My name is Shelly and I live in the United States. I’ve had my Goal List since I was in 8th grade, and started this blog in 2014 to inspire people to enjoy bucket lists, travel, and goal achievement. I love helping you do things on your list, and enjoy hearing your stories.

Here’s what I hope you’ll get from this blog.

1. Inspiration and ideas

I love the feeling I get when I accomplish a goal, whether something on the list or from another area of my life, and I hope that by sharing my enthusiasm, stories, tips, and ideas, you’ll take steps toward achieving one of your goals too.

I also want to encourage your enjoyment and appreciation of life experiences both in and out of your comfort zone, and give you ideas of new things to do, whether it’s for a lazy weekend activity or a big, once-in-a-lifetime trip.

2. A new perspective on bucket listing (or someone with a similar perspective to adventure with)

I have three main principles that direct my bucket list experiences:

1. Big or small, I like to celebrate the moments and experiences that I think are fun. While a few people have told me that some of my list items aren’t “real” bucket list experiences (I guess because they’re not wild enough), I believe that any experience someone really wants to do can be on their bucket list, regardless of how big or adventurous they seem (or don’t seem). It’s your list! Include whatever you dream up! Putting the big and small things on my list helps me remember that every moment is special, and that I don’t need big plans to make a big memory.
2. I also believe in responsible bucket listing – no breaking the law or disrespecting other people just to do something that’s on your list. Living ethically and in line with my faith are my most important goals.
3. Finally, bucket listing, while very exciting, isn’t the only thing or the most important thing in my life. While this means I make slower progress than those dedicated completely to bucket list activities, I appreciate having balance in my life, which gives me opportunity to have spontaneous experiences or to take a break to make sure my bucket list doesn’t become an obsession.

For those of you who feel the same, let’s do this adventure together! Sometimes it gets lonely if you’re the only ambitious dreamer. I understand that feeling, and I understand wanting more than what you see around you. I’m excited that you’re part of this community and I look forward to getting to know you.

🙂 Shelly

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Frequently Asked Questions:

What’s a Goal List?

My bucket list’s called The Goal List because when I started it, I’d never heard of the term “bucket list.” Once I started it, calling it anything else seemed as weird as renaming a pet.

How many things do you have on the list?

Right now, I have 130+ things on the list. In the past, I’ve added about 2-10 new goals each year. Some are hidden from the list on this blog because I like keeping some of them close to me until I’ve completed them.

What does your list look like?

I have a journal (now two journals) that I use to keep the list. Two goals go on each page, one on the top and one halfway down. The space after each goal is to write about the experience I had when I accomplished that goal. The majority of my list is also on this blog. I also have a retrospective/reverse bucket list (that I don’t keep a hard copy of, but you can read the list here). Both lists are constantly getting updated/growing!

Look and feel: Who took the photo in the header image? What theme are you using?

Photo credit for the header goes to Carmen P., my friend who went on the 3 week road trip with me summer of 2016. The theme I use is the Twenty Twelve theme created by the WordPress team.

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