Being able to explore new countries, cultures, and adventures is a dream come true. At 32, I’ve visited 35 countries and participated in countless extreme adventures that I thought only existed in movies and dreams. I mean, who actually pilots a jet pack or a fighter jet? Who jumps from an airplane, rides in a hot air balloon, performs aerobatics in a biplane, and swims with whale sharks all in the same weekend? Bucket List Publications isn’t just a blog or a website; it has helped me live in a dream world. It has made my daily life better than my wildest imagination. Sometimes it’s exhausting just trying to think up my next big vacation or adventure. My imagination/dreams, fellow travel/adventure bloggers, social media, and Great American Days are my go-to sources that support my travel and adventure lifestyle.

Dreams and imagination are always the beginning of an idea, a thought embedded in my subconscious that waits to emerge like a butterfly from a cocoon. Since I was a young girl, I can remember having a reoccurring dream about being able to fly. I don’t have wings or a parachute; I can just fly. It’s never scary or intimidating; it’s always beautiful and I’m more beautiful because of it. It’s this lingering dream that makes me want to test the limits of flight. When I’m riding in an elevator, flying in a plane, or standing at the top of a mountain looking down, my initial thought is, “I want to jump!” “I want to fly!” “I want to feel the wind rushing by me!” (Don’t get me wrong, I want to be attached to something.) I understand a dog’s desire to stick his head out the window. That’s what being in the sky is like for me. I explore my imagination and dreams, put them to paper, and I find ways to make them happen. They are what kick-start “the list” and put ideas into practice.

expertvagabond.com

Fellow travel/adventure bloggers have become the travel agents of today. When I’m trying to create my yearly bucket list or put my dreams into action, I usually search travel blogger sites before anywhere else. Watching the slider on The Expert Vagabond site is more inspirational than any commercial or advertisement. It was under the South Africa category on this site that I first started dreaming about an African Safari. First-hand experience and recent pictures make travel/adventure blogs my first stop when exploring a dream.

Social Media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest are like an instant shot of adrenaline. All I need to do is look at GoPro or The Extreme Bucket List on Facebook and dozens of ideas for new experiences and destinations invade every crevice of my brain. They’re automatic storyboards for great experiences.

Great American Days is a goldmine of inspiration and information. Any time I’m traveling to a new location in the United States, I pull up their site for unique ideas. Sometimes I’m limited with my imagination because I don’t know that certain activities are possible; Great American Days takes the guessing out of what’s available. Currently, I’m in Atlanta, Georgia. Great American Days offers 71 experiences in this area alone. Race car experiences, wildlife encounters, flights, lessons, tours, camps… the list goes on. They have more than 6000 amazing experience gifts for every budget, taste, and occasion.

Your ideas and bucket lists extend the reach of my imagination to the far corners of the world. From polar bear expeditions in northern Canada to mingling with penguins in Antarctica, from shark diving in South Africa to heliskiing in Japan, your stories and ideas have shown me that anything and everything is possible.

If you’d like to submit your travels, adventures, and bucket lists to Bucket List Publications, you can find the short process at http://www.bucketlistpublications.com/submissions. We have over 1.9 million views per month and over 49,000 subscribers. Dream. Live. Create. Share.

“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt