A Little Bit of a List Obsession

I love lists. I get that from my Grandpa. Every summer when I was a kid we would go to his farm to do some ‘work’ (we’d work for about 4 hours of the week and the rest would just be fun with Grandma and Grandpa). I can remember clear as day, he would always have a checklist pinned to the side of the fridge. With projects he was working on and things to do.

I also have a travel bug, bad. Additionally, I’m a Type 7 when it comes to the Enneagram. Which means that I dream big and often have as much fun planning and prepping for a trip as I do actually taking the trip. 

From the time I was in middle school, I would look at various travel and adventure magazines and daydream about going to do all these extraordinary things. I’d incessantly earmark magazine pages (One of Steph’s life goals is to get me to get rid of my magazine stashes, not happening), I’d write page after page in journal after journal about all the things I wanted to do.

The problem was, I wrote all of this down, but it wasn’t in an organized manner, it was haphazardly strewn about dozens of notebooks, spreadsheets, or scribbled in the margins of a guide book. 

So, while I’ve taken some really fantastic trips filled with extraordinary people and great memories, there are some big ones that I haven’t done that I’d really like to. The problem was a paradox of choice, I had too many things I wanted to do. 

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Creating a Master Bucket List

Then one day I was listening to an episode of  ‘The Tim Ferriss Show’ with Phil Keoghan (the host of the TV show ‘The Amazing Race’) and the topic was bucket lists. It was a fascinating episode, where Phil talked about his bucket lists and how it has helped guide his life and lead him to have all of these unforgettable experiences.

I was hooked. I looked through all my magazines, my Evernote, 10 year old journals to get all of my ideas in one place. I was looking to get specific, to find the things that really called to me. 

There were tons, even after paring down, I was left with over 200 things I really wanted to do. 

Having 200 items still leaves a hell of a lot of room for paradox of choice to operate. So I sought to pare it down to 100. I was 34 at the time, I figured if I had at least 25 years of good traveling left in me (knock on wood) and did at least four things per year, then that was something that was achievable. 

So I chopped some away, marinated on a few. Thought about feasibility. Loosely considered logistics. And slowly whittled away until I got down to that round 100 number. 

What remained was a broad spectrum. From super physically challenging (qualify for the Boston Marathon, Climb El Cap) to just some fun times with the fam (Phillip Island, Harry Potter Land). There’s a good mixture of domestic and international and most are easily feasible given the time and resources. There are some that will push my limits and require hundreds of hours of training and others only a pair of walking shoes. 

In my tracking spreadsheet, I’ve identified ideal ages, ideal fitness, looked logistically at grouping nearby bucket list items into trips and ideal companions. 

It’s a lot.

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CLICK HERE TO CHECKOUT MY MASTER BUCKET LIST

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Now Time to Follow Through

But planning is one thing, following through and knocking some out is entirely different. 

I’m torn in saying that, in all likelihood, I won’t be able to achieve all of these. That's realistic. On the other hand, I don’t like giving myself that out. Because it’s a slippery slope. I really want to have all of these experiences, so that is the goal, to get them all done. 

Which is a big reason I started this blog. As noted in my first post, a big reason for this project is to surface the important things and generate some social accountability as the impetus to get these things done.

In my APR and QPR (Annual and Quarterly Personal Reviews respectively), I will outline which items I want to knock out this year and in the near future, and incorporate them into my planning. That way I can be intentional, and always have something on the horizon. 

The trips I am actively planning for, I will write planning details within the post and use it as a way to project manage. After I punch out a list item, I’ll write a recap blog about it as a way to help preserve the memory. 

So far I knocked out #16 Fastpack the Four Pass Loop with my pseudo life-partner Jason. It was a grueling 29 mile trail run with 8,000 feet of elevation gain that nearly killed us, but it was an unforgettable journey. 

I had planned a few more for 2020, but Coronavirus is making me re-evaluate which items to tackle this year. I should know more once the dust settles and we have a clearer picture about what ‘normal’ will be on the other side of this pandemic.  

If any of the trips I have listed out really call out to you too, hit me up, let's make some memories together.