Finish this sentence:  Before I die I want to _________.

When you look back on your life, many years from now, what will wish you would have done that you didn’t?    Will your life’s greatest accomplishment involve conquering some massive mountain or something more broad like being a great parent or spouse?  What thing or things do you hope to squeeze into your life before you reach the finish line?

Here’s mine (in no particular order):

  1. Hike to the top of Machu Picchu
  2. Attend one major sporting event (Olympics, Super Bowl, etc)
  3. Sky Dive (done!)
  4. Learn to speak Spanish and use it exclusively on a trip
  5. Brew my own beer
  6. See a taping of a TV show
  7. See Dubai
  8. Marry a wonderful woman I am madly in love with (DONE AND DONE!!)
  9. Learn to dance (tango, salsa, swing, anything)
  10. Be in a movie (done!)
  11. Take a train ride across India
  12. Go to a great jazz club in New Orleans (Done!)
  13. Drink a beer at Oktoberfest
  14. Learn to play an instrument
  15. Spend a night in someplace haunted
  16. Drive from the east coast to west coast
  17. Own a custom tailored suit
  18. See Carnival in Rio
  19. Learn to juggle
  20. See the grand canyon (preferably on a raft)  (Done – still need to try the raft thing!)
  21. Climb to the top of the Statue of Liberty
  22. Have a family
  23. Climb Mt. Everest, or any 8000 meter peak
  24. See Australia
  25. Eat a great steak in Argentina
  26. Write a book
  27. Hunt a deer (and eat it)
  28. Backpack on the Appalachian Trail
  29. Learn to surf (preferably in Hawaii?)
  30. Take a cruise in the Mediterranean
  31. Scuba dive down to a ship wreck
  32. Learn to rock climb (in progress!)
  33. Eat at French Laundry in Napa Valley
  34. Drink a really expensive ($500+) bottle of wine
  35. Set foot on each of the seven continents
  36. Go on a multi-day bike ride
  37. Go somewhere exotic and live there for a month
  38. Walk on a glacier
  39. Stand on one of the poles (north or south)
  40. Smoke a cigar in Havana
  41. Ride a motorcycle down the Pacific Coast Highway
  42. See the Great Pyramids in Egypt
  43. Take a Safari in Africa
  44. Walk on the Great Wall
  45. Sleep in an ice hotel
  46. Ride a horse
  47. Buy a homeless person a meal
  48. Build something that will outlast me
  49. Take part in a protest (hopefully get arrested!)
  50. Get my fortune read
  51. Swim in the Dead Sea
  52. Learn CPR and first aid
  53. Play hooky with my future kid(children) and go to an amusement park
  54. Drive a Ferrari
  55. Visit all 50 states
  56. Ride in a gondola in Venice
  57. Ride a bike in the French countryside
  58. Walk the Golden Gate AND Brooklyn Bridge
  59. Get a college degree in something I really care about
  60. Have grandchildren
  61. Have great grandchildren
  62. Have great-great grandchildren (and be around to bounce them in my knee)
  63. Skinny dip on a beach at midnight
  64. Go to a film festival (Maybe Sundance)
  65. Run for political office
  66. Fly a plane
  67. Drive a convertible along the ocean (Done!)
  68. Run with the bulls in Pomalona
  69. Run a 50 mile race
  70. Go cliff diving
  71. Take a picture every day for a year
  72. Finish an Iron Man triathlon
  73. Go to The Burning Man Festival
  74. Stay in a lagoon cottage in Tahiti
  75. Eat Pho in Vietnam
  76. Become a microlender
  77. Take a year off of work to do something for someone else
  78. See the Berlin Wall
  79. Drink a Margarita in Key West (Done!)
  80. Have something named after me
  81. Take a course in something I love
  82. Start my own company (Done!)
  83. Call in sick at least once a year when the weather is too nice out to go to work
  84. Run a marathon
  85. Watch the sunset from the top of a mountain

… and the list keeps growing