Get Inspired to Start a Bucket List!

Although I’ve already added some of these authors, bloggers, books, etc to my “Inspiration” page, I thought it might be fun to come up with a list of ten people, books, videos, and/or television shows that might inspire you to create either your own bucket list, year-in-the-life project, or life-project The list is in no particular order, as I find them all incredibly inspirational:

1. Noelle Hancock, who wrote My Year with Eleanor, a memoir based on Hancock’s decision to conquer her fears after losing her job when she was about to turn twenty-nine. As the book review states, inspiration struck her one day “in the form of a quote on a chalkboard in a coffee shop: ‘Do one thing every day that scares you’ – Eleanor Roosevelt.” Hancock decides to spend the months leading up to her thirtieth birthday conquering her fears, some of which include interviewing her ex boyfriends, taking fighter pilot lessons, going shark diving, and taking tap dancing lessons. To learn more about her inspiring book, check out her interview on YouTube!

2. Gretchen Rubin, who wrote The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun. She now has a very successful blog that was born as part of her project. As the summary to her book states, Rubin’s epiphany comes on a city bus when she realizes she is not focusing on things that really matter. Although she is not unhappy and has a loving, supportive family, she decides to dedicate a year to her happiness project and dedicates each month to finding ways she can be happier. She builds on the methods she finds each month until at the end of the year, she tries to employ all of them.

3. Zach Sobiech, who recently died of cancer and left behind one of the most inspirational videos I have ever seen. As he says in his video, “I want everyone to know, you don’t have to find out you’re dying to start living.” “Clouds,” the song he wrote for his family and friends, has now become a No. 1 hit on iTunes. Just watching his twenty-minute video illustrates what a genuine, strong person he was.

4. The film, Pay it Forward, which resulted from Catherine Ryan Hyde’s book by the same name. The film follows a middle school boy’s efforts to make the world a better place, inspired by his social studies teacher’s assignment. Trevor decides that after he helps three people, those people can pay the deeds forward by doing three more good deeds for other people.

5. The documentary Craiglist Joe, in which Joe sees if, with no money or contacts, he can survive off the good deeds of other people who he finds through Craigslist. During this experience, he is able to travel across the United States, take various lessons, and nearly every night, find shelter thanks to others’ kind acts.

6. The television show The Buried Life in which four guys try to do 100 things before they die, while helping others cross off items on their own lists.

7. The film The Bucket List staring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Enough said.

8. Annette, the inspiring blogger behind the blog Bucket List Journey, where she documents her incredible experiences as she crosses items off her bucket lists.

9. Sebastian Terry, who wrote the book 100 Things: What’s on Your List, where he documents his decision to do 100 things he’s always wanted to do after the loss of his friend.

10. The World of Jenks, an MTV show that explores the lives of inspirational young people.

I would definitely recommend looking into any of these people, books, blogs, television shows, or films if you have not yet heard of them!

Does anyone have any other recommendations to add to the list? I’d also love to hear your thoughts about these suggestions!