With 2016 rapidly approaching, I decided that I will not be developing a list of New Year’s resolutions. I will assign myself to the making of resolutions on Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur (especially since it’s right around the time of my birthday), in my opinion, is the more appropriate time of year to focus on improving oneself and one’s relationships. Instead, I have chosen to start making a Bucket List.

I think my father-in-law’s recent passing is the catalyst for this new obsession. Since his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease at the age of seventy robbed him of active retirement years, I want to ensure that I accomplish some things while I still am able. So, with seventy as my target age, I have sixteen years to get some major s&#t done!

To do this properly, however, I first established rules for my Bucket List.

1. Any item that makes it to the list must be realistic. (Sadly, I never will star in a film as the love interest of Chris Hemsworth.)
2. Items on the list must be attainable. (My bank accounts are limited.)
3. I must be willing to make a serious effort to achieve anything I add to the list. Setting and committing to dates will drive action.
4. The list must be “well-rounded,” including categories like travel, intellectual pursuits, and physical activities.
5. At least three items (one from each category) must be crossed off the list each year. New activities may be added any time.

I found a website to help me. It’s called www.bucketlist.org and it enables you to establish goals, track activities, and it even suggests new ideas.

The travel category is easy. There are so many places I haven’t visited yet, but want to. Spain, India, Australia, Ireland, Santorini, Monaco, Thailand, Yellowstone Park and the Grand Canyon are good places to start. Taking one or two trips per year would be great.

Next are intellectual pursuits. My father owns sixty leather-bound, author-signed books. I want to read each of them, (I plan to inherit them one day) so I hope to tackle three or four a year. In addition, I would like to travel to Kiev, Ukraine to continue research on my paternal ancestry that originated in that region.

To challenge myself physically, I’d like to tackle two or three activities per year. I would love to scuba dive at the Great Barrier Reef; ski the Alps; learn to pole dance; get into serious weight-lifting; and ride a bike across Israel. (If these things don’t kill me, I’ll enter my seventies in great shape.)

And so it begins. 2016…here I come….