I started drafting this list on my 37^th birthday. I was inspired by a couple other bucket lists that I was creating during the 2016 BlogAhead challenge. It inspired me to create a list specific to me. I took a little time to create a list of well thought out things I’d like to accomplish in the next 12 years.

50 Before 50

1. Write a book
2. Publish a book
3. Do a Scotland/Ireland tour
4. Learn a new language: Spanish
5. Grow my blog following to 1000
6. Visit Hawaii
7. Grow my hair to the small of my back and then cut and donate it
8. Get a tattoo that represents my boys
9. Cage dive with sharks
10. Publish a few articles and/or short stories
11. Win a writing contest
12. Try a new food, something fun, cultural and exotic
13. Visit Alaska
14. Go on a cruise
15. Be debt free or very close to it
16. Downsize and maintain it
17. Buy a summer or vacation property
18. Reach and maintain a goal weight
19. Start a new family tradition (December 2016, Christmas)
20. Return to the island and resort that my husband and I got married at
21. Create a retirement business and be close to opening it if not launched already
22. Learn to read palms
23. Visit the Bahamas
24. Run a ½ marathon
25. Run a marathon
26. Re-read my favourite novels
27. Make sure my boys and husband know how much they mean to me everyday
28. Do a really big road trip (August 2017)
29. See the Florida Everglades
30. Tell my story, memoirs (November 2016 NaNoWriMo, but still editing)
31. Ride a hot air balloon
32. Plan how I would like to spend my day when I turn 50
33. Visit Salem Massachusetts in October, perhaps for Halloween
34. Become an expert at something
35. Forgive
36. Learn more about yoga, learning to teach yoga would be a fun challenge
37. Go to a Nickelback concert
38. Take a martial arts class
39. Sleep somewhere rumoured to be haunted, perhaps some kind of haunted tour
40. Swim naked in the ocean
41. Visit as much of Canada as I can
42. Take a helicopter ride
43. Make myself a priority
44. Visit a castle
45. Create a date night jar and implement a regular date day/night at least once a month
46. Go on a girl’s trip
47. Swim in the hot springs (August 2017: this journey isn’t over. I plan to do this again)
48. Own chickens
49. Get another dog (June 2017)
50. Update and repost this at age 45 and again at 50 marking my age or the date beside each accomplishment

It was interesting to review this before posting it because it was amusing to see what I had initially listed, some of it seems ambitions when I read through it. There are a few that I would like to change, but have left it since this was the original list. Let’s see how it goes.

How about you, what are a few of the big things on your to do list?

By Shari Marshall – 2017