✓ Project Bucket List
100 challenges. 4 years.
I’m changing my life, one challenge at a time.
Back in 2023, I was in a massive rut, and I found a way out of it. Below, I’ve created a ✓ Bucket List of 100 different challenges, and I have 4 years to complete them.
The idea is that you have a clear goal and a short enough timespan to get it all done, that you have no choice but to get out of your comfort zone and get out there.
Completed items link to write-ups. Everything else is uncompleted (for now).
Start Here. Featured stories:
Bungee Jump ✓
I stop dying and start flying, soaring through a canyon as onlookers cheer. For a second, I’m mother-fucking Spider-Man.
Ride a Horse ✓
First time on a horse, and I picked Monument Valley at sunrise. Epic mesas, wild dogs, and a guide who hunts drones for fun. The Wild Wild West!
Do a Marathon Hike ✓
The Macmillan Mighty Hike! Failure doesn’t always feel like defeat. Here’s what I learned when my marathon hike ended early – but not in vain.
Recent Challenges Completed:
Make Clothing from Scratch ✓
I actually made a Shakespearean doublet instead of a shirt, using an old tapestry, and having a massive strop in the process.
Create a Video Game ✓
Since childhood, I wanted to design video games. Nearly thirty years later, I finally built one and accidentally launched it to thousands of players.
Do Something at an Open Mic ✓
I face my fears by reading a story about facing my fears.
Press Features:
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The One Hundred Challenges.
- Get into flying (Original: Get pilot's license)
- Climb Scafell Pike, Snowdon, and Ben Nevis
- Experience hunting
- Make a leather bag
- Kayak all of windermere ✓
- Weigh 95kg again
- Do a Marathon Hike ✓
- Sort pension out properly
- Write and record a song
- Make another short film ✓
- Make a guitar
- Ride a horse ✓
- Climb Stromboli
- Do a thru-hike
- Go to a concert for an artist from the list ✓
- Visit Scotland
- ride a motor bike ✓
- Swim in a mountain river ✓
- Fix up something mechanical ✓
- Rock climb ✓
- Walk Caminito del Rey in Malaga ✓
- Ski
- See the northern lights ✓
- Surf
- Eat at a Michellin star restaurant
- Drive a boat ✓
- learn a martial art
- Learn to dance ✓
- breathe fire
- catch a fish
- Bungee jump ✓
- Go to the US ✓
- Go to star observatory ✓
- Play sultans of swing on guitar
- Explore a cave in the dark ✓
- Hold a tarantula ✓
- Eat a freshwater fish ✓
- Go to a spa ✓
- Do archery ✓
- Return to Cornwall
- Go to the theatre
- Herpetological study in Sardinia / Srilanka / Costa Rica / or Arizona ✓
- See a Rothko in person ✓
- Lasso something
- See a blackbird at an aviation museum ✓
- Sunrise at stonehenge ✓
- Make a documentary
- Do a cooking class
- Participate in a conservation effort
- Contribute to a citizen scientist project ✓
- Make chocolate from scratch
- Try beekeeping ✓
- Walk on hot coals
- See Monument Valley ✓
- Go to a Buddhist session ✓
- Learn navigation properly ✓
- Find a fossil ✓
- Make a stained glass beetle
- Make a shirt from scratch
- See / Hike Cadini di Misurina
- Have a conversation in Russian
- Donate blood ✓
- Learn first aid ✓
- Yoga - do the crow pose
- Do something at an open mic
- Eat entirely for free by foraging ✓
- Perfect homemade pasta ✓
- Go to a Natural History Museum "late" session (or similar)
- Zipline on Velocity 2
- See a manta ray
- Breed a beetle
- Create a videogame
- Faroe OR Skye OR Shetland
- Take singing lessons
- Try falconry
- Make a taxidermy piece
- Film something in super 8
- Do a cycle holiday (Cornwall to scotland?)
- Drive a mustang ✓
- Make a pair of Heelys
- Try smithing ✓
- Night Hike
- Write a great story
- Stand on a tiny island where I see all sides ✓
- Visit Sicily
- Plant 100 trees ✓
- See a cave painting ✓
- Learn all the constellations
- See bioluminescent algae ✓
- Go to a rage room ✓
- Learn bar tending tricks
- Learn to draw people ✓
- Do wine tasting ✓
- Do a muscle up
- Read house of leaves ✓
- Design and invent something
- Visit Africa ✓
- Experience Amsterdam
- Go to an Abandoned City ✓
- Play Clair de lune on piano
View the plain list (print-friendly)
- Get into flying (Original: Get pilot’s license)
- Climb Scafell Pike, Snowdon, and Ben Nevis
- Experience hunting
- Make a leather bag
- Kayak all of windermere ✓
- Weigh 95kg again
- Do a Marathon Hike ✓
- Sort pension out properly
- Write and record a song
- Make another short film ✓
- Make a guitar
- Ride a horse ✓
- Climb Stromboli
- Do a thru-hike
- Go to a concert for an artist from the list ✓
- Visit Scotland
- ride a motor bike ✓
- Swim in a mountain river ✓
- Fix up something mechanical ✓
- Rock climb ✓
- Walk Caminito del Rey in Malaga ✓
- Ski
- See the northern lights ✓
- Surf
- Eat at a Michellin star restaurant
- Drive a boat ✓
- learn a martial art
- Learn to dance ✓
- breathe fire
- catch a fish
- Bungee jump ✓
- Go to the US ✓
- Go to star observatory ✓
- Play sultans of swing on guitar
- Explore a cave in the dark ✓
- Hold a tarantula ✓
- Eat a freshwater fish ✓
- Go to a spa ✓
- Do archery ✓
- Return to Cornwall
- Go to the theater
- Herpetological study in Sardinia / Srilanka / Costa Rica / or Arizona ✓
- See a Rothko in person ✓
- Lasso something
- See a blackbird at an aviation museum ✓
- Sunrise at stonehenge ✓
- Make a documentary
- Do a cooking class
- Participate in a conservation effort
- Contribute to a citizen scientist project ✓
- Make chocolate from scratch
- Try beekeeping ✓
- Walk on hot coals
- See Monument Valley ✓
- Go to a Buddhist session ✓
- Learn navigation properly ✓
- Find a fossil ✓
- Make a stained glass beetle
- Make a shirt from scratch
- See / Hike Cadini di Misurina
- Have a conversation in Russian
- Donate blood ✓
- Learn first aid ✓
- Yoga – do the crow pose
- Do something at an open mic
- Eat entirely for free by foraging ✓
- Perfect homemade pasta ✓
- Go to a Natural History Museum “late” session (or similar)
- Zipline on Velocity 2
- See a manta ray
- Breed a beetle
- Create a videogame
- Faroe OR Skye OR Shetland
- Take singing lessons
- Try falconry
- Make a taxidermy piece
- Film something in super 8
- Do a cycle holiday (Cornwall to scotland?)
- Drive a mustang ✓
- Make a pair of Heelys
- Try smithing ✓
- Night Hike
- Write a great story
- Stand on a tiny island where I see all sides ✓
- Visit Sicily
- Plant 100 trees ✓
- See a cave painting ✓
- Learn all the constellations
- See bioluminescent algae ✓
- Go to a rage room ✓
- Learn bar tending tricks
- Learn to draw people ✓
- Do wine tasting ✓
- Do a muscle up
- Read house of leaves ✓
- Design and invent something
- Visit Africa ✓
- Experience Amsterdam
- Go to an Abandoned City ✓
- Play Clair de lune on piano
How Project Bucket List Works.
So, here’s the deal. ✓ Project Bucket List is my way of climbing out of a pit. I wasn’t happy with my life, and I felt incapable of doing anything about it. Turns out a big part of that is not actually knowing what you want to do.
So, one cold December night back in 2023, I started writing what I wanted to do, and as I started writing, I realised that I needed to do something really big, I needed some sort of massive change, otherwise I’d never really do it.
✓ Project Bucket List is about burning your fucking comfort zone and kicking the doors down to the life you want.
Because I’m a sucker for systems, I’ve created a list of rules for Project Bucket List, based on SMART goals:
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- You must have a set number of items. Once you start, you cannot add or take away items.
- You must have a specific time period. You cannot extend your bucket list.
- You must have clear, measureable win conditions. “walk more” is a bad goal. “Hike 50 different routes” is a good goal.
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If you’re thinking you like the sound of a Bucket List, why not create your own? I’ve written exact guidelines on how to make a bucket list, and how to stick to it.
If there’s any you’d like to help me with, please reach out.
Also, I’ve started filling out each item with a bit of a story as I’ve started completing these. I’m going to be releasing all of these as a book at the end of the project, so you can read them now while they’re free, or you can wait until I print them on paper!