100+ IDEAS FOR YOUR BUCKET LIST

Mom Who Travels
9 min readFeb 27, 2024

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Dreams Alive and Fulfilled: Personal Ideas for Your Ultimate Bucket List Journey

I love lists. My life would not be fully mine without the lists.

And the king of my lists is the Life list or the so called Bucket list — a list of wishes and desires that I want to fulfill within a lifetime.

You know why is it so important?

Because LIFE LIST provides me the freedom to live life the way I want it to.

Life list is not just a set of goals; this is a list of indicators and landmarks that helps me move in the very direction I’ve chosen for myself.

Such a powerful tool as the Bucket list is utterly important, and I clearly understand the reason why to create it.

But the paradox of it is that each of its separate points does not necessarily have to answer the great and mighty question “What for?”. And due to this paradox, my true desires and the answers to the question “What do I want?”are born.

Another important point is that my Life list gives me faith in myself.

Confidence appears when I see the results. And when I see the “list of tasks” consisting of more than 100 items coming true and being fulfilled, my confidence grows just like that.

My wishes and desires become more daring and bolder once I have faith by my side, and thus the list is supplemented by increasingly interesting adventures.

Bucket list kills boredom, fills me with emotions, and makes my life colorful. It helps me to hear my inner self, to sift what was imposed by my surrounding, as well as to level up only those skills I want to develop.

The items from the list fill me up with happiness, interesting stories, unique habits, knowledge, journeys, observations, my identity, health, people, and even love.

That is — with everything that is important to me in life.

Below you can find my Bucket list for 2009–2019, which I managed to accomplish in 8 years instead of the planned 10.

Hope it will inspire you to create a list of your own.

Here are the things I managed to fulfill by 2017:

Create a happy family. Marry the man I love

Change, find, become, experience, accomplish

1. Find an apartment of my own and move out from my parents.

2. Find a common ground with mom, dad and my brother.

3. Find myself and understand my mission.

4. Get a dog.

5. Define the haircut that would suit me the best.

6. Never dye my hair.

7. Send myself postcards from every city or town that I visit.

Take part in Holi festival and get painted (it happened back in 2013 in China, I think it counts)

8. Quit watching TV.

9. Become a godmother to a child.

10. Find true love. To love and be loved.

11. Create a happy family. Marry the man I love.

12. Undergo church marriage ceremony.

13. Try yoga and to practice in case I’d like it.

14. Try running every day for a month and [possibly] fall in love with running.

15. Go on a long trip alone (went on a solo trip to India in 2015).

Make mehendi drawings on my hands

Learn and master

16. Get higher education abroad (I studied in Milan for scholarship program, got my first Master’s there).

17. Get certification in Computer Design.

18. Learn coaching and get certified (I studied Personal and Professional Coaching at International Coaching Academy Maximum and Business Coaching at Signature Life Coaching Academy).

19. Master wakeboarding (I even got injured in the course of one training session).

20. Take kite surfing classes (as a bonus I met my husband-to-be at a kite surfing spot:)).

Take kite surfing classes

21. Learn to swim with a mask and flippers and to observe the colored fishes.

22. Learn to ski.

23. Learn how to make ginger biscuits.

24. Learn how to paint in oils (I have painted more than 40 paintings since then).

25. Learn how to speak fluently a foreign language without an Eastern European accent (English and Italian worked fine).

See an ice-breaker ship ( I’ve seen it for the first time in Finland in 2016)

26. Learn to play drums (I studied, but then quit my studies).

27. Learn to cook tasty borsch (I do it along my Grandma’s recipe).

28. Learn to drive a car and get driving license.

29. Master the basics of floristry (I made myself a flower bouquet and a wreath for my wedding).

30. Learn to type fast.

31. Grow basil and thyme on the windowsill.

32. Organize a festival (I was one of the organizers of fundrusing festival UKROP in 2014).

33. Work as a volunteer (In 2012 I volunteered and worked on the front line at a charitable organization aimed at providing the army and those in need with all the necessary equipment, medical care, food).

Learn to ski. Me skiing in Levi, Finland, 2016

34. Work abroad (I worked in Belgium in 2010, Italy in 2010–2011 and China in 2012–2013).

35. Work as a guide in a museum (I worked in the Museum of the One Street in Kyiv, Ukraine, 2009).

36. Work for an international organization like UN (eventually I worked in the International Organization for Migration, UN Migration, 2014–2015).

37. Work in a European Institution (I did an internship in the European Parliament in Brussels, 2010).

38. Work at a football championship (I worked as a Project manager at Euro 2012 Football Championship at the UEFA AA).

39. Establish my own travel agency (the agency operated for 3 months, I realized that it was not my dream after all, 2011).

40. Start a blog.

41. Live in another country (1 year in Italy, 3 months in Belgium, 5 months in China, and 1 month in India).

42. Take belly dancing classes.

43. Learn to use chopsticks.

Work at a football championship (I worked as a Project manager at Euro 2012 Football Championship at the UEFA Euro AA)

Visit and do

44. See the world (I’ve been to 26 new countries in course of 8 years; the new list for 2017–2027 is more precise and I’ve already hit 40+ countries).

45. See Santa Claus (Finland, 2016).

46. Sail aboard the “Ship of Love” from Helsinki to Stockholm (2016).

47. Walk from the city center to my house by foot (Kyiv, Ukraine).

48. Go beyond the polar circle and see the polar night (Finland, 2016).

49. Make an ascent to Hoverla mountain (Ukraine, 2014).

50. Have a ride in a female train car in India (2015).

51. Take part in the road traffic in China (riding a bicycle, 2013).

52. Try a “happy brownie” in Amsterdam (2010).

Ascent to Hoverla mountain (Ukraine)

Try, experience and see

53. To see an ocean (for the first time in Portugal in 2010).

54. To see an ice-breaker ship (for the first time in Finland, 2016).

55. To see a panda (for the first time in China, 2013).

56. To see a sea lion in the wild (for the first time accidentally in the waters next to Le Mont-Saint-Michel, France, 2011).

57. Try paragliding (Macedonia, 2016).

58. Try rafting (Turkey, 2009).

59. To be inside a tank (2014).

Go trekking in the jungle

60. Make mehendi drawings on my hands.

61. Try scuba diving (Turkey, 2009).

62. To visit oceanarium (Portugal, 2010).

63. To ride and elephant (Thailand, 2009).

64. Try dog sledding (Finland, 2016).

65. Dive into the sea from the ship deck (Turkey, 2009).

66. Watch how the baby elephants are fed in the nursery (Sri Lanka, 2015).

67. Visit a festival.

Try paragliding (Macedonia). Ride and elephant (Thailand)

68. Watch breaking dawn on the deck of the ship and see the dolphins (on my way from Corfu, Greece to Bari, Italy, 2016).

69. Take part in a safari (Sri Lanka, 2015).

70. Visit a “hot spot” or a war zone (2014).

71. Take part in Holi festival and get painted (it happened back in 2013 in China, I think it counts;)).

72. Visit and volunteer in a shelter for stray dogs.

Fly on a hot air balloon

73. Watch a football derby (it was Inter — Milan derby at San Siro stadium in Milan, 2010).

74. Swim with large turtles (Sri Lanka, 2015).

75. Pilot an ultralight plane (I did it twice, in 2012 and in 2015).

76. Dance on a table.

77. Jump into a pool fully dressed.

78. Try to shoot from the bow.

79. Fly on a hot air balloon (2015).

80. Spend a night in a tent on a beach.

81. Bathe in a see at night, under the shining stars.

82. Ride a sailing yacht (2015).

83. Stroll through the streets of the city barefoot.

84. Dive into the ice-hole for water consecration on Epiphany Day (19th of January — Eastern Orthodox style, 2015).

85. Try couchsurfing (I used it when I visited India, it helped a lot and ever since).

86. Go somewhere with blablacar (I used it many times).

Pilot an ultralight plane (I did it twice)

87. Take part in the casting for the reality show (I passed and was short-listed to thirty candidates for the first season of Master Chef Ukraine. I was young and inexperienced, 2011 :)).

88. Give a speech in front of the large number of people (During my work for IOM, I gave a presentation for the students of Kharkiv International University, 2015).

89. Make a photo of my aura.

90. Take part in a professional photo shoot with professional make-up (4 photo shoots, including 1 with a professional visage in course of 8 years).

91. Observe the stars with the help of a telescope.

92. Try the regression into my past lives (I did it, but I saw nothing).

93. Try the numerologist services.

94. Try various types of a massage (I enjoyed Thai massage in Thailand, Chinese — in China, and Ayurvedic — in Sri Lanka).

95. Go trekking in the jungle (India, 2015).
96. Stay awake all night and make Suri Namascar on the seafront with the sunrise (India, 2015).

97. Enjoy the tropical rain.

98. Swim in the sea in the rain.

Do a professional photo shoot with a professional make-up

99. Try venison.

100. Eat a scorpion.

101. Try oysters.

102. Try frogs’ legs.

103. Try snails (and fall in love with the taste).

104. Try lobster.

105. Participate in tea ceremony.

106. Relax in hot open air jacuzzi in winter when it’s snowing (I did this in Slovakia at -5C, 2012 and in Finland at -15C, 2016).

107. Keep a fast for 40 days before Easter (I have been keeping a fast for several years in a row).

108. Research and then draw my family tree.

109. Watch “Star Wars”.

110. Get a fish pedicure.

111. Make my mom an unforgettable present (it was an air balloon flight).

To get acquainted, to hear, to meet, to touch an idol

112. Meet Cristiano Ronaldo (there was a time when I really wanted this, and I was lucky to see him at arm’s length when I was assisting to settle the Portuguese team in Donetsk, Ukraine, 2012).

113. Visit the performance of Nick Vujicic (2015).

114. Get acquainted to someone who was a Ted talk speaker many times (India, 2015).

As I look back on these fulfilled dreams and anticipate the adventures ahead, I admit the simple truth: our aspirations have the power to transform our lives.

Let this list inspire you to chase your own dreams, carve your unique path, and celebrate each accomplishment along the way. After all, life is the greatest adventure of all.

Do dream! Our dreams and wishes are worth of coming true!

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Mom Who Travels
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Expat Mom living abroad with a baby, a toddler, and a furry dog. Currently in Budapest, Hungary. 🇭🇺 Join me as I explore expat life along the way.