The first thing about any bucket list on a budget is simply to take stock of all the things you’ve already accomplished in life. Obviously, most of you will start with trips you have already taken since most bucket lists involve some sort of travel. I won’t rant about our cultural obsession with travel in this post, but at some point, you can expect one.

At the time of my bucket list creation, I had already spent a semester abroad allowing me to check off many of the European destinations I would desire to go: Germany, Ireland, France, Austria and Italy. I had taken a small trip to support a school in Haiti (more on that later) and there were a handful of states I had visited outside my own.

After the obvious travel, many bucket lists will break themselves up into various categories for consideration. Travel may have subcategories such as specific things to do and see. On mine seeing the Statue of Liberty and Checkpoint Charlie were in a subcategory along with visiting a butterfly garden, making a wish at the Trevi Fountain and seeing King Tut. Nature might be another sub category in travel. In which case the Rocky Mountains may grace your list as it does mine.

However, we want to do more than simply travel and look at things we want to experience. We may want to learn or at least try specific arts and skills. Some which would require many years to truly master may just be an introduction of sorts as with my glassblowing class. I dabbled for a few hours and learned more about the process. I also watched multiple demonstrations of glassblowing. There may be specific food you have tasted like a truffle mushroom. Festivals or cultural events you may have enjoyed such as going to a lantern fest where they release lanterns into the air.

Often life experiences or milestones will make up some items of the list. These milestones could be the major ones we consider such as graduating college and having children, but others may be having started a retirement fund or being in a friend’s wedding.

There are also goals that we may have completed for self-improvement, languages learned, instruments played, weight lost, or miles run. With self-improvement, there are things we have most likely done to help the world be a better place whether that was attend a protest, sign a petition or volunteered at an animal shelter.

I cannot stress enough that this is not the time to be modest. It is the time to realize your many blessings and to embrace the spirit of childlike wonder. There are many things that you see everyday that some people only dream about. The mountains of snow you experience each January that makes you sick thinking about, is on someone’s bucket list who has never seen snow. There are many who live in those same snow-capped mountains who dream of being able to swim in the ocean and would be happy to have the experience of finding sand still in their shoes two weeks later. 

In order to make my own list, I surfed the web for other people’s lists and added items that normally would not occur to me as all that exciting such as walking across a suspension bridge or seeing a horse and buggy. However, when looking back at these activities which seemed rather mundane, I realized that I had taken those experiences for granted as something commonplace rather than things to be excited about. I was able to better appreciate those everyday moments as something joyful and carry with me that joyful spirit of the mundane as a blessing.  

As I completed my list several things happened. First, I was surprised by all the things I had already accomplished in my almost thirty years (I was 29 ½ when I first wrote my bucket list), despite having grown up in a lower middle class home and barely making it since college. My list was actually close to 200 items!

Second, I was filled with gratitude for having done so much already. I was especially filled with gratitude for all the things I had taken for granted in my area and saw things with new eyes, embracing an almost childlike enthusiasm for the world around me. The next time snow fell instead of grumbling about having to drive in it and shoveling the blasted stuff, I took time to really marvel at it. The way it sparkles in the sunlight, and glitters as it floats down from the trees. I stopped to listen to how sound changes after a snowfall, becoming soft and crisp. Fall has now become a time when I track the peaking of the leaves. One year for my birthday, I drove out to a trail and went about collecting the most colorful and best leaves. The magic which had faded was renewed and leaves were once again as jewels.

Third, it instilled a spirit of adventure where rather than sitting about waiting for things to happen or worse for me to have a carefully curated plan, I started going about my days open for things to happen, my ears and eyes on the lookout for quests. Sometimes things that weren’t on the list suddenly became part of the list, like my cameo in a very small film production. One never knows what might be lurking around the corner and that is half the fun!

Finally, it gave me a lot of hope that even the things I didn’t think would ever happen will happen. In the past seven years since that first list, I have been continually surprised by how the blessings have been poured forth and all I’ve been able to do. 

I hope that in the completion of your own reverse bucket list you find yourself marveling at all the things you’ve already done, filled with gratitude for those things, embracing a child’s spirit and filled with optimism about all you’re going to do.