Bucket List Game Reminds Us That 2009 Is the Year You Can Achieve Anything You Want: You Haven’t Let The Recession Keep You From Writing Up Your New Goals List, Have You?

Bucket lists are big news these days and we’ve talked about them before, of course. But here’s one that begs to be shared with you. This time, instead of you coming up with your own personal list, you get to share your experiences with  others.  Think of  this as an opportunity to get to know your friends better.

Here’s how it works: Review all 100 items on the bucket list below and bold the ones you’ve already achieved – though undoubtedly you’ll feel that some of them are more like experiences than they are true lifetime achievements. Still, it’s fun to see how many you can check off!

Below — with brief annotations — is my bucket list. Thanks, to Rhea at “The Boomer Chronicles,” for sharing and getting us started. Feel free to share your results via a comment to the blog. I promise to comment back to each and every one!

Once you get done reading the list and contemplating how you would answer each point, it’s time for the real work to begin. That’s right – it’s time to develop your plan for what you want to personally achieve this year! After all, if you’re going to leave a legacy, it’s time to start! Here’s the bucket list: Read more

Doubtless “Survive Economic Meltdown” Wasn’t On Your Bucket List. Hopefully “Startup ‘Second Act’ Business” Was. One Fuels the Other, Of Course. Ready to Get It Going?

Anyone who’s seen the news over the past few weeks knows that the United States is deeply embroiled in a tough economy. In fact, economists recently owned up to the “R” word, admitting recession is upon the land – and has been for the last twelve months. 

To which you undoubtedly want to snarl, “You think?”

Let’s See, You’ve Got:

• Employers cutting jobs and benefits – left and right
• The automakers begging Congress to bail them out – just a month after we experienced the mortgage industry bailouts
• The banks, who’ve essentially quit lending money while the credit card companies are arbitrarily lowering your credit limits – even if you’ve been paying your bills on time
• Constant stock market blips and dips
• Not to mention a couple of wars and overall global unrest

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Bucket List Redux: Is Starting Your Personal Dream List Frustrating You? Or Maybe You’ve Got the List, But You Can’t Figure Out How to “Make It Happen?”

Clearly the desire to create a list of things you want to experience before you die; a “dream” – or “bucket” – list is popular with Baby Boomers. It’s also exciting many of you who are a bit older…

After our recent post about making a “Bucket List,” one of our readers shared his story of his lifelong dream of sailing a boat around the Eastern half of the United States. He said he’d envisioned the trip this way:

• He’d start in the Midwest, sailing from the Upper Mississippi River down to New Orleans
• Then he’d sail out into the Gulf, around Florida via the Intercoastal Waterway
• Next lap would be up the Atlantic Coast, into the Chesapeake Bay
• Continue west into New York, down the Erie Canal
• Onward through the Canadian Heritage Canals and through the Great Lakes
• Finally he would complete the circle, sailing back to the Mississippi River

Amazingly, He Actually Completed His Dream Trip This Summer, At the Age of 78. Along the Way, He Found Out That:

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Do You Have a “Bucket List?” You Know, A List of Things You Want to Do Before You Die?

The concept of a bucket list was popularized by the recent buddy flick of the same name, in which two terminally ill middle-aged men, one a corporate mogul, the other a mechanic (marvelously played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) bust out of a cancer ward in order to experience life to the fullest before they die.

If you’ve seen the film, you know the two meet while sharing a hospital room, and don’t initially hit it off, which adds to the movie’s comedy.

Their adventure begins when Freeman, the “mechanic,” tells Nicholson, the “mogul,” about a challenge his college philosophy professor had set forth: to make a list of the top things you’d like to accomplish before you die – and actually experience them.

Before We Know It, They Are:

• Hitting the tables in Monte Carlo
• Climbing the pyramids
• Riding Harleys on the Great Wall of China
• Stalking wild animals on an African safari
• Downing obscene amounts of caviar, and
• Tearing up the road in supercharged cars

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