Making a Bucket List
Reasons Why You Need One for Your Golden Years
Although the aging process isn’t always idyllic, making a bucket list encourages one to strive for things you’ve always wanted to do. Bucket lists make life more meaningful and provide one with a sense of having lived a fulfilled life.
Bucket Lists are Therapeutic
Bucket lists are like therapy, they motivate you to still try and accomplish things. It is symbolic of living. With something to work towards, it takes away from the drudgery of doing the sames thing day in and day out. It encourages one to not just sit around and watch the world pass by, but puts a new spring in one’s step and a smile on one’s face.
You Become an Inspiration to Those Around You
Bored with crowded shopping malls and crowded beaches, a bucket list can be a passport to adventure. It is important to make a bucket list as you age, because being committed to a dream makes you thrilled to wake up each morning and continue an exciting journey to turn your dream into a reality. Just take octogenarian Mama Lee for an example – she spends her retirement days onboard the Crystal Serenity. As a permanent resident of this cruise ship, she’s visited over 100 countries!
Having something riveting to work towards will cause you to become an inspiration to those around you, and your enthusiasm will inspire others to follow their dreams too. You will feel excited and energized by becoming part of mainstream life. The age of adventurers today ranges from young children to seniors, and seniors are joining backpacking hikes which are challenging enough so that a medical certificate of fitness is mandatory.
Your Passport to Adventure
Adventure travel horizons are unlimited if you’re game. Many older adults are making bucket lists which include camping among the wild animals in Africa’s game reserves and bringing their childhood adventure stories to life by riding on horseback across the Andes. These trips follow old pioneer trails which cross the remote Puelo Valley; a route once used by smugglers.
With achievements such as these behind you, you’ll feel proud at what you are doing and more like yourself just by taking up the challenge. As you realize your own potential, you start to recognize the beauty that life can still offer you.
What’s Your Reason for a Bucket List?
Reasons for making a bucket list as you age vary. Some feel that the closeness they enjoy with nature is therapy; a tonic, a mood enhancer that they can get nowhere else. Others report a spiritual lift from such journeys. Each day you learn new things, and keeping the brain busy and challenged is important for keeping illnesses such as alzheimers at bay.
It is important to make a bucket list with your current health status in mind. Adventure travel often takes place in areas remote from doctors and hospitals, With checkups from your doctor, and knowledge of what to expect, you can avoid problems.
Dreams are Good Friends
Creating a bucket list has advantages. Maybe your bucket list will never achieve being a real passport to adventure, but it can certainly be your passport to dream. Dreams are good friends and with some luck they can even become reality and offer some magic and joy.
SeniorAdvisor.com Staff
Senior Advisor's knowledgeable writers blog about senior care services, trends and more.
2 Comments
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My husband and I have talked about places we want to travel, and things we want to study, for years. It seems that life and family problems have always gotten in the way of us fulfilling those dreams. However, in the past four years we both had pretty serious health scares and we finally made our bucket list. We are studying foreign languages, we hike weekly, we spent a month traveling two years ago, and we have a trip planned for this year that we’ve dreamed of for years. Nothing really has gotten better in our lives – but now we realize the danger of waiting much longer. Most of our friends sit at home and talk about their ailments. We don’t enjoy that! Oh, btw, I am 70 and he is 79.
If you don’t have a bucket list and you are over 50, make it now! -
My husband and I have talked about places we want to travel, and things we want to study, for years. It seems that life and family problems have always gotten in the way of us fulfilling those dreams. However, in the past four years we both had pretty serious health scares and we finally made our bucket list. We are studying foreign languages, we hike weekly, we spent a month traveling several years ago, and we have a trip planned for this year that we’ve dreamed of for years. Nothing really has gotten better in our lives – but now we realize the danger of waiting much longer. Most of our friends sit at home and talk about their ailments. We don’t enjoy that! Oh, btw, I am 70 and he is 80.
If you don’t have a bucket list and you are over 50, make it now!
