Bucket List; Really?
 

I happened to browse some of the old threads about bucket list rides, often outside the US. Really? I guess I am boorish, uninspired geezer; not only do I have no dreams about planning my future epic rides anywhere special...I have no bucket list at all. :eek:

I mean, if you really want to do something, ... then just go do it. What's this bucket list thinking all about, is it like putting cut-out photos of girls and Ferrari's on the refrigerator? Is it magical thinking, Law of Attraction?

I should ask my spouse, I'm sure she knows...

I've never made a bucket list. My thought was that if I needed a list of things I wanted to do before I died, then I haven't lived enough. Life is too short to not enjoy and I am too busy enjoying it to start making lists. I hate lists!!! Lists? Lists? I don't need no stinkin' lists.

The only thing on my list was/is to ride across the country, and I'm in the (long) process of doing that.

But I'm not putting down the notion of a bucket list. I think the idea of a bucket list is to jot down those things that you want to do, so you're not on your deathbed with regret ... essentially a way of organizing your thinking and planning for the future. I'm all about being in the moment, but sometimes, you have to look way ahead too.

But if it's something you really want to do, why create a list?

If you might forget, you would really regret?

Perhaps it's one of those expressed intention things, energy following thought. Does Deepak advise his followers to make lists? Is it all about quantum mechanics?

I am not putting the practice down, I just don't understand the purpose of bucket lists....

Hey trust me ... I am not a list maker. My family makes light of that all the time.

The notion of sitting down and making a list is to (1) think about what you'd like to do while there is still time to do it, (2) prioritize that list, and (3) get it done in the time you have. If you don't do that, you might find out too late that you didn't do something you wanted and wasted your time with other things.

I only ever had one thing on my "bucket list", if you can have a list with only one thing on it. It was an area that I'd wanted to go since I was a kid watching movies in the 1950s, but family, kids and work got in the way until a friend and I went there on a road trip 10 years ago. Liked it so much I've been there three times since, and hope to go again soon.

I also believe in doing things when you can, not just as a precursor to death, but see nothing wrong in having wish lists, whether they are just dreams or actual plans. Whatever floats your boat.

P.S. I wonder if Deepak rides a bike.

I'm just trying not to kick the bucket.

Ice in the Bucket chilling the Champagne .. :thumb:

If you fail to plan,your plan will fail. Goals are good, some times short term, some long term.

Since my belief is that when one dies there is no after life, there would be no reason to regret not having accomplished something when on one's deathbed :) , so no bucket list for me. For those who believe in something (Heaven) after death, I can understand needing a bucket. Would hate to be thinking, dang-never made it to Yellowstone. ;)

I've kept a "life list" since my first retirement. It is purposely written in pencil and would take many more years to complete than I have left to complete them. It is a good way to help me set priorities; and know where to use my time, energy and resources. Some entries are areas to bike tour through. Others are more like goals dealing with family, church, community and other avocations beside cycling. Since I retired, well almost retired, for the second time; the list items completed might keep up with the list additions:)

I've been wacking away at them, but the list grows quicker than I can cross things off. My wife has access to my list and has a say in the priorities. Heck, she'll even add items, usually some great bike ride. Some of things we have done on the list included bike touring 17,000 miles in 11 different countries over the last 8-9 years

Saying "I'm going to try to................." does not usually make things happen. Writing down what you want to do is more likely to lead to action.

It works for me.

Back in the early 70's when I was a kid (in my early 20's) in Cape Girardeau, MO I was reading Bicycling! Magazine (yes, they had an "!" in the title then) and there was a list of the Most Famous Rides.

I made my own list list then (didn't know the "bucket" term) from their list: RAGBRAI, Paris-Brest-Paris, Davis Double Century, Hotter N Hell Hundred, Seattle to Portland, Fargo Street Hillclimb, TOSRV, etc.

As of Hotter N Hell 2010 I've done them all!

Must be about time to start another list but at this advanced age (65) I'm not so inclined to do that. Must be a geezer thing!

Rick / OCRR

Come on! I'm 72, and finishing our tour across Canada is still on the list. It is tentatively planned for next summer. Riding the Mississippi River Road might just have to wait until 2017, or.................:)

Make the list!

Thinking about a bucket list, which I don't have, reminds me of once being asked how I'd like to be remembered. I couldn't think of anything and the best I could come up with was "at all".

Not exactly a bucket list but unique rides i'd like to do. Anywhere and everywhere really.

1. Across the US.

2. A few days along the Sein or Rhine around Europe somewhere. or along the Greek or Italian coast.

3. South America, not really from place to place just in some Andean jungle or Volcano presumably Ecuador for the low prices.

4. Utah some special mtn bike mecca out there.

5. I've gone back on my dreams of touring which would have included along the Erie Canal Trail or the Great Algheny Passage as warm ups. Still good practice for Europe. Going cross country you need to decide on going through the desert or over the Donor Pass and the Rockie Mtns.

6. Australia because it's awesome and I am on a mission to set foot on all 7 continents. Good mtn biking in Australia somewhere and what else would i do there?

7. Once all thats said and done maybe i'll go back to Asia. Do some rides there get a vietnam jersey.

8. Still need to visit the unisphere and the mtn bike track in Queens. I'll be in the city this weekend but not with a bike.

What has one to do with the other?

There's a ditty

"There's a hole in my bucket, dear Lisa, dear Lisa
Then why don't you fix it dear Willy, fix it
. . . . "

and the ditty goes on until, at the end, there is no way he can fix the hole, and it starts all over again.

Does anyone have a hole in their "bucket list?"

My life has taken so many unexpected twists and turns, and is still taking them, that I would have to do something from my list when and where the opportunity arose, and then likely have to cancel it.

That is the way life is. That is why my list is written in pencil.

By the time the term bucket list was invented, or at least became common, I was already too old/experienced/jaded/whatever to at all need one. :)

Anyone with a "bucket" list of more than 1 or 2 things on it, IMO has missed the boat/life happened while you planned things to do, worked too much, followed a carrier too hard to "win/succeed' in life. One needs to live life for the moment, for tomorrow may never come... :50:

I don't agree with your generalization. I'm sure folks have different perceptions of what a "life list" is and how detailed it needs to be. Nothing on my bucket list is planned. Each entry is a short sentence. Heck, some are just a phrase, like " Canoe Boundary Waters". I probably spend an hour a year revising it, if that. I am also not sitting still letting the world go by even though there are 11 items on my list. I really feel for folks that do not have a dream or passion they think is worth pursuing.

Two weeks ago my wife and I returned from a 2-month 2,000 mile self contained bike tour. Our planning started when we firmed up the dates and purchased airline tickets a few months before we started. We know we are going on a long bike tour every year; we just don't always know where. Our whole planning effort comprised identification of the cities we would like to visit, the logical sequence of travel, and an estimation of the time it would take. We started in Denmark, and ended in The Netherlands via Germany, Poland , Czech Republic, Germany again, Belgium and finally to Amsterdam. The only specific planning included: what airport we were going to arrive at and which one we would use to get home, the lodging for the first 2 days in Copenhagen and which city we were going to head for first. In this case it was Berlin. The rest of the time we did our planning on the fly, usually a day or two at a time.

We did not sit idly around missing "life/ or missed boats" while we were finalizing our plan. As a matter of fact, we were on another bike tour with our two daughters when we made some key contacts and decisions.

You can live in the moment, but also keep an eye on the future; they are not mutually exclusive:)

Some of us are just "list makers".

I can't say for sure exactly when I became a list maker. It wasn't like there was a "great forgotten task of 1968" that caused me to become list oriented. But I know... since as far back as the early 70's... I've made lists. I am retired, yet my current "working list" has 8 items, 4 of which have been crossed off.

I don't have a bucket list. I don't have a list for the holidays yet ether. But as the holidays get closer... there will be a holidays list or listS. Someday I may make a list of meaningless tasks to perform or accomplish as a distraction from less pleasant (or even morbid) thoughts. I even have some undeveloped ideas of what I will put on that list.

You and my wife. Lists and lists. Drives me absolutely nuts!! Keeps her sane.

I love a good flowchart too! I don't make those anymore (retired).

I can appreciate that answer. I am NOT a list maker, except in my work practice where I run all sorts of tickler systems. I had a friend who did all his Christmas shopping on Christmas eve, because that's simply "the way things should happen". He and I had a lot in common.