Don’t stop dreaming

Don’t stop dreaming, even now that we are working from home and travel has been curtailed. You still have plenty of opportunities to make the most of your time. And plan those grand adventures.

Everyone should have a bucket list, I enjoy planning and the detail it involves. I do some random unplanned stuff on the spur of the moment but to me plans are important.

I am not big on New Year’s resolutions but did decide that 2021 would be the year that I would rewrite my bucket list. My list is not limited to travel, it includes other experiences, things to do and things I would like to get. 

I keep a gratitude journal and write in it daily, in many respects, the thoughts and reflections are a form of meditation and help me through these trying times. At the back of my journal I have a mind map and my bucket list, however, now is the time to re-look and evaluate the priorities and look more toward domestic travel as I am not sure when we will be permitted to travel overseas without restrictions.

One of my goals is to be more carbon-friendly so I need to add in items that will help me achieve that.

 I love my paper list, I doodle and scribble add and subtract but it’s time to get a bit more hi-tech so I am exploring a couple of options that will allow me to store and create in cyberspace, currently, I am rather fond of this option https://bucketlist.org.

I love the visual aspect of the site and will put my thoughts there once I have re-mapped them. I like to see it as my vision for life. My list leans heavily towards travel experiences, places to go, things to do and see and gear that I may need to assist me in achieving these goals. I have now removed destinations that I do not think to be achievable and have started to add in a few day trips to places that I have not yet visited. I am also clustering the list to cover travel, work, health, gear and so on. I have also found it useful to group interests as they also assist in planning, this list includes photography, nature and culture, wildlife and history.

Once you have your basic outline move to the fun phase and get inspired, create a mood board where you can delve into magazines and cut out pictures of places to see and things to do, it’s visual and inspiring. Look as well to subject related social media accounts and sign up to them. Dispel the myth that a bucket list is about exotic destinations and look local. I can guarantee that there are numerous places near your house that you have not yet visited. A true adventurer is curious about their surroundings. Explore rabbit holes and set a deadline for completion, you can organically add to the list once you have established it.

At this stage you will have a fantastic list of places to see, things to do and gear to get, now get real and cull it. In her book “The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying” the author Marie Kondo talks about keeping what “sparks joy”, simply if an item on your list does not “spark joy” then thank it and remove it. Eliminate it if it does not pass your litmus test.

The truth about travel is the fact that it enriches us, hopefully, changes and improves us, introduces us to cultures, places, ideas and activities that may previously not have interested us. Try not to repeat places on the list no matter how much you enjoyed them, we have such diversity available to us, it’s not worth it!

Once you have completed the bucket list aim to tick the items off, get out there and enjoy yourself, see places, do things, life is short! Rich experiences are what matters.

And yes, edit the list regularly, it’s yours.