Three Famous Bucket Lists

What do the most successful people on earth have in common? They set goals. And not just any goals: they create a list of all the goals that they want to accomplish during their lifetime in several different life areas. These life areas can include the following: family, finances, travel, charity, vocation, possessions, health, and so on. That is, they create a life list. Once they have their life list they envision their desired outcomes and take the necessary action so that they can start crossing items off their list.

Three well-known people who have credited their life lists for helping them to live a happy life and helping them to achieve their most important life objectives are John Goddard, Ted Leonsis, and Lou Holtz.

You can read a little about each one, as well as take a look at their life lists, below.

(Guess The Movie Title is courtesy of Valerie Everett).

In his book "The Business of Happiness", Ted Leonsis--serial entrepreneur, multi-millionaire, philanthropist, sports team owner, and so on--credits a life list which he created when he was 28 years old for much of the success that he's had in life. He created the list after a harrowing near-death experience which made him realize that he needed to make changes in his life because he wasn't happy.

Here's the life list he created:

Family Matters

• Fall in love and get married
  
• Have a healthy son
  
• Have a healthy daughter
  
• Take care of mother/father
  
• Take care of in-laws
  
• Take care of extended family
  
• Have grandchildren
  
• Have great-grandchildren
  
• Leave trusts for family members
  
• Leave all financial matters in great shape for family members upon passing on
  
• Have children become individuals and self-actualized staying loving within the family

Financial Matters

• Pay off college debts
  
• Net worth of ten million dollars, after taxes
  
• Net worth of one hundred million dollars, after taxes
  
• Net worth of one billion dollars, after taxes
  
• Zero personal debt for family
  
• Make ten million dollars on an outside investment
  
• Become a partner in a venture capital fund
  
• Create one billion dollars in value with an outside investment
  
• Start a company and sell it
  
• Conduct an IPO on a company I founded
  
• Create world’s largest media company

Possessions

• Own a beach home that stays in family
  
• Own a jet
  
• Own a yacht
  
• Own a convertible Porsche or Mercedes Benz
  
• Own a mountain home that stays in the family
  
• Own a great piece of art
  
• Own a great personal collection of watches
  
• Own a Ferrari
  
• Restore an antique auto
  
• Own a restaurant or club
  
• Support someone who makes a great breakthrough in science or art
  

Charities

• Change someone’s life via a charity
  
• Give one million dollars to Georgetown University/sit on BOD
  
• Major impact on a children’s charity
  
• Start a family charity foundation
  
• Give away one hundred million dollars in lifetime
  
• Have a building/perpetual memorial named after the family
  

Sports

• Own a sports franchise (basketball, hockey or football)
  
• Win a world championship
  
• Go to a Superbowl with Dolphins or Redskins
  
• Go to a Final Four with Georgetown
  
• Go to a World Series with Yankees 45 Meet Mickey Mantle 46 Catch a foul ball
  
• Go to an NBA All-Star Game
  
• Go to an NBA Draft
  
• Go to an NHL All-Star Game
  
• Go to a Capitals Stanley Cup
  
• Go to Olympics
  
• Play Augusta
  
• Play Pebble Beach
  
• Play Cypress Point
  
• Play St. Andrews
  
• Go to Ryder Cup
  
• Go to US Open Golf Tourney
  
• Go to World Cup
  
• Get a hole-in-one
  
• Play in a celebrity golf tournament
  
• Go to a US Open Tennis Final
  
• Go to baseball All-Star Game
  
• Go to a Fantasy Camp
  
• Shoot baskets at Madison Square Garden or Boston Garden
  
• Go one-on-one with Michael Jordan

Travel

• Go to Greece
  
• Go to Italy
  
• Go to Israel/Jerusalem
  
• Go to Hawaii
  
• Go on safari to Africa
  
• Go to London
  
• Go to Paris
  
• Go to Australia
• Sail thru Caribbean
  
• Sail thru Mediterranean
  
• Go to China
  
• Go to Brazil
  
• Go to Alaska
  
• Go to Egypt
  
• Go to Bali
  
• Go to Tahiti
  

Stuff

• Be on cover of a magazine
  
• Produce a TV show
  
• Go into outerspace
  
• Write a book
  
• Invent a boardgame
  
• Make a movie
  
• Win a Grammy/Oscar/Tony/Emmy Award
  
• Swim with dolphins
  
• Swim with Great White sharks
  
• Get an honorary degree
  
• Hold elective office
  
• Go to White House/Meet President
  
• Advise a foreign government
  
• Live overseas for one year
  
• Go to Oscar ceremonies
  
• Go to MTV Awards Show
  
• See the Rolling Stones
  
• See the Who
  
• Take a year sabbatical
  
• Sail around the world with family

(The image of Ted Leonsis was taken from here.)

At the age of 15 John Goddard overheard one of his parents' friends talking about how he regretted all of the things that he wanted to do but had never actually gotten around to doing. John told himself at that moment that he didn't want to live a life full of regrets, so he sat down to write a list of 127 things that he wanted to do in life.

These included reading the works of Shakespeare, climbing the world's tallest peaks, running a 5-minute mile, and many more. Today, Goddard is famous for having checked most of the items off of his life list, and living an incredibly adventurous life in the process.

Here are some of the 127 items on John Goddard's life list:

Explore

• Nile River
• Amazon River
• Congo River
• Colorado River
• Yangtze River, China
  
• Niger River
  
• Orinoco River, Venezuela
• Rio Coco, Nicaragua

Study Primitive Cultures

• The Congo
• New Guinea
• Brazil
• Borneo
• The Sudan
• Australia
• Kenya
• The Philippines
• Tanzania
• Ethiopia
• Nigeria
• Alaska

Lou Holtz explains that at the age of 28 he was unemployed, he had no money in the bank, and his wife was eight months pregnant with their third child. That was the lowest point of his life. Lou was feeling very sorry for himself, so his wife got him a copy of the book "The Magic of Thinking Big". She told him that his main problem was that he didn't have any goals.

Lou read the book, and then he sat down and wrote a list of all the things he wanted to do: Go to the White House for dinner, be on The Tonight Show, he wanted to be coach at Notre Dame, he wanted to make a hole-in-one, and the list went on and on. He ended up with a list with 107 life goals. Lou explains that the more he wrote, the more excited he got. He adds that his life changed at that moment.

Read more about Lou Holtz and his life list.