should be on my Bucket List?

The sky is the limit. Continuously keep adding to your list as new ideas occur to you. There’s no right or wrong number.

That being said, I wouldn’t actively work on more than 3 goals at a time. If you spread yourself too thin trying to do 10 things at once, you’ll burn out. As soon as you check one goal off, you can start working on another one.

How do I update my Bucket List?

First of all, check the box when you’ve achieved each goal! I personally take great satisfaction at crossing things off my to-do list and a Bucket List is just a jumbo sized one of those.

You should periodically review your Bucket List and update it. On your birthday or at the start of the New Year are great times to do this. Put it on your calendar!

Maybe your interests and passions have shifted to new areas. It’s totally okay to remove some items from your list if they really aren’t relevant for you anymore.

And since you’ve continued to add items throughout the year, this is a good time to reprioritize which 3-5 you’ll focus on next.

I’m really stuck coming up with ideas. What else can I try?

Make a new separate list of all the things you have already experienced in your life – places you’ve been, things you’ve tried, experiences you’ve enjoyed (and those you haven’t).

This trip down memory lane will help you realize how much you’ve already managed to do. And it might remind you of some of the things you really enjoyed so you can find related things to add to your Bucket List.

More Bucket List Resources

Here are some more posts about how to make a Bucket List and inspirational destinations. If you’d like to receive emails when I’ve posted new content to the site, please complete the short form above.

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