The Spare-Time Bucket List
In the 2007 film The Bucket List, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play terminally ill men who decide to escape from a cancer ward and embark on a mission to check off a list of “to-do” adventures they can have before they die. The movie’s popularity sparked a wave of bucket listing ideas, with variations based on age and gender, and it was great water-cooler conversation in business offices all over America.
With this issue of PM360, we launch a new feature called “My Other Life” (back page), in which pharma marketing, sales, and management people will reveal their passions outside of the office. It’s in that spirit that we offer this list of 10 activities, hobbies, or thrills we found on the website Incredible Adventures (www.incredible-adventure.com) that you might want to consider taking up in your spare time—if a busy executive even has any spare time these days.
Skydive Mount Everest: Okay, so it’s only 29,035 feet high, but you’d be landing in the highest “Drop Zone” in the world. And even if you back out at the last minute, you’d still be making a trip to the Himalayas.
Hot-Air Balloon Adventure: You can experience this thrill ride in some of the world’s most exotic locales, including France, Turkey, Croatia, Switzerland, Australia, Costa Rica, and the Serengeti in Tanzania. If you want a location closer to home, then try a balloon trip over Sedona, Arizona.
Experience Zero Gravity: You won’t have go on a NASA mission to feel weightless. You can go to the Aurora Aerospace Training Center in St. Petersburg, FL.
Learn to Play Golf: It can be the most frustrating game known to man, but once you master it—even a little bit—the sense of accomplishment is exhilarating.
Master a Foreign Language: You can’t really be a renaissance person unless you can converse in a different tongue and the beauty of pursuing this is that you can work on it throughout your life. One suggestion given the changing demographic of America: Spanish!
Sing in a Choral Group: Whether it’s in a church choir, a classical music vocal group or a chorus that brings home Broadway show tunes, being in a singing group can be a very rewarding experience. And you don’t always have to be a great singer to join one.
Read the 100 Greatest Novels or See the 100 Greatest Films (or both): For the committed couch potato, you can find a guide to the novels at http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/slide/all/ and the films at the American Film Institute website: http://www.afi.com/100years/movies10.aspx
Kick a Negative Habit: Whether it’s giving up smoking, over-eating, or watching too much TV, there can be no more rewarding accomplishment.
Volunteer at a Soup Kitchen or Homeless Shelter: With poverty, hunger, and homelessness in America at unconscionable levels, this kind of charity work is much needed.
Visit All 50 States: Whether red or blue, they’re all colorful in their own special way.
