My Mighty {fine} Life List
So, here's the deal: I make lists regularly. I love ticking boxes and putting lines through items I've accomplished. For some reason, however, I found it difficult to finish my Mighty {fine} Life List. Created by the amazing Maggie Mason of Mighty Girl, the lists (and the movement that surrounds them) are meant to capture 100 things you'd like to do before you go.
The premise behind the popular life lists is pretty great. You simply list out your goals - both big and small - and act upon them. The lists can change as we grow, which is key. Maybe an opportunity comes up that you could have never imagined... put it on the list and cross it off! Maybe you decide one of your goals is no longer as important as you once thought... remove it!
I started my own list years ago - long before I started blogging - and just let it sit unfinished. Well, not anymore! I finally took the time to write it all out and get it ready for public consumption. I feel like putting this out to the universe (well, at least to you lovely people who read this blog!) will help motivate me to really seek out new experiences and make sure they come to fruition.
Without further ado, I'd like to present:
My Mighty {fine} Life List
(Note: Accomplished items are in bold.)
- Visit all 50 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
- Take photos of iconic bridges in all 50 states
- Really understand the settings on my digital camera
- Run (and finish) a marathon
- Visit all 59 National Parks in the US: Acadia, American Samoa, Arches, Badlands, Big Bend, Biscayne, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Carlsbad Caverns, Channel Islands, Congaree, Crater Lake, Cuyahoga Valley, Death Valley, Denali, Dry Tortugas, Everglades, Gates of the Arctic, Glacier, Glacier Bay, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Great Basin, Great Sand Dunes, Great Smokey Mountains, Guadalupe Mountains, Haleakala, Hawaii Volcanoes, Hot Springs, Isle Royale, Joshua Tree, Katmai, Kenai Fjords, Kings Canyon, Kobuk Valley, Lake Clark, Lassen Volcanic, Mammoth Cave, Mesa Verde, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Olympic, Petrified Forest, Pinnacles, Redwood, Rocky Mountain, Saguaro, Sequoia, Shenandoah, Theodore Roosevelt, Virgin Islands, Voyageurs, Wind Cave, Wrangell Saint Elias, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion
- Take singing lessons
- Get on stage and sing again (even if it’s just karaoke)
- Take snowboarding lessons
- Live in a state other than California
- Start practicing yoga
- Teach a class on any subject (or be a mentor)
- Meet the President of the United States (it doesn’t matter who it is at the time)
- Go to a concert and hang out with the band backstage
- Go ice fishing in Alaska
- Let go of the material things cluttering up my life
- Go snowshoeing
- Figure out what it takes to do voice-over work and do it
- Take an extended (months-long) trip to anywhere
- Go back to England to visit family and re-visit places important to my family history
- Write a book
- See a moose (in the wild)
- See a grizzly bear (also in the wild, preferably from far away!)
- Road trip through Canada
- Sing at a wedding
- Become a tour guide
- Create a photo book of all of my favorite bridges
- Make my health a priority
- Foster a puppy dog
- Hire a stylist to tell me – once and for all – what not to wear
- Join a book group
- Be an extra in a show/movie
- Attend a Beastie Boys concert (Keeping it on the list. You never know. RIP Adam Yauch)
- Go to a grown-up summer camp like this one
- Travel somewhere beautiful by train
- Spend an entire day reading a good book on a tropical beach (without feeling guilty…like I should be doing something)
- “Pay it forward” at the coffee shop by paying for a stranger’s morning fix
- Experience the Aurora Borealis
- Go back to D.C. to re-visit the monuments/museums/etc.
- Write an article/story for a large print publication
- Learn more about creating and editing beautiful videos
- Visit Greece
- Visit Croatia
- Go glamping in the Swiss Alps
- Create a road trip around the world's largest everything (see unfinished Pinterest board here). Take said road trip.
- Eat baklava in Turkey
- Spend a week in a rental house with my best friends in Cape Cod
- Own an Airstream (and maybe live out of it for a bit)
- Join a CSA
- Take a backpacking trip
- Start painting again
- Skinny dip
- Travel through the Amazon rain forest
- Attend an awards show (preferably the Grammys)
- Go to Australia
- Visit New York City
- Learn another language
- Take a European road trip
- Take a Northern California road trip to experience the super cool things I usually just drive right past
- Sleep in a tree house or lookout station
- Spend hours wandering the High Line
- Take a Chicago girls trip
- Remove all of the grass from our property and replace it with a more sustainable ground cover
- Go geoducking
- Cook through an entire cookbook
- Find a reason to go to Antarctica
- Be present when my nephews experience something incredible in nature
- Re-vamp my print shop business model to better showcase my photography work
- Star gaze in the middle of nowhere with my husband
- Tour the White House
- Take a soak in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland
- Go hot air ballooning
- See Machu Picchu
- Change out all of the boring doorknobs in my house and replace them with beautiful ones
- Travel on a private plane
- Experience Germany’s Oktoberfest at least once
- Take a bicycle trip through Holland (tulip fields + windmills, please!)
- Attend Camp Mighty
- Cook lobster at home
- Take a road trip to see the fall colors
- Attend Sundance Film Festival
- Go sailing
- Be brave enough to cut my hair super short
- Take a helicopter ride
- Visit the San Juan Islands
- Go canoeing/kayaking somewhere beautiful
- Be an artist in residence in a national park (like this)
- Successfully grow fruit trees in our backyard
- Live outside of the U.S., at least for a short while
- Renew our wedding vows
- Travel to Easter Island
- Have dinner (and dessert, of course) with Nigella Lawson
- Visit Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore
- Learn to can fruits and vegetables
- Go hunting with my husband
- Visit the Bonneville Salt Flats during Speed Week
- Photograph a ghost town at sunset
- Make pasta from scratch
- Feel the mist from Niagara Falls on my face
- Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower
- Take a photo trip to the Galápagos Islands
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Anyone else have a life list they want to share? Feel free to link up in the comment section. I'd love to see how your lists are shaping up!