Subscribe by EmailMaking my own Bucket List
July 30, 2008 by Mark O'Neill | 5 commentsBy Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
Watching The Bucket List movie a few weeks back really moved me to consider writing my own list. In case you haven’t watched this very funny movie yourself, it’s about two terminally ill men (played by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson) who decide to make a list of all the things they want to do in their life before they die (kick the bucket). This includes driving fast cars, climbing mountains, staying in nice hotels….you get the idea. They then set out and do it all. Then they die happy and satisfied.
This feature in Esquire magazine, 75 Things Every Man Should Do Before He Dies, has definately sealed the deal, and I have now already started writing my list. I think some of the ones in Esquire are pretty lame though. Repair a household appliance? Are you kidding me? Then they go from that straight to flying an aeroplane! I’ll take the plane but leave the washing machine if you don’t mind thanks.
I’m sure some of you will accuse me of being morbid talking of death, but death should not be a taboo subject. You live and you die, end of story. So there’s nothing wrong with planning what you want to achieve with your life. You’ll find as you progress with your list that it’s a project you will get deeply involved in and you may end up even getting relatives and friends involved in what goes in and what goes out.
Have you made a Bucket List? If so, what have you put on it? If you haven’t made a list, what would be number one on your theoretical list? My number one is flying a Cessna plane. It’ll be tough since I am epileptic, but I’ll get up there. Just you watch me – then I’ll put the video on Geeks Are Sexy for you all to see.
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I recently wrote a lengthy article that discussed how to best make your own list.
Part One | Two
In case anyone is interested, here is mine, which takes me from basically now until the summer of 2012:
1. Hastings Half Marathon (March, 2009)
2. London Marathon (April 26, 2009)
3. London Triathlon (August, 2009)
4. New York Marathon (November 2, 2009)
5. Swim With Sharks (2010)
6. Wildflower Triathlon (May 2, 2010)
7. Quelle Challenge Roth (July, 2010)
8. Hawaii Ironman (October, 2010)
9. Western States 100 (June, 2011)
10. Primal Quest (June, 2012)
11. Marathon des Sables (March-April 2013)
12. Badwater Ultramarathon (July, 2013)
As you can see, it’s mostly endurance and sporty stuff. That’s me, I guess! Swimming with sharks aside, which is something I’ve always wanted to do, not much else really pushes my respective buttons. Obviously I plan to see most of the world, etc, but that doesn’t really motivate me like the above.
I think that list would CAUSE me to kick the bucket!!
I made a list when I was about 13 or 14. It included everything from getting married to learning to scuba dive (yes I’ve dived with sharks lol), hearing my own songs on the radio, owning my own home, hitch-hiking round NZ, etc. Unfortunately I’ve finished it bar one thing (write a novel) by the time I’m twenty five. So I think I need to come up with a harder list. And finish that damn novel lol. (I don’t really see too many extreme sports as being something I have to do before I die for some reason.)
Depends what’s important to you, I guess! I like to challenge myself, and while a list like this should never be set in stone, when I die I would have truly loved to have done all of those things.
I like the stuff on your list, and congrats on getting most of ‘em done, although I’d argue ‘owning my own home’ is something most Western people will do at one point in their lives, so it’s not really worthy of ‘The List’. I bought my first place when I was 21. I never thought of it as something even remotely significant, to be honest!
Owning my own place was very very important to me when I wrote the list when I was a teenager lol. Couldn’t wait to live under my own roof and be allowed to stick posters on the walls :-D