I’m planning to make 2023 the most awesome year ever

I’ve never been a big fan of bucket lists because they mostly seem to end up as nothing more than a box-ticking exercise. That seems totally pointless to me.

I once spoke with a guy that had a bucket list of 50 countries he wanted to visit. He’d already ticked off quite a few when I met him. Cambodia was one of them. I had previously spent a couple of months there, so asked what he thought of it.

It turned out he’d only done a border run from Thailand and had spent just two hours in the country. That meant he’d “visited” it, so he ticked it off his list. That sounds so wrong to me. Surely our bucket list items should have more meaning than that. They should be about the experiences, not an excuse to tick a box.

I built this list over the last few weeks. It’s a work in progress, so it’s possible that I’ll add a few more items. I may also delete or amend some of them. But for now, this is what I’m aiming for.

1. Become super-fit

I know that super-fit will mean different things to different people, but I’m doing this for me. That means I’ll be using my definition and not someone else’s.

So what is my definition? It’s to more-or-less double what I can do now. Mainly, I want to FEEL super-fit and I’ll know when I’ve achieved that.

I’ve already made a start on this and have always been relatively fit. At the moment I do 5–10 minutes of stretching once or twice a day, as well as some basic exercises.

My aim is to step this up a notch each month. As an example, I do 30 push-ups every morning. I aim to get to 50 in the next few months. Maybe I’ll aim for 100 after that. But I don’t want to make this just about the numbers, so I’ll stop whenever I think I’ve reached a good number. I won’t know what this is until I get there.

2. Become super-healthy

This goes hand-in-hand with being super-fit. Most people think of being fit as also being healthy, but that’s not the case. You can be fit but unhealthy. Many athletes have elite levels of fitness but die at a younger age than the general population. They’re not healthy. They’ve generally pushed their bodies too hard.

My doctor told me many years ago that when it comes to exercise, slow and steady is the best for health. He said the only reason you’d want to push yourself very hard is if you were an athlete that could earn good money. He said that for an elite athlete earning $1 million a year, it may be worth damaging your body for. But for any other person, it was pointless.

I have a full check-up at the hospital every couple of years, although it’s been three years since my last one. I plan to get my next one either before Xmas or early in the new year.

Once I know the results, I can work on any deficiencies. This has worked well for me in the past.

I don’t want to wait until I have a serious health issue. I want to sort out any minor problems early on so that they are easier to deal with.

3. Visit more countries

I’ve visited around 30–40 countries in my life, so plan to visit a lot more. I don’t have a set number. I want to visit old favorites and new places. I haven’t traveled since January 2020, and that was only for a few days in Singapore.

I have traveled around Thailand though, as I spend much of my time there in 2020 and 2021. I don’t count that though, as Thailand is one of our homes.

My wife got her Schengen visa approved last week, so we’re just waiting to get her passport back before we book our flights to Europe for mid-January.

We plan to travel for six months. Three months inside the Schengen are and three months outside it.

Our favorite places in Europe are Split (Croatia), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Budapest (Hungary), and Berlin (Germany). We will likely only visit those places, as we can only spend a total of 90 days in the Schengen area. It’s not enough.

But, every cloud has a silver lining, as it means we explore nearby places. We will definitely be visiting Istanbul (Turkey) and Tbilisi (Georgia). We may also visit Yerevan (Armenia), Bucharest (Romania), and Budva and Kotor (Montenegro).

That’s the general plan, although we could change them depending on what happens and how we feel at the time.

Later in the year, we may visit a few countries in Asia. Possibilities are Malaysia, Cambodia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. We’ve visited the first four in the past but never visited either Taiwan or Japan.

I plan to build a travel blog to document our journey.

UPDATE: Our blog is 2GoTraveling.com.

4. Visit one rooftop bar each month

Neither my wife nor I drink much, but we both like the idea of a monthly night out at a rooftop bar. I’ve been doing some research and have found some amazing ones.

This might seem like it conflicts with getting healthy, but a once-a-month treat is likely to be good for both of us.

5. Zipline in Tbilisi

Amazingly, I’ve never been on a zipline in my life. I found one in Tbilisi, so that’s where I plan to give it a go. My wife is terrified of the idea, so I’m not sure that I’ll be able to persuade her to do it as well. We’ll see. I’ll have to up my persuasion skills.

6. Earn $10,000 a month

I’ve earned this much in the past, but not since I gave up work. I want to prove to myself that I can still do it. I like challenges like this, as thinking big means I need to think outside the box and not just try the typical money-making ideas that don’t pay very much.

I have a few ideas. This challenge will be tough. It’s the one that I’m least confident about. But even getting halfway there will be an achievement considering I’ll be doing it alongside all the above.

UPDATE: I Already Reached My Target of Earning $8,000 a Month (this was an earlier target)

7. Have a net worth of $1 million

This is another thing that I achieved in the past, but Brexit and the weakness of the GBP have pushed my net worth down quite a bit. As with the above challenge, I want to prove to myself that I can do this again.

We plan to buy a house in the next year or two, so the higher our net worth, the better the house we’ll be able to afford.

8. Buy a house to renovate and sell in Thailand

The last item on the bucket list is to buy a run-down property in Thailand, fix it up, and sell it. I’ve done this in the UK, but I think it will be more challenging in Thailand.

My wife is Thai and she has a couple of friends that work in real estate, so I think this will be a great help.

That’s it. I’m pretty confident of completing all, or almost all, of the above in 2023. It will be an awesome year even if I don’t complete the entire list. But I will be trying.