50 Crazy Things to do Before 50 That is Authentic

Will you be celebrating your 50th birthday in the next 2-7 years? Have you decided on a 50th birthday bucket list?

If you are like me you probably imagined your 50th birthday being super special where you celebrate with many friends at an exotic location.

Never in a million years could I have imagined that age 50 would sneak up on me so quickly.

I still remember what it was like being a teenager, it was not special or amazing. I just stayed out of trouble.

What about you what can you remember from when you were younger? Is there any specific season in life that stands out more than the others?

The struggle of turning 50 is going to be real and in so many ways it could mean regret for so many people.

In this post, I want to invite you to get out a pen and paper and write down all the things that you wanted to accomplish before turning 50.

Then make a shortlist of the most important or significant ones so that you can set goals to achieve them.

I will also share with you the top 50+ things that I would like to do and you may also want to do or experience some of these yourself so let’s do it.

Why Bother With a List?

Reading this you may be wondering what is the big deal and why should you or anyone else for that matter be bothering to write a 50th birthday bucket list.

Recently I remember reading a quote from Mark Cuban which goes like this:

“Today’s the youngest you are ever going to be. You’ve got to live like it. You’ve got to live young every day.”

Mark Cuban

The truth is I never saw life like that before. I postponed so many things and say that I will do it when I have more time, more money, have a life companion, etc.

In fact, those days may never ever come. I remember speaking with my mother when she turned 70 and she said the following words:

“I am not 70 for only one day, I will be 70 for a whole year so you have lots of time to celebrate my birthday”

In less than 3 months my mother was dead and I was in shock. It was a very speechless experience.

I promised myself not to postpone anything anymore. If I can do it today let me do it already.

bucket list ideas for women
photo by Matthew Henry

Bucket List Ideas for Women

Now that we understand why a 50th birthday bucket list is important it is time to get writing these bucket list ideas for women.

Grab a pen and paper and let’s make a list together. I have decided to write things into 14 different categories.

I must be an organisation freak and I don’t even know it. It is so much better to do it this way for me because I want to make a wide impact.

Here are those categories:

  1. Travel
  2. Business
  3. Body
  4. Love
  5. Spiritual
  6. Charity
  7. Make
  8. Take
  9. Volunteer
  10. Improve
  11. Help
  12. Mental
  13. Learn
  14. Mini-retirements

As you can see from this list I want to experience a well-rounded growth in 4-5 areas including mental, physical, emotional, financial and social.

The things on this list will not only benefit me but it will also have a positive impact on others in my spheres of influence as well as my passion projects.

Need help with setting your goals for the next 12-24 months? Grab the free goal-setting planner.

The 50th Birthday Bucket List

Are you ready to go through the list? I will start with travel and work my way through every category.

The plan is as I accomplish these goals I will come back here and mark them off as done.

travel bucket list ideas
photo by Darcy McSheffrey

Travel

  1. Changi Murals, Singapore
  2. Heart of Cape Museum, South Africa (first heart transplant)
  3. Matobo National Park, Zimbabwe
  4. Hot air balloon ride – Cappadocia, Turkey
  5. Visit the Salt Flats in Utah
  6. See the Salt Flats in Bolivia
  7. Experience the Northern Lights in Iceland
  8. Visit Fiji Islands
  9. Make a trip to Japan

This list is not set in stone as it is possible that 1-2 items may change depending on logistics, natural disasters and personal circumstances.

Business

  1. Make a full-time passive income online
  2. Develop healthy relationships with 5 women in business
    • July 2020 – Found 2 women who are great for business collaboration
  3. Help 100 women each year fulfil their time-freedom dream with an online business
  4. Create a digital nomad Mastermind group with 1,000 women
    • May 2023 – Developing a digital nomad group program
  5. Develop a 6-figure business

If you are new to my blog you are probably not aware of the story behind why I started this blog and podcast.

You can read about the history of my blog here and why I am so passionate about the cause of women’s illiteracy.

Body

  1. Get to my ideal weight of 120lbs
    • down to 140lbs as of Jan 2020
  2. Exercise 3 times a week
  3. Become a member of a dance group
  4. Maintain a fit, well-toned body
  5. Practice healthy eating
    • Still eating healthy – Jul 2020

I really need to be a better version of myself physically in order for me to better serve those who need my talents.

To accomplish this I need to adopt healthy practices that will keep me alert and ready to take action.

white paper bag with attached red heart shape paper and a Valentines Card
photo by Sarah Pflug

Love

  1. Find a life partner who is devoted to God
  2. Fall in love again
  3. Develop a deep and meaningful relationship with the special someone
  4. Experience the true meaning of love
  5. Forgive, forget and live life

This is not one that is easily accomplished but it is possible if I am open to it happening in my life.

It is so much better to accomplish big goals with a partner in crime compared to doing it all by myself.

Spiritual

  1. A closer walk with God
  2. Write 7 sermons
  3. Deliver at least one sermon
  4. Be a spiritual mentor to someone
  5. Develop a heart like God’s

I try to put God first in everything I do because he has wisdom like no other. I will allow him to lead my path on this journey.

Charity

  1. Set up a foundation for illiterate women
  2. Develop relationships with similar charities
  3. Donate 10% of business profits to the charity
  4. Be a champion for the reduction of women’s illiteracy

Giving back in a big way is something I enjoy and I feel that I have failed when I have nothing to give to those who are less fortunate.

I have to be the change that I wish to see in others so I need to be a better version of myself in order for others to become a better version of themselves.

freshly baked lemon cake with powdered sugar
photo by Sheila Pedraza Burk

Make

  1. Pineapple upside-down cake
  2. Banoffee Pie
    • Made my first banoffee pie on February 1st, 2020
  3. Lime key pie or lemon drizzle cake
  4. Journaling every year to track my progress (started Jan 2023)
  5. Declutter my life and make it less complicated

There are so many recipes that I saw that I would like to make and I still have not done it. I always wanted to make the pineapple upside-down cake.

I tried to make banoffee pie once and failed miserably so I need to try it again. As this will be an epic journey I cannot wait to track everything.

Take

  1. Take time to be good to others everywhere I go
  2. My local choir on a trip of a lifetime
  3. A group of young people on a meaningful experience
  4. My family on a retreat or reunion

I always dreamt of travelling with a mass choir to 3-5 countries and ministering to others. If I can do this it would be a dream come true.

Nothing beats making a trip with my family. I am yet to travel with all my siblings, their family and my children to someplace nice.

My brother believes Costa Rica is the best location for this so we will have to wait and see.

Volunteer

  1. For a project that helps illiterate women achieve their goals
  2. As a Goodwill Ambassador for illiterate women
  3. 1 day a week for a local charity or cause
    • As of January 2020, I’m doing 1.5 days a week with a charity
  4. To help out one elderly neighbour one day a week

As I already mentioned I do enjoy giving back which can be seen from my history of assisting in several projects like feeding the homeless on Christmas day.

Helping the over 55s to become computer and Internet literate for over 3 years and assisting with a coding camp for kids.

traditional mexican dips
photo by Jakub Kapusnak

Improve

  1. My fluency in Spanish
  2. Upskill in YouTube marketing
    • Jan 2020, enrolled in a YouTube marketing course
  3. Instagram marketing
    • July 2020, enrolled in an Instagram marketing course
  4. A better understanding of myself
  5. Hire a coach to boost self-improvement

For years I have been promising myself to improve my Spanish and I even have an account with Duolingo but I really need to get this done.

My preference would be to immerse myself in the language by living in Spain, Mexico or Panama for a few months.

Help

  1. Local businesses by giving free classes in marketing
  2. The unemployed by offering business grants
  3. Give motivational talks in schools and colleges
  4. Continue the podcast to expand my knowledge

I want to help so many people but right at this moment, I am not at the level yet where I have sufficient skills and resources to be as effective as I can be.

Mental

  1. Practice a growth mindset
  2. Use grit to get all these projects accomplished
  3. Believe in my ability to do it
  4. Harness a positive mental attitude daily

As humans, we keep getting in the way of ourselves by happily providing mental blocks as to why we cannot accomplish goals.

I am so aware of this so I need to be intentional and write down the challenges that I will face.

woman playing guitar
photo by Matthew Henry

Learn

  1. Learn to play the guitar (Sep 2022, I joined the local ukulele club)
  2. Fine-tune my singing skills
  3. To be patient
  4. When to take action
  5. How to make new friends

I am not perfect and my social skills can do with a makeover and because I am aware of that I will write down this challenge.

My daughter started teaching me to play the guitar last year and I need to get back to doing that as soon as possible.

So far there are 57 items on my list. How are you getting on with your list? Feel free to borrow my ideas.

Your longterm dream can become a reality if you convert them into goals. Converting those goals into tasks brings results. Grab the free planner below.

Mini-Retirements

In order to avoid burnout and overwhelm, I would need to take mini-retirements along the way so that I will succeed.

Tim Ferris talks extensively about mini-retirements in his book, The Four Hour Work Week.

The idea behind it is that instead of retiring at 60 for 15-20 years you take 1-3 month breaks to rejuvenate the mind, body and soul.

A large part of the process is decluttering your life before heading off into the sunset.

It is during these mini-retirements that he did things like learned to dance the Tango, took German lessons as well as Spanish lessons.

You can see it as unplugging from the normal busy life in order to upskill one’s ability on many levels.

As my business is online this would work out perfectly for me to continue getting things done.

Turning Dreams to Reality

After you have your big 50th birthday bucket list it is time to figure out how you are going to accomplish these goals.

Some items require a simple change in lifestyle while others require a combination of time and money to get done.

Personally, I would look at the big investment goals first which in my case is the 6-figure business.

To someone with no money, ideas or assets in place, this may look like it is not attainable by a long shot.

However, a 6-figure business is simply a business with a turnover of $100,000 a year. Broken down monthly that is only $8,333.33 a month.

What can you sell to a hungry crowd that will generate $8,333.33 a month?

woman controlling touchpad
photo by Viktor Hanacek

Setting Goals

Let’s say you are great at creating your very own DIY creams or hair products and you want to teach others to do the same.

All you need to do is create a website or start a blog and use it as a way to get your potential audience interested in your paid offer.

Now your paid offer could be teaching people how to create a range of complementary creams and hair products for a specific season like winter or summer.

If the core offer which is an online course costs $57 then to make $8,333.33 a month you need to sell to 150 people every month.

The standard, worse case conversion online is 1% of cold traffic (new visitors) to a website.

This means that you will need 15,000 people to see your offer every month if you want to meet that goal.

There are ways to increase conversion rates but we are looking at a worse case or average rates across all niches.

Need help setting goals? Grab the goal setting pack here.

The Plan

Creating consistent content brings consistent visitors which will eventually result in sales. There are many moving parts to this equation but here is an example for you.

Say you decide to focus on 2 main platforms like Pinterest and Facebook you can use the power of Pinterest images to get people interested in your offer.

You can also consistently optimise your blog posts for search engine optimisation and they will start getting traffic 6 months after you start a new blog.

In case you are interested in starting or launching a new blog here are 75 things to do before launching a blog.

50th birthday bucket list - smart goals-1

Are you wondering if you can increase the price and reduce traffic? You sure can do something like that if you prefer.

After all, it is your business and you can sell something for $97 instead and it would mean that you only need 85 sales a month. Therefore you only 8,500 visitors a month with a conversion rate of 1%.

If you are looking for a more simple business model take a look at these 25 ways to start a business without a degree.

Retargeting

Planning your traffic goals would not be complete if I fail to mention the benefits of retargeting.

According to an article in Connectio.io by Wilco de Kreij, retargeting ads are 76% more likely to get clicks compared to regular ads.

Website visitors who are retargeted with display ads are 70% more likely to convert according to an article by Chris at Traffic Oxygen.

Did you know that the average person has to visit a site 9.5 times before they make a purchase? This is according to an article by Kyle Myers on Growth Badger.

In case you have never heard of retargeting before it simply means that whenever someone visits your website you have the opportunity to advertise to them again.

A simple cookie is placed on their system that sort of follows them around on every site with display ads.

This is the reason why it appears that the lovely shoes that you almost placed in the shopping basket seem to be on every other site that you visit.

The Plan – On Steroids

If you used retargeting it means that those 8,500 visitors who saw your offer will have another chance of grabbing a great deal from you.

With retargeting you can offer them a 5%-10% discount to make a decision today rather than 1-2 years down the road.

Just when you thought it would be difficult to achieve a 6 figure income for your online business I gave you an idea that will make it way easier.

After all, you spent so much time getting organic traffic to your blog or website so retargeting will just help you convince those visitors even after they leave your site.

Also, people who buy one product are more likely to buy a 2nd and even 3rd item from the same brand due to that know, like and trust factor.

Are you now ready to get started on something big?

Conclusion

If I didn’t write out this 50th birthday bucket list of items then I would be staring at my 50th birthday in the face with mixed emotions.

I would also have little or nothing to show for my 50 years on the planet. Yes, I worked and have education and degrees to my name but is that my true purpose?

My task now is to figure out a way to work smarter which I believe can be accomplished by building a tight network of professionals around me.

If you are reading this and you have goals similar to mine then do leave a comment in the box below about how we can help each other.

Did you find this exercise useful? Were you inspired to go out and achieve your dreams, purpose and aspirations?

50 Things to do Before Your 50th Pinterest pin

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44 thoughts on “50 Crazy Things to do Before 50 That is Authentic”

  1. Yes, I’d love to do so many of these. I should start making a list. I am always working on being more patient 😉 Some days are easier than others.

  2. I have never heard of mini-retirements before! I will be picking up the book recommended too!

    • Erica, I only learned about them from Time Ferris in his 4-Hour Work Week book. So, they are fairly new to me as well.

  3. Wow, really nice post. I have turned 30 and was looking for new set of goals. I will do Scuba and skydiving before I turn 35 though.

    I guess I’ll choose a language and improve my fluency.

  4. I didn’t reach to the 50th but still I need to do lot of things which you mentioned above. Thanks for the amazing post and reminding us to do some amazing stuff

  5. Definitely traveling is on the top of my priority list and building up my retirement too. I would also like to be an adventurous like try the sky diving or ride a hot air balloon.

    • Farrah, there is something about travelling and being adventurous that just feels right.

  6. I won’t be celebrating that birthday for a while yet. So, I haven’t thought about my bucket list for my 50th!

  7. Life should be celebrated special and exciting, for me I believe that being crazy as you get older makes you see things beautiful and the fun it can bring.

  8. I am 46 and I know that 50 is coming fast! There is so much that I want to do in life, but 50 is far from old these days. Hope you get it all done.

    • Vicky, it will take more than hope to get it all done. I am in the process of formulating goals and tasks associated with those goals.

  9. I hope I can remember to live my life as fully as I get older. 50 sounds far away right now but time goes by so quickly.

    • Enriqueta, as you said, it is difficult to go back in time but you can look at your life and decide what you would like on your bucket list for the next 5 years.

    • Shalini, you can still make a bucket list so that you will not be rushing when you get close to 50.

  10. These are all amazing suggestions to consider. It will be nice to do a list of things that you want on your birthday. 50 is a very nice number.

  11. I have a bucket list and the one that I wanted to do more is travel around the world. I love exploring life outside my country. It teaches me a lot of things.

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