I remember when just about every blogger had a bucket list, and even though many of my favorite bloggers have faded away, I like to think that out there somewhere they are still bungee jumping, checking off new countries, living out of a backpack, running with the bulls and keeping the spirit of the 2010s blogger alive.
Anyway, I’ve made bucket lists many times but none of them really ever stuck or felt “official” to me, one that would actually mean something and that I would pursue. I’m fixing that now. I am going to publish it and have it be a public reminder for me to live a little, instead of only living to grind for “someday.”
I reserve the right to add and subtract items as I see fit!
Epic Physical Challenges
These are the collection of items that are epic, physical challenges that I want to complete to push the boundaries of what I can do, even if they seem unattainable at the time of me writing them.
- Complete A Marathon: I have failed to complete a marathon three times now. 1.) cancelled by weather 2.) DNF, made it 18 miles 3.) I pulled out because I knew I would not finish it. This goal has been on my to do lists for almost 20 years now, no idea how it has lingered for so long without being completed.
- Complete An Ironman: I feel delusional typing out this goal, but it’s always been something I’ve wanted to accomplish.
- Hike The Florida Trail: The Florida Trail totals 1,500 miles. I don’t want to do it all at once, but rather I want to section hike it over a period of years. I’ve hiked about a total of 6.5 miles on the trail.
- Hike The Appalachian Trail: Section hike the Appalachian Trail, same deal as the Florida Trail, except this trail is 2,000+ miles and goes over mountains. I’ve hiked probably about 2 miles of the trail. I’m well on my way!
- Bike Across America: There are several recommended biking routes to take across the entire country and it sounds fun.
- Paddle The Entire Mississippi River: Because why not?
Adventuring In Florida
This is my home base and is the land I love. I am an epic Florida nerd and explorer. It is my goal to be the most well-traveled and well-read Floridian of all-time.
- Visit All 176 Florida State Parks: This is currently a very active quest, right now my family and I are sitting around ~110 completed parks. We have a stamp book that is very fun to fill out.
- Visit All 38 Florida State Forests: I’m not even sure how many I’ve been to, this is a quest that will begin when the state park quest is successfully completed. For the purposes of this list, my counter is at 0.
- Become A TrailWarrior: The Florida State Forest Service awards individuals for hitting various milestones within the Florida State Forests, with TrailWarrior being the highest tier:
- TrailWalker: Complete 10 hiking trails in a minimum of 5 state forests.
- TrailMaster: Complete 30 trails.
- TrailWarrior: Reach additional tiers at 250 miles, 500 miles, 750 miles, and 1,000 miles–becoming a TrailWarrior!
- Catch A Baseball Game At Each Minor League Stadium In The Florida State League: The Florida State League is a minor league baseball league that has been thriving since 1919. There are 10 teams: Daytona Tortugas, Jupiter Hammerheads, Palm Beach Cardinals, St. Lucie Mets, Bradenton Marauders, Clearwater Threshers, Dunedin Blue Jays,
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels,Lakeland Flying Tigers,Tampa Tarpons - Catch A Game At Each Top Tier Florida Sports Teams:
Buccaneers,Lightning,Rays,Heat,Marlins, Dolphins, Panthers, Magic, Jaguars, Inter Miami CF, Orlando City SC. I’ll probably add more teams here, there are many secondary, semi-pro leagues in Florida and I’ll probably see all of them play too. - Flamingo Campground: There is a remote campground on the tip of Southern Florida that is accessed by driving through the Everglades and I very much want to camp there.
- Boat Across Florida Via The Okeechobee Waterway: There is an artificial canal system via Lake Okeechobee that stretches coast-to-coast, 154 miles, across Florida.
- See A Rocket Launch: It’s amazing I haven’t done this yet.
- Visit All 11 Florida National Parks: This is part of the larger quest to visit all 433 American National Parks and Sites. There are 11 in Florida–
Everglades,Biscayne Bay, Dry Tortugas, Big Cypress, Canaveral, Gulf Islands,Castillo de San Marcos, Timucuan Ecological, Fort Matanzas,De Soto, Fort Caroline - Complete The Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail: This is a 1,515 miles water trail along the entire Florida Coast, no I will not be paddling the whole thing. I want to complete sections of it via anyway that I see fit–paddling, jet ski, speed boat, and cruise ship.
- Complete 10 Florida Riverway Paddling Trails: There are a total of 60 river paddling trails, I just want to do 10 of them…although once I get to 10 I think my goal may increase to 60. Time will tell.
- Theme Park Like A Regular Challenge: I want to be able to navigate all of Florida’s theme parks like a regular:
Busch Gardens,Adventure Island,SeaWorld,Aquatica, Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios, Volcano Bay, LEGOLAND, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach - Create The Ultimate Florida Book List And Publish It On The Blog There are still many books I need to read before I can determine which books belong on the list, but I am making my way.
- Be Awarded The Florida Governor’s Medal Of Freedom I know this is presumptuous of me to want, I don’t know if I would ever merit of such an award but I will strive to live a life that could be worthy of it, whether I receive the award or not.
- Tour The Dali Museum: It’s just a couple cities over from me and I’ve been wanting to check it out for about 15 years, and I still haven’t gotten around to it. This is why we make bucket lists!
Traveling The World
- Travel To Every Country In The Caribbean:
Antigua and Barbuda,Bahamas,Barbados, Cuba,Dominica,Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica,Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia,Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago - Travel To Every Major Dependency / Territory In The Caribbean: Anguilla, Aruba,
Bermuda,British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Guadeloupe,Martinique, Montserrat,Puerto Rico,Saint Martin, Sint Maarten, Turks and Caicos Islands,U.S. Virgin Islands - Epic Australia and New Zealand Trip: A month-long, whirlwind trip Down Under and see as much as I can.
- Epic Southeast Asia Trip: I’ve been reading about Southeast Asia by all my favorite bloggers for a couple decades now and I want to bring along my wife and see it all. Thailand, Vietnam, Bali, etc.
- Take A Trans-Atlantic Cruise: I’ve always wanted to traverse across an ocean, might as well do it in style!
- Take A Last Minute Cruise Out Of Tampa: There are 3 and 4 day cruises out of Tampa and I want to wait until the last minute, grab an insanely good deal, and then announce to my family we are leaving today on a cruise.
Traveling The USA
- Visit All 433 National Parks, Sites, and Monuments: This is a lifelong goal I will slowly be working on. I suspect I will grab some cancellation stamps here and there, but the bulk of this will be done in an RV after retirement.
- Epic Hawaii Vacation: I’ve wanted to vacation in Hawaii for as long as I can remember and I want to vacation here in style, maybe along with some camping.
- Epic Alaska Trip: I’ve been to Alaska a number of times via my cruise ship days, but I’ve never stayed overnight and I’ve never explored it deeply. I would like to spend a month here, exploring the cities, hiking the trails, and, of course, stepping foot in national parks.
- Las Vegas Trip: I’ve never been and want to check it out.
- All 50 States: I assume going to all 433 national sites would automatically take care of this goal, but I want to explore each state beyond the national sites, so I’m listing this goal separately. This goal is way more than set a toe in the state and cross it off, I want fully experience each state.
- See Niagara Falls: This has been a goal of mine for a very long time.
Reading and Writing
- Complete Art of Manliness’ 100 Books Every Man Must Read: I’ve been working my way through this list for years now. I’m about halfway done and I’m pushing through!
- Write A Novel And Traditionally Publish It: I know the cool kids self-publish via Kindle, but I can’t help but want to be a bonified, traditionally published author, at least once.
- Write And Publish A Series Of Florida Guidebooks: I have a vague plan to write the following Guidebooks and self-publish them: 101 Tampa Bay Day Trips, Guide To SeaWorld Orlando, Guide To LEGOLAND Florida, Guide To Universal Studios Orlando, Guide To Disney World, and update Guide To Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.
- Write And Publish A Series Of Children’s Books: I love the style of Eric Carle and want to bring something like that back for my own stories. We’ll see what I can work out. I need to publish a minimum of 10 books to reach this bucket list item.
- Earn $10,000 In A Month From Blogging: Pretty straightforward goal.
- Go Full Time In Writing: This is my ultimate goal–to be a full time writer who has the ability to choose when and where to write, while going on adventures with my family.
- Read All Of The James Bond Novels And Watch All Of The Films
Life And Lifestyle And Random
- Be Able To Live The “4-Hour Workweek” If I choose: The idea is to get the “passive income” and “passive business” rolling in so I can take breaks and long vacations whenever I choose. I honestly have no desire to live the “4-Hour Workweek,” I just want to have the freedom to pursue meaningful work that is not directly tied to income.
- Pay Off The Mortgage On The House: I want to minimize the amount of money going out by paying off the mortgage and and getting my debt to zero, meaning I need a lot less money to live on to get by, which = freedom.
- Fix My Two Electric Guitars: I have an old, sentimental cheap Washburn Lyon guitar, which was my first electric guitar. It’s unplayable. I want to return it to its former glory. I also have a Fender Strat that is my main guitar, and it needs some love. I’ll probably need a pro to fix the Strat, I’ll give it a go to fix the Lyon.
- Learn How To SCUBA Dive: I’ve always wanted to know how to SCUBA, and there are plenty of places to learn. Like most things in life, I just need the time and money.
- Learn Kiteboarding: Everytime I see the kiteboarding bros out on the water I wish to join them. This has been on my list for a long time.
- Learn How To Surf: Why not?
- Learn How To Swing Dance: This always looked like the most fun way to dance, I wanna learn how to do this with my wife.
- Record A Rock And Roll Album: I’ve been playing guitar since 12 years old and have a bunch of random riffs I want to transform into a recorded rock and roll album.
- Record A Children’s Music Album: I’ve also been making up silly songs for my own kids and I would like to record them and write several more to expand to a whole children’s music album.
Work And Business
- Earn A Master’s of Social Work: I have a bachelor’s degree and I’ve been wanting to earn a MSW for a long time.
- Make $1 From This Blog: I’ve made small amounts of money from blogging before, but I’m starting over again from zero.
- Make $1,000 In A Month From Blogging
- Make $2,000 In A Month From Blogging
- Make $5,000 In A Month From Blogging
- Make $10,000 In A Month From Blogging
- Make $20,000 In A Month From Blogging
- Make $50,000 In A Month From Blogging
- Make $100,000 In A Month From Blogging
- Obtain 10,000 Subscribers On YouTube
That’s where this list is going to end for now. It’s a work in progress and I have the write to add and edit as I see fit. I have a lot of ideas in mind for things I want to do in life, but I don’t know yet if they are worth to be added to “THE LIST.”