1 New thing each month

Whether it is bucket lists or challenges like this, they all set my teeth on edge, I am not sure why. I think it is partly because they sound so desperate, people who are worried about advancing age and want to prove how young and ready to try new things they still are.

I have done lots of new thing since I retired; some always planned (voluntary work, returning to university for a year, family history) some unexpected (running an antiques stall, taking up pilates), I have returned to lots of activities I had done before but given up (sewing and knitting) and found an interest in things I never thought I would be interested in (gardening) but I have never had a list of experiences ticked off and moved on from. It sounds so dull.

M0nica I don't see it that way ... to me, it wouldn't be about 'trying to stay young', but about maximising time left - however much - in positive ways.. That said, I don't think it is easy to make a list without some forethought to budget and circumstances.

Now, I wouldn't want to plan more than a year at a time anyway - I don't like to be too prescriptive in life and a list would seem to invite failure to me ... but presuming I was on a budget (very likely) my list might include:

volunteer for something

picnic somewhere with a beautiful view

paint glass (keep meaning to as my DS2 bought me some lovely paints for a birthday and I never find the time!)

read MORE - perhaps try to follow up on a particular author

complete a 1,000 piece jigsaw

raise some money for charity by having a sale / doing a walk (won't go so far as to say 'a run'!)

buy close family Christmas presents from charity shops / up-cycle / craft

try to knit once more (left handed and a terrible disappointment in the knitting stakes to my lovely mum who could knit for England)

take a beach walk once a month

meet GC(s???) from school where possible once week

explore making different breads

write!

Might be a bit of a humble list, but enough to keep me busy methinks.

My friend is doinh this next year as she turns 60. Her list includes having a tattoo and driving a digger!

You wouldn't need to have a list to tick off, just look out for new things you might want to do.
I took part in a free 'webinar' the other day, instead of bypassing it as not my thing.
I also learn lots of new things, or new info on topics I'm interested in, on FutureLearn free courses.

I have NEVER liked tattoos and yet ... David Cimbleby at 80 seems to have made them 'sexy'!

FarNorth I'm starting a Future Learn course next month

Ah, but Imperfect in essence your list is no different in tone and type to list of new things I have done since retiring.

What I dislike are those tick lists of one off experiences that make the news so often. I think the problem with tick lists, which yours is not, is that in focusing on this, people miss other far more exciting opportunities that suddenly come their way, because they are chasing the bungee jump or the quiz experience, or the top of the Eiffel tower.

Gotcha M0nica - no, I don't like 'status' lists and take your point about possibly missing something in the everyday.

And I can promise right now that no-one will ever see me on the end of a bungee rope ...

Every month?
it may take me a whole month to think of something.

If I do 12 different things in one week does that count?

I decided to start a bucket list at 70. First on the list was visit Paris, something I had never done, I did it and loved it, then life intervened in the shape of H' s decline. I won't do the other things now but I suggest you all plan, no harm in that, if you do it good , if you don't, you had the dream.
I am happy with what I did.

Too old.

I've done all the new things I wanted to do when I could and now am too decrepit to do the new stuff being invented which I'd like to do, like skate boarding, kite surfing and too senile to cope with learning a new language.

A year or two back there was an ice skating rink at our local garden centre over Christmas. Now in my youth I used to go skating at Streatham so I thought, Yippee, I will go skating again, only to find my never secure sense of balance had deteriorated badly I went flat on my back with a bang within seconds and hobbled around for a month afterwards.

Discretion being the better part of valour, skating,together with learning to ski were crossed off any list I might have had.

Don't plan. Do it.
We planned what to do when we retired. Then my husband had an accident. Then he got ataxia. Then he got a brain tumour and died at 65.
Like annsixty says, life intervenes.

Agree. Do it if you can, while you can (gosh I've just agreed with DJ!)

Why ration yourself and wait to do just one thing each month? If the opportunity arises, just do it.

Careful, Nfk. Actually, I think you've possibly done it once before.

There you are NfkD - it didn't require physical effort like skate boarding or kite surfing!!
Although if you did it once before it wasn't new

I hate planning stuff in advance ,thankfully my OH is exactly the same ,so we do what we feel like doing when we want to.I have friends who check their diary and say oh I can fit you in 3 weeks come Friday but not until 9 weeks on Thursday after that...now it always amazes me that people know they'll WANT to spend time with that particular person on thhat particular day...not for me I'm afraid ,I'll do it today if I feel like it and no further in advannce than next week....some exceptions of course I watch the GC a lot so I have to remember what days I have THEM

I think, DJ, we would get on quite well - provided we avoided politics!

I like the idea of trying to do new things., I did some when I retired and now I am living on my own for the first time, I'm revisiting that. This summer I bought a Senior Railcard and have had days out to the coast, different towns that I hadn't visited for years. I've also visited shopping centres/high streets that I'd not been to before. I'm also trying to meet up with friends more.

I agree, Nfk.