Before I Die

Kind of a morbid subject line isn’t it? Before I die… I prefer it to whats become a the cliched and overused “Bucket List” In saying that, I do wish there was a better way of putting it, you know, Life List, List of Pure Awesomeness, Lifes Goals? I dunno – they all seem a bit average although I’m inclined to lean towards List of Pure Awesomeness! Still, for the time being I’m sticking with “Before I Die” until I come up with something better.

Have you ever created a list of things to achieve in life? I mean actually sat down and written one out?

When I finally sat down with my pen and paper, I thought it’d be easy to come up with 100 really cool goals. I started out on fire, writing out a beautiful numbered list of experiences that I want to achieve; you know, personal goals, things to see or achieve. I didn’t want to only have just travel goals, but really purposeful life goals.

The ideas were initially pouring out of my pen but I gradually slowed and started to get bogged down until I simply hit that wall, and all creativity came to a crunching halt.

Off to Google to get some Inspiration. (good old Google!)

And INSPIRATION I found!

John Goddard was the MASTER of the bucket list or “life list” as he called it. He started writing his when he was 15 – and it wasn’t just one or two cool items, it was things like ‘study native medicines and bring back useful ones’, ‘land on and take off from an aircraft carrier’ or ‘Retrace the travels of Marco Polo & Alexander the Great’. What makes him even more inspiring was that of the +120 items he wrote down, John completed more than 90% of them. LEGEND!

When it comes to goals of any sort, things that don’t get written down are easily forgotten which is why I started my own bucket list.

I am a voracious reader and I also spend quite a lot of time researching for work and articles, so when I stumble onto experiences like a ‘human powered theme park’ or this theme park inside a salt mine, I add them to my list. It is constantly evolving.

My Awesome Before I Die List

1. Picnic on the river Seine in Paris
2. Kayaking in Antarctica
3. Photograph the Northern Lights
4. Drive the Ringroad around Iceland
5. Visit Legoland in Denmark
6. Hot Air ballooning over Capadoica in Turkey
7. Visit Petra in Jordan
8. Sky Diving over the Swiss Alps
9. Helicopter over the Grand Canyon
10. Scuba Diving in Iceland
11. Climb Mt Kilimanjaro
12. Bunjee Jump in NZ
13. Stay overnight at Basecamp Everest

    

14. Watch a Spacecraft Launch
15. Cross Country Motorcycle trip ie. Vietnam?
16. Swim with Wild Dolphins
17. Watch a Meteor Shower in the Australian Outback
18. Get a beautiful photo of the Milky way
19. Camel Safari in Egypt
20. drink Vodka in Russia
21. Learn to Solve Rubiks Cube (7×7)

    

22. Learn to Paraglide
23. Visit all Continents (Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Antarctica)
24. Live in a foreign country for more than 6months where English is not the native tongue
25. Hike the Camino de Santiago
26. See the Niagara Falls
27. Enter the Mongol Rally
28. Finish the Mongol Rally
29. See Victoria Falls
30. Go diving in the Great Barrier Reef before its gone
31. Explore the Galapagos Islands
32. Charter a boat and sail around the Fjords in Norway
33. See an Active Volcano
34. Do a month long Horse Riding Trek somewhere
35. Photograph the Head Statues on Easter Island
36. See the Basilica di San Marco in Venice
37. Marvel at the size of St. Peters Basilica – Rome
38. See The Acropolis of Athens
39. Go to Norfolk Island
40. Walk through the Hagia Sophia – Turkey
41. Visit the Kiyomizu Temple – Japan
42. See the Kremlin – Russia
43. Make a Hyperlapse video around the Pyramids – Egypt
44. See Freetown Christiania in Copenhagen
45. Visit Stonehenge – England
46. Get a photo of Big Ben – England
47. Walk around the Parthenon – Greece
48. Trek to Machu Picchu – Peru
49. Experience the Roman Amphitheatre in Ephesus
50. Stand under Christ Redeemer – Brazil
51. Walk along sections of the Great Wall – China
52. Visit Chichen Itza – Mexico
53. Take Sunset photos of the Taj Mahal – India
54. Golden Gate Bridge – San Francisco
55. See the Running of the Bulls 

    

56. Mount Rushmore
57. Karnak Temple – Egypt
58. Terracotta Warriors – China
59. Walk the walls of Dubrovnik – Croatia
60. See the Latin Bridge where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated
61. Visit Osteria Ai Pioppi a Human-powered theme park in Italy
62. Visit Milford Sound in New Zealand
63. Watch a game of Medieval Football in Florence
64. Spend a day drinking at Oktoberfest
65. See the Blue Mosque in Istanbul

    

66. Do Archery in Sherwood Forest
67. Walk around the Colosseum
68. Visit all the Countries of the World (44 and counting – this is a hard one as depending on source there are anything between 189 & 206 recognised countries in the world, the UN has 193 member states and 206 listed sovereign states)
69. Catch a ride on the Trans-Siberian Railway
70. Drive Route 66 in the US
71. Drive across Australia
72. See Uluru at Sunrise & Sunset
73. Theme park in Salt Mine – Salina Turda, Romania
74. Retrace Marco Polos travels
75. Retrace Alexander the Greats travels
76. Go to Las Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain
77. Party it up during Königs Day in Netherlands
78. Go Dog-Sledding in Lapland
79. Experience a blizzard
80. Visit ALL countries in Europe: still needed; Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Norway, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Ukraine
81. Learn to Solve a Rubiks cube Blindfolded
82. Learn Calligraphy
83. Take Drum lessons in Africa
84. Own an offgrid & self sufficient home
85. Paraglide in Nepal
86. Kayak throught the Canals in Venice

What are your bucket list items? Anything I’ve missed and you recommend? Let me know in the comments