A while ago a friend pointed me in the direction of Where The Hell Is Matt?, the website of a guy who travelled for 14 months to 42 different countries doing a silly dance. I’ve never been more happy than in the 4 minutes of watching that video: from his silly dance, to the people who are happily joining in, to the wonderful places he’s been, all the while dancing. (Aside: Matt states on his website that he backpacked instead of staying in expensive hotels: This was a labour of love for him. Check out our previous posts on how to travel sustainably)

After watching the video over and over again, I got to thinking about bucket lists (like the movie The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, who escape from a cancer ward to fulfill a life “to do” list before they “kick the bucket”). I’ve had my own bucketlist for quite some time, on a piece of paper that’s been folded and unfolded more times than I care to admit, and stuffed in a little hidden place in my wallet. It’s so much more than a to-do list: it’s a list of dreams. It’s a list of the selfish things I want to do for no one else but myself. I’m sure everyone has one, even if it’s not officially written out like mine is. These lists we make aren’t just things we want to do – they’re also a symbol of hope for us.. something that inspires us to keep on trucking so that we can eventually get to one of our benchmarks and tick an item off our list.

I started to do a little research into Bucket Lists, and came upon Cath Lasons’s blog post: 47 Amazing Bucket List Ideas And Resources . She really had some amazing suggestions – everything from how to create your list to how to complete some of the most popular items on it (most people want to travel somewhere, see something, become someone, etc.)

An awesome website I found that goes hand-in-hand with Bucket Lists is Diddit, where you check off the adventures you’ve had and share them with the online community – not only to have people cheering you on, but so others can be inspired by your actions and discover new things they may want to add to their list, and vice versa. It even merges with GoogleEarth to show you exactly where people are making their dreams come true! It’s inspiring to see all these people going out and living their lives to the very last drop.

.. So what’s on your bucket list? Have you taken things off it or only added stuff? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours ;P

And a few more resources to check out:
1. Your 100 Things
2. The Reaper List
3. 43 Things
In a similar vein, check out Marc & Angel Hack Life Blog for the list of 70 Things To Do Before You Have Children.

Posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 2:39 pm and is filed under Dreamers, Happiness, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.