Credit: Candy Chang

For anyone who has small or major life goals, whether they’re related to financial freedom, travel, business, or anything at all…I think it’s important to write it all out. And better yet, publish for others to read. This will not only help you get organized and set priorities, but it’ll also allow others to be inspired by what you do AND hold you accountable.

While reading some amazing life/bucket lists from inspiring folks like Coby McKibben and Maggie Mason I kept finding more and more lists from others. Each one unique and incredible in their own ways. But nothing hit me harder than stumbling upon Candy Chang’s Before I Die… project. The pictures on this page are from her website. It’s amazing! It seriously made me cry and caused me to fully re-think my list. Going from “bucket list” to “before I die” gave new meaning to what writing all of this down, and sharing it with you, means to me. Thank you, Candy!

Everything listed below are things that I fully intend to accomplish. These aren’t whimsical ideas or things that I randomly chose out of a hat. I’ve spent a lot of time creating this list and it’ll likely change as time goes on. I’ll be adding and adjusting as I complete goals and set new ones. It’ll be fun to look back in 10, 20, …50 years to see what I’ve accomplished. :)

So here we go. Before I die I want to…

Adventure/Travel

1. Take a road trip across the US
2. Eat at all of the vegan restaurants in the US
3. Live abroad indefinitely
4. See the seven wonders of the world
5. Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge
6. Stay at the all vegan resort in Costa Rica
7. Go white water rafting
8. Go parasailing
9. Go Skydiving
10. Take 1 surfing lesson
11. Take flying trapeze lessons
12. Go spelunking
13. Swim alongside wild dolphins
14. Take a helicopter tour of Maui
15. Fire a real gun
16. Live out of a single backpack for 1 year
17. Go on an African Safari
18. Volunteer at the elephant sanctuary in Tennessee
19. Learn how to sail a boat
20. Perform in a flashmob
21. Take up rock climbing
22. See the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
23. Backpack through Australia & New Zealand
24. Backpack through Europe
25. Sail around Greece
26. Take a hot air balloon ride in Turkey
27. New Year’s Eve in NYC
28. Ice Skating at Rockefeller Center
29. Take a helicopter ride around Hawaii(Maui)
30. Visit all seven continents
31. Visit all 50 States
32. Walk along the Great Wall of China
33. Complete the route that Elizabeth Gilbert took in Eat, Pray, Love
34. Visit the Taj Mahal
35. Zip line through a canapy
36. Go shark diving
37. Go swimming among wild dolphins
38. Hold a wild octopus
39. Take the 21 day detox program at The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center
40. See the redwoods in CA
41. Look over Seattle from the Space Needle
42. Drive down Lombard St. in San Francisco
43. Tour the Sears Tower in Chicago
44. Hang out by “The Bean” in Chicago

Other Stuff

1. Be featured in VegNews Magazine (got on their website in February, 2011…getting closer!:)
2. Meet Tim Ferriss
3. Become a horse show judge
4. Be a horseback riding champion
5. Ride a horse along a beach in CA
6. Be in a movie
7. Compete in a ballroom dance competition
8. Model in a ‘for real’ photo shoot
9. Take singing lessons
10. Sing a solo in front of a crowd
11. Be in a music video
12. Give dance lessons
13. Get a tattoo that represents my commitment to veganism
14. Get a tattoo that represents my love of travel & self discovery
15. Get a tattoo that represents my history with & love of horses
16. Get a motorcycle license
17. Change 15 peoples lives
18. Run and manage the very first vegan fashion show on the east coast
19. Fly first class
20. Teach a college course
21. Become a certified scuba dive instructor

Education/Work

1. Get a Bachelor’s degree
2. Get a Master’s degree
3. Start a vegan resource website
4. Work at an animal welfare org (NEAVS & WSPA)
5. Give horseback riding lessons professionally
6. Sell one of my websites for $20,000+
7. Become an expert at affiliate marketing
8. Be a TED speaker
9. Get major media recognition for my travels
10. Learn to speak 4 new languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish)
11. Write a book & get published

Health/Wellness

1. Complete a P90X workout
2. Complete couch to 5K program
3. Run a 5K race
4. Learn some form of meditation
5. Make legit friends with a stranger
6. Take a vow of silence for at least 1 week
7. Get a six pack
8. Eat a high-raw diet for one full year

So what’s on your BID List? If you need some inspiration to to get started check out these recommendations from Alan of The 9 to 5 Alternative (I found them very helpful!):
How to Write a Life List, by Chris Guillebeau
10 Tips for Creating a Useful Bucket List, by Sean Ogle

VegNews’ Vegan Bucket List

The ever inspiring folks of VegNews Magazine created an awesome 99 [vegan] Things you Must Do as part of their recommended vegan bucket list. I thought it would be fun to incorporate this list into my trip. Let’s see if I can accomplish at least half (if not all!) of these 99 things within the next 365 days!

As I complete each one I’ll cross it off of the list and write a blog post about my experience with that adventure. Some of items I’ve already accomplished (before my road trip started).

1. Swim in the greenhouse pool then dine at the Ravens’ Restaurant at the Stanford Inn in Mendocino, Calif.
2. Join the cookie/brownie/fudge-of-the-month club at Allison’s Gourmet.
3. Ask your (non-vegan) family or friends to try a vegan meal, day, or week. It’s the perfect birthday gift!
4. Hear former cattle rancher-turned-vegan, Howard Lyman, speak.
5. Eat a veggie dog from a street cart in Vancouver, BC.
6. Write a letter to a vegan activist who is in prison.
7. Visit Portland, Ore.’s vegan mini-mall. Leave with a tattoo, cookie, message t-shirt, and a few snacks for the road.
8. Perfect a signature tofu scramble.
9. Meet your vegan superhero. Whether it’s Gene Baur, John Salley, Kathy Freston, Wayne Pacelle, or Tal Ronnen, go to one of your favorite star’s public events and thank them for their work.
10. Accept that your veganism is bigger than you and your circumstances. Don’t get bummed about it.
11. Devour a cowvin cookie at Sticky Fingers Bakery in Washington, DC.
12. Splurge on a beautiful Matt & Nat bag that you can carry with pride for many years to come.
13. Take a VegNews Vacation to India. Or Thailand. Or…
14. Be vegan until 6pm, and then stay vegan until the following day. Repeat.
15. Have a pizza bake-off with every vegan cheese to discover your favorite.
16. Design your perfect custom cinnamon roll at Cinnaholic in Berkeley, Calif.
17. Rub a pig’s belly at Los Angeles’ Gentle Barn or New York’s Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary.
18. Work with local businesses to add more vegan options to their menus.
19. Veganize your grandmother’s favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Then share with everyone.
20. Host a cruelty-free Halloween party with caramel apples, spiced (and spiked) apple cider, and pumpkin carving.
21. Dine at Candle 79 in New York and Millennium in San Francisco, not on the same night. Go with people whom you truly adore, and feast on appetizers, salads, entrees, drinks, and desserts (multiples of each). Share everything so you get to taste it all!
22. Become a vegan myth-busting machine—even if you never need to bust vegan myths.
23. Attempt to work out as hard as Brendan Brazier, Kenneth Williams, Tonya Kay, Robert Cheeke, or Scott Jurek.
24. Read The Face on Your Plate when you need a little extra information about animals and why they are too amazing to eat.
25. Order a Vegan Treats’ Peanut Butter Bomb cake to celebrate your birthday.
26. Give fun vegan gifts such as cookbooks, baked goods, Vegan Etsy jewelry, and wine every chance you get.
27. Take a vegan tour of Los Angeles stopping at Eko Zone, Pure Luck, Shojin, Real Food Daily,Native Foods Café, Veggie Grill, to start.
28. Sail the Caribbean, practice morning yoga, and visit exciting ports of call on the all-vegan Holistic Holiday at Sea.
29. Try vegan ethnic food, such as Filipino, Korean, or Sri Lankan.
30. Inspire at least one person to become vegan.
31. Trek to Toronto in September for the annual Vegetarian Food Fair.
32. Devour the Portobello Stack with red potatoes and cauliflower mash at Sublime in Ft. Lauderdale.
33. Purchase 1,000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson and never have to buy another vegan cookbook again.
34. Volunteer for Food Not Bombs. It doesn’t get much better than providing hungry people with free vegan food.
35. Make the VegNews Mac & Cheese. It changes lives.
36. Hold a Vegan Bake Sale for your favorite animal charity.
37. Grab the ‘D’s BBQ Joint wrap at Seattle’s Hillside Quickie (CLOSED) and have a picnic at nearby Volunteer Park.
38. Don’t judge meat-eaters. They’ll just stop listening to you.
39. Eat kale daily.
40. Join Twitter and Facebook, follow or friend a bunch of your non-vegan acquaintances, and send along great recipes, videos of cute farm animals, and timely vegan news.
41. Attend the North American Vegetarian Society’s Vegetarian Summerfest conference.
42. Help the environment by opting for a bicycle or running shoes over a car.
43. Savor the four-course open-to-the-public Friday night dinner at NYC’s Natural Gourmet Institute.
44. Remind your non-vegan loved ones that if it’s good enough for President Clinton, it’s good enough for them.
45. Cook an entirely vegan holiday dinner for your friends and family.
46. Start a balcony herb garden.
47. Visit MooShoes in The Big Apple and purchase a truly fabulous pair of vegan footwear, then march in the annual Veggie Pride Parade.
48. Order a custom-made birthday cake from San Francisco’s MaggieMudd ice cream shop. (they have closed) :(
49. Rekindle your childhood love of PB&J.
50. Create something that helps humans feel compassion for animals: a video game, children’s book, ‘zine, novel, movie, or blog will do!
51. Vacation at the all-vegan The Lodge in Grenada.
52. Get caught up on your veg-friendly reads by joining the VegNews Book Club.
53. Eat at both Native Bowl and Homegrown Smoker vegan food carts in Portland, Ore.
54. Donate all your non-vegan clothes to charity.
55. Try Chicago Soydairy’s mozzarella sticks. Recover blown mind.
56. Read or re-read John Robbins’ timeless classic, Diet for a New America.
57. Go on a Vegas-style bender at Ronald’s Donuts. Bring on the bear claws, old-fashioned, and chocolate-dipped doughnuts!
58. Adopt a turkey in November, then savor Native Foods Café’s Wellington for Thanksgiving.
59. Host movie nights and show Bold Native, Forks Over Knives, and Babe.
60. Attend a volunteer night at the PETA headquarters in Norfolk, Va.
61. Eat a huge vegan sundae at Lula’s Sweet Apothecary in New York City.
62. Send a vegan care package.
63. Make your own seitan sausages, in every flavor you can imagine.
64. Become a vegan hostess extraordinaire by throwing holiday parties, brunches, bonfires, barbecues, fondue nights, and so on.
65. Take a Wanderbird Cruise to Alaska or the Caribbean.
66. Spend an afternoon handing out Vegan Outreach’s “Why Vegan?” brochures.
67. Attend the Texas State Veggie Fair, then head to Spiral Diner for amazing vegan eats, deep in the heart of Texas.
68. Spend a week at The Gentle Gourmet B&B in Paris. (PERMANENTLY CLOSED WHEN I WAS THERE)
69. Read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.
70. Memorize five quick comebacks to the question “Where do you get your protein?”
71. Read Crazy Sexy Diet, and see if you don’t turn into a green-juice drinker. We dare you.
72. Devour soft-serve ice cream from New England’s Like No Udder, the world’s first vegan ice cream truck.
73. Write a well-thought-out letter to the editor promoting veganism.
74. Have your vitamin D and B12 levels tested.
75. Start a Vegan Drinks meet-up in your hometown and get to know your local vegans, boozily.
76. Demolish the garlic fries at San Francisco’s AT&T Park. Brush teeth.
77. Take a cooking class at Spork Foods in West Hollywood.
78. Attend a Farm Sanctuary Hoe Down, then book a few extra nights at the sanctuary’s B&B.
79. Own at least one cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, and Ani Phyo.
80. Visit the Chicago Diner and feast on The Radical Reuben, mashed potatoes, and cookie dough peanut butter milkshake.
81. Find a vegan restaurant in every city you visit, no matter how remote!
82. Study the history of the women’s, civil rights’, gay rights’, or any other social-justice movement that has bettered the lives of beings who were once treated as property. Learn from them!
83. Watch Earthlings at least once. Then, if you feel yourself getting burned out or losing your drive for veganism, watch it again.
84. Eat beignets and the chocolate soufflé at Madeline Bistro in Los Angeles. (closed)
85. Write to Food Network and request more vegan content.
86. Make soup in five minutes flat using a Vita-Mix blender.
87. Rescue a companion animal.
88. Keep warm in a winter coat from Vaute Couture.
89. Donate money to your favorite animal charities.
90. Try Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter. Then try not to put it on every single thing you eat.
91. Volunteer to muck out stalls at the Catskill Animal Sanctuary
92. Attend (or, even better yet, have!) a vegan wedding.
93. Read every issue of VegNews ever published.
94. Attend the Genesis Awards. It’s swanky, fun, and you can actually see a difference being made—not to mention rub elbows with fancy Hollywood types.
95. Admire the work of your favorite vegan artist. (Don’t have one yet? Check out Gretchen Ryan,Peter Max, or Sunaura Taylor.)
96. Study T. Colin Campbell’s The China Study as if your life depended on it.
97. Make your own dim sum! It’s stupendously satisfying, not to mention delicious.
98. Pen your own vegan manifesto. Keep it in a place that’s easy to see, just in case you need at reminder.
99. Stay at the Vegetarian Country House Hotel in England’s Lake District.