I like making lists. Ever since I was a kid, it’s been a way to organize the chaos of my thoughts. Now that I’m older, it makes me feel accomplished to be able to cross something off physically. Also, it keeps me on task for when I’m distracted by shiny things.
This time last year, I made a half-hearted attempt to do 25 unique things before 25. But I only gave myself a four month window and all hell broke loose unexpectedly during that time period. The few things I was able to squeeze in was really fun, and I did a lot of them throughout the year passed the 25th birthday.
So I decided to revisit that idea, but to raise the bar a bit. I’m challenging myself to do 365 things in 365 days. This is a way for work the skills I’ve been putting off, seeing the sights I’ve been sorely neglecting in my own backyard, writing the pieces I’ve been mulling over and simply brooding my experiences. Over the course of the next 365 I’ll be writing about the adventures/experiences of checking off each item. And I’m hoping that I’ll be able to drag along friends and family to join the fun- as well as making new friends along the way.
Here is a sampling of some of the ideas:
- Visit the Mutter Museum
- Re-read Are You There God It’s Me Margaret
- Try Salt Room therapy
- Send a care package to a solider overseas
- Bake a pie from scratch
- Learn how to change a tire
- Try Vietnamese food
- Ride a zip-line
- Pop a bottle of champagne
- Wade in a creek
To view the full list, click below. It’s broken down into categories. If you have any ideas to add to the list, or ways to check off one of the experiences, let me know! And if you want to join me on any of the adventures, even if I don’t know you, drop me an email at patrice.bendig@gmail.com or comment below! This challenge is to open myself to new experiences- and the more the merrier!
Hopefully you’ll follow along as I blog, tweet (#365in365) and attempt this insanity.
Here is the complete list of 365 things to do in 365 days
Arts and Crafts
- Take pottery making class
- Make Mod Podge
- Make melted crayon art
- Buy a sketchbook
- Fingerpaint
- Make and send in a secret to Postsecret
- Make a terrarium
- Paint a seashell from the beach
- Flashcard quotes- Get a pack of flashcards, write inspiring quotes, and use them as daily reminders or give them to friends
- Complete five new projects I found on Pinterest
- Color an entire coloring book
- Make a jar of memories
- Write a poem
- Illustrate a comic
- Hand make a birthday card with scraps of paper, ribbon and glitter
- Make a paper fortune teller like in grade school
- Make a paper chain countdown
- Draw a picture only using my left hand
- Make a stone planter with my puppy’s paw prints
- Make a mosaic
- Make a friend a handmade birthday present
- Create something at Color Me Mine
- Create a time capsule and bury it
Financial
- Meet with a financial advisor
- Pay off my credit cards
- Invest in a stock
- Have at least 1k saved by the end of the year
- Get my living will and financial paperwork notarized
- Contribute to my retirement fund
- Fill up an entire jar full of change
General Health
- Get my cholesterol tested
- Make a binder with all my medical/legal paperwork
Life Skills
- Swing an ax, preferably to chop a piece of wood
- Saw something, like a piece of wood
- Light a match
- Take public transportation to work
- Learn how to change a tire
Writing
- Write every single day of 365 in my journal
- Start writing essays for my way in the future book
- Write a letter to the editor
- Write for a publication I’ve never been published in before
- Enter a writing contest
- Write a piece of fan fiction and publish it
- Keep a dream journal for a week
- Write a children’s story
- Write a letter to a childhood idol thanking them
- Write a letter to an author
- Write a list of 25 lessons I’ve learned in 25 years
- Create a list of 25 cool things I’ve done in 25 years
- Create a list of 101 things I want to accomplish in my lifetime
- Write an essay on a typewriter
- Gather all my articles that I’ve ever written and print them out in one book
- Write a letter to a friend I have lost touched with
- Write to a politician about a cause that is important to me
- Write a letter to the President
- Write a letter, put it in a bottle and throw the bottle into the ocean
- Write a letter to my 35 year old self
Drinks to try
- Sip on a glass of scotch
- Pop a bottle of champaign
Foods to try
- Do a wine and cheese tasting
- Eat a box of old fashion animal crackers
- Have dessert for breakfast
- Have breakfast for dinner
- Eat a really big spiral lollipop
- Eat something I can’t pronounce
Foods to make
- Brew my own ice coffee for a week
- Make soup in a crock pot
- Make peanut butter
- Try a new fruit
- Try a new vegetable
- Bake a pie from scratch
- Bake and decorate a cake with pretty icing
Restaurants/bars to try
- Go to a baking and booz event
- Eat at the Pop Shop
- Eat at the Pickled Heron
- Shop at Trader Joe’s
- Go to a crab boil
- Get ice cream from an ice cream truck
- Eat at a random hole in role place in the middle of no where
- Eat at a really fancy restaurant
- Go on a walking chocolate tour that I have a gift card for
- Make a meal only using food from a farmer’s market
Fitness
- Spend a day at work on a fitness ball instead of a chair
- Go to the gym in the morning before work for an entire week (5 days)
- Buy a jump rope
- Go for a bike ride
- Shoot basketball hoops
- Go to a dance class
- Skate a roller rink
- Try Bikram Yoga
- Climb a rock wall
Health Food
- Go carb-less for a whole week
- Give up fast food for a month
- Drink water for only a week
- Give up coffee for an entire week
Nature Adventures
- Go on a picnic
- Fly a kite
- Wade through a creek barefoot
- Swing on a rope swing
- Ride a zipline
- Roll down a really big hill
- Go fishing
- Jump on a trampoline
- Go caving
- Swing on a tire swing
- Take a walk in the rain
- Go white water rafting
- Take a nap on a hammock
- Swim in a lake
- Wake up and watch the sun rise
- Climb a tree
- Watch a sunset
- Make a snow angel
- Dig my feet into the sand
- Visit a waterfall
- Sit around a bonfire
- Lay outside and stare at the stars
- Dance in the rain
- Look up at a really tall tree
- Go strawberry picking
- Skip stones
- Wish on a star
- Lay on the grass and watch the clouds
- Throw a penny in a wishing well
- Release sky lanterns
- Yell really loud and listen to my echo
- Run through a field of really pretty flowers
Solo Things to Do
- Go an entire day without speaking
- Spend an entire weekend reading at least two-three books
- Stay at a hotel/motel by myself
- Try out for a performing group
- Go to an open casting call
- Go on a retreat – with no cell phone use allowed
- Play a game of solitaire with playing cards
- Go to the movies by myself
- Attempt to mediate
Mini Road Trips
- Go on a thrift store road trip
- Go to Renaissance Fair
- Go to Indian Echos Cavern
- Go to Crystal Cave Park
- Go to Mount Moriah Cemetery
- Go on a QVC studio tour
- Go to the Lost River Caverns
Tapping into my Inner Child
- Play with playdough
- Put on a puppet show
- Spin in a chair with wheels until I get dizzy
- Hang upside down
- Beet on some bongos
- Smash a watermelon with a mallet
- Ride another upside roller coaster
- Ride a wooden roller coaster
Hometown Tourist Adventures
- Spend a day going to thrift stores in Philadelphia
Experiences
- Play Coach bingo
- Feed ducks
- Get hypnotized
- Visit a strip club
- Go to a drag show
- Go to a carnival
- Go to a drive in movie
- Ride on a ferris wheel
- Go to a driving range
- Offer to give a speech at career day my High School
- Go to speed dating
- Smoke a cigar
- Visit a planetarium
Workshops/Classes
- Take a stand up class
Spa and Beauty
- Do a homemade hair treatment
- Do a homemade face treatment
- Make my own body scrub
- Curl my hair using soft curlers
- Take an epsom salt bath
- Get my eyebrows threaded
- Follow a strict face cleansing routine for a month
- Experience a new spa treatment
- Get a body polish
- Wear heels to work everyday for a week
Self- Improvement
- Make that vision board I’ve been saying I would make for the past year
- Go a whole day without cursing
- Go a whole day without using a contraction
- Spend a whole day without texting
- Spend a whole day without speaking
- Spend a whole day not using my laptop
- Spend a weekend not using social media
- Clean out my closet and drawers
- Go a week without wearing my hair up
- Get properly fitted for a bra
- Read every night before bed for an hour for an entire week
- Go without makeup for an entire week
Environment
- Get a small bonsai tree for my office
- Buy a nice poster for my room
- Plant something
Relationships
- Email a friend/acquaintance every week to check in/reconnect for a week (7 people)
- Write a thank you to the teachers that made an impact on me
- Be a bridesmaid in a wedding
- Tell someone exactly what I need when asked, as many times as possible
- Write down regrets and then burn them
- Forgive someone that has hurt me
Kindness
- Go into Barnes and Nobles, leave post it notes in books of positive messages
- Cook a meal at a hospitality house
- Pay for someone’s coffee behind me anonymously
- Make Valentine’s Day cards for Senior Citizens at a nursing home
- Send a surprise care package to a friend
- Don’t say a mean thing for an entire day
- Send someone balloons for no reason
- Donate unused clothes to charity
- Listen to an elderly person’s life story
- Put toll money in the car behind me
- Buy balloons and then let them go outside
Things to Buy
- Buy a flask AND FILL IT UP
- Buy a silk robe
- Buy a really comfy pair of slippers
- Buy a corset
- Buy a piece of art
- Buy a star in honor of someone
- Buy something totally impractical at a flea market and not feel guilty about it
- Only buy things from small business owners for a week
- Buy a really nice, expensive bra and matching panties
- Buy a really high quality dress
- Buy a bold shade of lipstick
- Buy an overpriced hair accessory
- Buy a typewriter
Things to Watch and Read
- Watch Gremlins
- Go to a comic book store and read comic books
Things to do with Taylor
- Take Taylor to New York
Super Random
- Call 867-5309 (like the song)
- Start a collection of something
Photography
- Photograph an old church
- Photograph the neighborhood I grew up in
- Make my grandparents a special video for the 60th wedding anniversary
- Photograph my old pre-school
- Get professional headshots taken
- Pick number 1-100, then drive to it, and take photos
Quarter Life Writings 
[…] most valuable tidbits being the ones that I have learned the hard way. An activity on my list of 365 things to do in 365 days was to put together a list of 25 life lessons I’ve learned over the past 25 years. Honestly, […]
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[…] exactly a year ago, I had decided to embark in an ambitious endeavor of completing 365 things 365 days. At the time, it was a creative way for me to continue to try new things while regaining a new life […]
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