Bucket List Builder

Building a Bucket List is a great way to help make sure you achieve your life’s dreams.  For some, it may mean climbing Kilimanjaro.  Others may want to see the cherry blossoms in Japan.  In today’s fast paced world, it is easy to let your life and the years slip away without you getting those things you most want out of it.  Take a few hours to write up your bucket list ideas and dreams, whether it includes bucket list destinations like Nepal or Machu Picchu, or something as simple as learning how to bake bread.

Our guest on today’s Active Travel Adventure’s podcast is Chase Boehringer of The BucketList Lifestyle.  Chase has a great story about how he went from practically suicidal to living an incredibly exciting life, all due to creating and then implementing his Bucket List.  In today’s show you’ll gain tips and insights as to why it is important to create your bucket list and practical ways for you to achieve your bucket list dreams.  

All photos courtesy of Chase and The BucketList Lifestyle.

Write it.  Plan it.  Live it.

This is the tag line for Chase’s company, where he helps folks achieve some of the most exciting Bucket List adventures from around the world.

Live through Chase vicariously through his blog or join him on one of his trips (can you say Running with the Bulls in Pamplona, or the magical and colorful Holi Festival in India???

How to Create Your Bucket List

1.  Name your Bucket List   Will you call it simply Bucket List, or Things to Do Before I Die?  

 2.  Write it down.   Studies show that when you write things down, you have a greater chance of achieving them.  But don’t stop there:

 3.  Share your list.  Studies also prove that when you tell others that you are committed to doing something, you are more likely to do so.  Some online apps and tools include:

 * Bucketlist.org : Great site where you can share your goals and keep track of your list, while getting encouragement and inspiration from the community.

*  BucketList.net  Similar to the above, but you can also ‘Swap’ to ask others for help in achieving your goals.

 *  BuckitDream App  lets you store and share your list

*  iWish App  This app has over 1000 suggestions to help you build a dream bucket list, plus also can help you tackle them

 4.  Organize your list.  Some things might have to wait until the kids are out of the house or you have more money or time.  Consider chunking them by age group (remember you have your entire LIFE to complete your list), say 30-40, 40-50, 50-65, 65+.  

 Perhaps also break them out by category:  travel, lifestyle, family, etc.  And then also mark them as easy or hard to do with little planning or money.  For example, one of Chase’s goals was to send a dozen roses to his mother for no reason.  This would be easy/inexpensive and could go on an ‘Anytime’ list.  Climbing to Everest Base Camp requires time, fitness and money, so would be a longer term planning item.  For these kinds of goals, you need to break them down into manageable, achievable goals so that once you complete all of the steps, you have achieved your end goal.

 5. Post your list.  Choose a few items that you want to work on now and then post this list in a conspicuous place (bathroom mirror?) that you will see it daily.  This will help you to keep your dreams in the forefront so life doesn’t just pass you by.

 6.  Make an Action Plan.  For each of your near term Bucket List items, break them down into the steps needed to achieve your dream.  Put a deadline for each step.  Consider setting up a special Savings Account that every month, an automatic draft zaps out your desired monthly savings towards your Bucket List so you never even SEE the money.  You will probably find that, like most people, you live just fine and not miss it, as we tend to spend what we see.

 7.  Vision and Memory Board.  Maybe you can make a Vision Board that represents your Bucket List goals.  Clip out photos that you can look at daily.  Make another board with photos from when you actually achieve one of your bucket list items.  These can help you maintain your vision and motivation when life gets in the way.

 8.  Then, as Chase says:  LIVE IT!

Reach out to Chase:

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Bucket List Travel with Chase Boehringer

Our interview is with Chase from The Bucketlist Lifestyle. Chase has made it his mission to do some of the coolest adventures and experiences in the world. Chase gives us some great insights into some practical ways that you can achieve your dreams and bucket list items. He has an amazing story that I’m anxious to share with you. He’s got some profound insights that will help you to put your dreams and desires on a piece of paper and think about how you can achieve these in your lifetime. We’re not just going to be dreaming because dreaming is just a fantasy. We’re going to figure out how we can make our bucket list dreams a reality. Here’s my interview with Chase.

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You could start by introducing yourself and perhaps telling us your age.

I’m Chase Boehringer. I’m 28 years old.

What’s your backstory? I know that you’re obsessed with bucket lists. Tell us a little bit about how all that came about.

It’s an interesting story because I wrote the bucket list when I was in the darkest period of my life. I had been chasing a version of success for my entire life. I grew up in a small town of 300 people in the Oregon woods. My version of success was to buy a three-bedroom, two-bath house and have a wife and kids. I chased that and got that very young. I had my house, a wife, the dogs and the cars at nineteen years old. It all came crashing down at 22. She had an affair with one of my good friends. It was devastating to me. It dropped me into a deep depression. It was no doubt the darkest period of my life. I needed an escape from the reality that I was living in. I needed a light at the end of the tunnel. That’s where the bucket list came in. I used the bucket list as a light at the end of the tunnel to see what life could be like for someone else who wasn’t in my situation, who wasn’t living my life.

That was like a doppelganger.

Yes, it’s someone else.

Do you have any idea of what the inspiration was? Out of all the different ways that you could try to find the light at the end of the tunnel, what was it about bucket list that appealed to you so much?

I was watching TV. There was a show on MTV about some guys with a bucket list from Canada called The Buried Life. They had been traveling around together as a group of friends, crossing off their bucket list items. It was pretty simple because it wasn’t a show that I’d ever seen before and that I was watching all the time. It just happened to be on the TV and I was like, “That seems fun.†They were having so much fun doing it and I hadn’t had fun in a long time. I had been numb to life. Seeing how much a life they had is what drew me towards that.

Would you say that’s one of the main reasons to have a bucket list? Why should people consider doing one?

The main reason is if your life is super dark right now, you should write a bucket list. A bucket list is so much more than an escape. If you want to achieve the dreams that you have or you want more clarity on the path that you’d like to take in your life, write a bucket list. That’s not just to talk about dreams. It’s to turn them into reality. It’s to claim them powerfully by writing them down to make a plan and then to take the leap and do it.

You did the bucket list over the course of a couple of days. Do you have a list and you just keep adding to it? How do you do the plans? Walk us through exactly how you started executing your list.

The first thing is the way that I wrote my list. It’s not “the way,†the end all be all or, “This is the exact way you need to do it.†However, I found that it was helpful for me in my process. I decided that it was going to be 100 things to keep it simple for myself and to say, “I have 100 things to complete.†As I was writing it, I kept it pretty simple. I was googling a lot of different other people’s stuff because, in my mind, I hadn’t ever thought outside the box as to what life could be. I had never met anyone who’s been outside of the country before. I had never met anyone who’s owned a business or done anything wild before. In trying to create that possibility for myself and trying to think what do I want to do with my life, it was challenging for me to figure out like, “What should I do or what do I want to do?†as opposed to looking at what other people were writing on theirs. I started going like, “That’s cool,†because I probably wrote about twenty of them myself. That’s when I was like, “I can’t think of anything else.†Having 100 items made it more simple and more tangible for me because I like checking off my to-do lists. I like the feeling of accomplishment when I go, “I got that thing done.†Although I have a little bit of a secret list that I keep on my notes on my iPhone, I still have that original list. Now I’ve crossed off 80 of the 100 over the last several years. It’s been a beautiful journey.

You have your list and it’s still 100. It’s overwhelming. Do you categorize them? Do you put them in easy or hard? What’s next?

I have categorized them, but it’s not something that anybody needs to do. I’ve used it as my hobby. Sometimes when I’m bored, I’ll be like, “Here are the travel ones. Here are the family ones. Here are the expensive ones or the ones that I have to do later in life.†Look at your life right now in what you are currently capable of. For example, you write on your bucket list, “I want to go to space.†I’m sorry, but in this exact moment, you likely cannot do it this weekend. It’s by figuring out, “What is pretty easy for me to get done?†both financially and time-wise in what you’re capable of with taking time off work or whatever you need. Getting clear on what the easy ones are is important. What’s important when it comes to writing the list is understanding that you’re not writing it for you right now.

If you were to write the list of what’s possible, you’ll think, “I have young children so I can’t travel. I have some credit card debt. I don’t have any savings.†If you’re writing your list for what you’re currently capable of doing in this exact moment, the list is going to be nowhere near what your true desires are. Anyone writing it should open up the possibility, not only financially or their current life situation because this truly is a list for your entire life, not just for the next couple of years. It’s a cool thing to say, “If money wasn’t a problem or if time wasn’t a problem, what would I do?†It’s claiming that by writing that down and saying, “If money wasn’t a problem,†because it may not be a problem in the future, “this is exactly how I would live my life.â€

Let’s use money as an example. It’s usually money or time, but money is something tangible. Let’s say they wanted to go to someplace that’s going to cost $10,000. They’ve got $20,000 in credit card debt so that’s not in the realm. Do you need to come up with a plan? You can’t wish it and make it happen. You’ve got to take some tangible steps in order to start achieving some of these dreams and goals.

To give people a little bit of context, I was a caregiver when I wrote that bucket list. When I was starting to live the bucket list lifestyle, I started blogging and things like that because I didn’t have a lot of money and I was traveling around the world doing a lot of crazy stuff. The way that I was able to do these things was that I got a taste for life. I got a taste for crossing off these items. I started researching, “How can I do this for incredibly cheap? How can I get resourceful and make it happen?†In my life, I decided to get resourceful. I learned how to travel hack using credit cards signup and Bonus Miles. There are a lot of ways. You can go on to any travel blog for the most part or my travel blog and learn more about how to do it cheaply. If it’s not something that you are currently capable of, let’s say you are in $20,000 in credit card debt and it is in Europe, for example, which is a little bit more expensive, it’s okay that this is not the time for you to cross that item off.

A bucket list is not just a dream but making a leap and doing it. Click To Tweet

There are plenty of things to do that are exciting and fun that don’t cost that much money. I’m not the person that says like, “Do it anyways and go live your life.†It’s just money,†because that’s not the world that we live in. You need money to get by and survive. I am very practical when it comes to being okay to push those a bit off into the near future and to tackle the things that you want to do in this life that are reasonable. There was plenty of items that were free for me on my list like getting to know my grandpa better, openly talking to my father and giving my mother a dozen roses and telling her that I love her not on Mother’s Day. There are many things, especially the things that I thought were expensive but weren’t that expensive, like flying an airplane. I found it on Groupon for $60. That comes from the planning process of saying, “How much does this cost? How long would it take for me to save up for it?â€

I’d like to interject something that’s worked well for me. I’m very good about paying my bills. I got good credit and all that. What I did is I set up travel as a bill. Every month, right out of my checking account, as if it was my electric bill, it goes into a special savings account that I don’t touch unless I can’t cashflow a particular trip. It adds up so quickly. You don’t even realize it. If it’s a bill and you never see the money in the first place, it doesn’t take long for that to start to stockpile for you.

That’s a great idea. I’ve heard of a couple of people doing that, but I haven’t met someone who does that. It’s cool to hear. Is it a percentage of your income or is it a specific amount?

It’s a certain amount. Every January, I give myself a raise. I look at my savings as what I truly earned. Unless you save it, you’ve got nothing to show for it for the most part. I had to reframe how I thought about savings. Instead of thinking of savings as denying yourself, I now think of it as rewarding myself. I get a dopamine hit particularly in January when I give myself a raise. By reframing how I think about savings, I’ve turned what used to be drudgery into something I look forward to. It has worked well for me. There are lots of obstacles people face in doing these. Do you have any other tips whether it’s time, money, conquering some fears of doing something or any other advice you might give them on these things?

A huge one is mindset. I talked about creating a possibility and writing this list for the future version of you, someone who you could grow into and become that person who could cross off those items and live that life. There’s something to be said for it. Once you plan this and figure out, “This is how much this will cost,†pulling the trigger and making that leap is difficult sometimes. For example, when I had never traveled before, taking that leap of buying a ticket to Spain to run with the bulls, which was my first trip, was scary. I did that alone, which was even scarier for me. The mindset shift is helpful if it’s not just a financial thing or a generally scary thing. It’s realizing, “I have two options. I can either continue on the life path that I’m on right now. I cannot take this leap and do this somewhat wild thing, or I can take that path with the wild thing and I may be successful in it, whatever that means to me.â€

That could be starting a business, going on a trip or having a conversation. It could go successfully or I could fail at it. If I fail at it, I’m going to come back to exactly where I am now. If you did take that leap and it didn’t go well, you’re going to come back to the same position that you are now, except you’re going to be smarter because you learned lessons from it. You give yourself the opportunity to succeed if you take that path. You’re living the failure that you’re scared of right now. You’re living that worst-case scenario by walking the path where you currently are.

There’s one other thing that has worked for me in that as well. That was back a few years ago. I already had the winter doldrums and something bad happened at work. I got upset. I was always interested in seeing if I like long–term travel so I booked a trip for six weeks to Europe. I paid for the ticket for seven, eight months out. I said, “I’ll figure out how to do it once that time comes around.†Sure enough, I put it on the calendar. I was like, “I don’t know how I’m going to pull this sucker off.†Once it was concrete and in the calendar, I figured out a way to make it happen. That might be another technique that people could use to get themselves to leap off that diving board.

It depends on knowing yourself, knowing what type of person you are. Your example is saving up a little bit every month and moving towards your goal slowly. Other people are the types that are like, “I know it’s right. I’m going to make it happen. I’m going to snap the decision and go.†It’s knowing yourself, what type of person you are. Let’s say you are a saver and a long-term planner. You put yourself in a situation where you’re like, “I’ve got to decide. I’ve got to go to Europe. I’ve got to go to Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. I’ve got to just go.†That can make you super nervous. You can regret your decision as opposed to, “I’m the type of person that likes to think things fully through,†to save up for them, plan everything out and know that, “Let’s take some time on this.†Don’t put yourself out of your comfort zone, but don’t make this decision from a place that is not your natural way of making your decision. You may end up changing your mind if you make it too quick. You’re like, “I’m not going to go.â€

I see from your blog that we both been to Cooper’s Hill. I didn’t participate, but I did walk by and did look down the hill. How about telling us a little bit about your experience there?

My experience I’m about to tell you is the most dangerous bucket list item that I’ve ever done, including running with the bulls and bungee jumping in the Thai jungle. In all sorts of wild things that I’ve done, Cooper’s Hill was the most dangerous. There is an insane festival in England called the Cheese-Rolling Festival. In a nutshell, there is a bunch of nutty, out-of-their-minds people at the top of a very steep hill. We’re talking about almost cliff-like grass hill with tons of potholes in it. Everyone is at the top. Some people are wearing crazy costumes. I was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, short shorts and little orange toe shoes. As we’re at the top, everyone is looking down this big hill. They’re getting ready for the cheese-rolling. The cheese-rolling is where they take a big round of cheese. It almost looks like a wheel made of cheese. They take it and roll it down this steep hill. It’s basically a cliff. They roll it down and all these people sprint down and chase after the cheese. The first person to either catch the cheese or make it to the bottom of the hill first wins.

Here’s what people don’t know about cheese-rolling that I didn’t know about until it was too late. At the bottom of the hill, there are big, bald, muscular men waiting. They’re all rugby players. These dudes love tackling idiots. I was one of those idiots. I was standing at the top of the hill, talking to the nine-time champion of cheese-rolling. He said, “I haven’t done it in two years.†I go, “Why not?†He goes, “Three years ago, I broke both my legs.†I go, “How did that happen?†He goes, “I won. I made it to the bottom. The danger isn’t Cooper’s Hill. It’s the rugby players at the bottom. One of them picked me up and body slammed me to the ground and broke my legs. Don’t worry. If you don’t get tackled by one of the rugby players and you make it past them, there are about 100 meters of blackberry bushes behind them that you run directly into.†It wasn’t only the actual cliff, but at the bottom of the cliff was a whole bunch of danger.

In a nutshell, there are about 300 people up there. They were only running three races with twelve people per race. Thirty-six people out of 300 get to run. Everyone had traveled around the world to be there. We were throwing elbows and knees. I was on my hands and knees, crawling between people’s legs to try and get to the start line to get to this first race. The first two races go. I’m almost to the front, but I’m not all the way to the front. Someone announces, “Only local boys this time,†because a local hadn’t won. I had traveled all the way to England to be in the Cheese-Rolling Festival and I wasn’t going to get to go. All the locals line up and there were only eleven of them. There isn’t one spot left. The champion dude who had won nine times turns around and goes, “Hawaiian shirt. Get up here. You’re an honorary Brockworth boy.†Brockworth was the village that we were in. He pulls me up and I run with the locals. I lose. I fall on my butt the entire way down and do cartwheels like everyone else. A couple of guys got hurt. Some dudes broke their arms and collarbones. Some people got a lot of dislocated shoulders. I made it all the way down to the end. I got a photo with the big round of cheese. I survived, which is the most important part.

How about something a little less than same but still challenging? You’ve also been to Nepal, another area that we’ve covered a couple of times on this show.

I love Nepal. That was challenging for me because I was doing the Everest base camp trek. Nepal is such a magical place. For those of you who haven’t been there, I’ve traveled all over Asia. It is a place where Western culture has hardly touched whatsoever, which is becoming more and more rare. It is so spiritual, grounded and unique. Kathmandu specifically is a city where if you get lost and you walk looking for good food or maybe a good person to talk to, you will have an adventure of some kind. I love Nepal. I’ve done a lot of trekking in the Himalayas. I hold the record for the fastest ascent to Everest base camp. That’s why it was difficult. The first time that I was in Nepal was to trek to Everest base camp. Now I do that every single year. I take people with me. It’s powerful to be in the Himalayas. They’re the most beautiful mountains on Earth in my opinion. I’ve seen a few. It’s one of those internal and external challenges where there’s so much beauty going on outside. There’s so much challenge happening inside. At the same time, it was beautiful because of that challenge and the person that you’re becoming as you continue on your path and the trek.

Do you have any favorite stories you’d like to share about Nepal?

I was traveling with my Sherpa Shankar. He was probably about 4’11†and maybe about 90 pounds, soaking wet. We were doing our trek for the record. We were just below Everest base camp, probably by about six or seven hours of trekking. We were spending the night there. I got altitude sickness so bad. We’re not talking like, “I’ve got a headache. I felt some nausea.†It felt as though my spinal cord was being ripped off of my brain. It felt as though my skull was coming apart. It was the most pain I’d ever been in my entire life. My eyeballs were googly eyes. I couldn’t control them. He stayed by my side the entire night nonstop, making sure I try and drink soup. He made sure that I was okay. He could hardly speak any English whatsoever so our communication was with hands and facial expressions. He knew what I was going through for sure. He’d been doing it for many years, being a Sherpa. He stayed by my side.

The next day, I felt okay to trek. We ended up trekking a long day. It ended up being more like nine or ten hours of trekking to base camp that next day. We made it. I started asking him on that last day about himself. I was like, “Do you have children?†He said it in very broken English, but we were able to communicate a bit at that point. He said, “I had three kids.†When the earthquake happened in Nepal, many children were orphaned. There were a lot of kids whom their parents had passed away. He had three children of his own living on a farm with him and his wife. He adopted five more children that were orphaned during the earthquake. He had eight children living with him on this farm that he said he loves so much. They were such good kids. He’s a Sherpa in Nepal. They’re not making that much money. When he’s not taking people up to the mountain, he’s farming on his farm, fourteen hours a day. I had asked him about that and there was not a single frown.

Life can go from where you are to where you have no idea where it could possibly go. Click To Tweet

He was happy, smiling ear to ear at the fact that he had these children in his life. He told me about how, during the actual earthquake, he and the other Sherpas banded together. More than 100 Sherpa men would trek from miles and miles with these big sticks on their back. They would have buckets. They would have to go to get fresh water to bring water to Kathmandu. The water had turned off for most of the city. The Sherpas would go and get all this fresh water on these big sticks on their back. Hundreds of them would trek all the way out of the city from miles and miles all day. They do that. They’d get back to the city to drop off fresh water. They pour it into a big bucket and they would go back again. They did that for weeks. They went back and forth. They were powerful men with the biggest hearts in Nepal.

Everybody that I’ve interviewed that’s gone to Nepal, there’s something about the soul in Nepal that appeals to them. They keep wanting to go back and back. When there’s so limited time to see all the places in the world, it’s amazing to me how much Nepal keeps drawing people back multiple times.

I don’t go just for the Himalayas because it’s a cool thing to do. I go because seeing Shankar and his family every time and experiencing being lost in Kathmandu is a very interesting feeling. It feels like you’re going into a different realm because there are people that have the rickshaws. Everyone is still dressed in their traditional garb. It’s a very interesting feeling to feel like you’re going back in time.

For those who are interested, we did a lodge-to-lodge just below Everest base camp in Episode 17 and also Annapurna, which is Episode 28. Let’s go on to another adventure. Can you talk about something else? Most of our shows are about paddling, hiking or cycling. It’s some other kind of adventure that you may have done or some stories you might want to tell along those lines?

I’m all about being active and adventuring. One of my favorite places to be outside as much as possible is Africa. I was in Africa. Staying outside, I have an active story for you. I ended up staying with a tribe called the Hadza tribe in Africa. They were a tribe that was previously uncontacted, meaning they had never met or spoken to a Western person. It was truly life-changing for me. They’re the oldest tribe on the planet. This tribe has been together for thousands of years. They’re nomadic. They have no possessions. They are a hunter-gatherer tribe. They’re not farmers like the Maasai. They take life day by day. Living and hunting with them every day, we would get up and hunt for six to ten hours. Every single morning, we’d get up, rest and hunt again in the evening. The women would spend their day picking berries and gathering roots. It was interesting that they are moving and hunting most of their day. They’re all working together. They’re making bird noises to communicate.

I’m sweating. It’s Africa. It is hot and we are hunting and moving fast. They are like ghosts. You can never hear them. It’s hard to keep up. I’m not much of a hunter. I grew up hunting and then stopped once I started to get a little bit more of a connection with animals. This is a different deal. This is their survival. They have babies. They have elderly people in their tribe. They need to hunt to feed their tribe. If you don’t get something, you keep hunting. You don’t stop because there’s more food in the fridge. It was a powerful experience to realize that these people were absolutely happier than most people that I knew in the West with zero possessions and with meaning to find their food and their water every single day. It was a powerful experience to realize there is no such thing as need. People are like, “I need Wi-Fi or I need this.†You don’t need anything outside of yourself to be happy. That’s the biggest lesson that I learned from living with that tribe. You do not need a cell phone. You don’t need hardly any food to be happy. Everything that you need is inside of yourself.

How did this come about? How did you meet these folks?

That’s what I do for work. I find wild experiences for people and I make it happen. I was hired by a couple who wanted to go to Africa and have some unique experiences. I called my friend who lives in Africa. I said, “I need to get ahold of some tribesmen.†We got ahold of the Maasai tribesmen. Through his friend and his friend, we got the experience with the Maasai but also the Hadza tribe and we were able to get a connection with other tribesmen. Through him, we were able to get a connection with the chief. The chief had to go to the local government and do a petition to get us to come to live with them because it’s illegal to go and stay with uncontacted tribes unless you get permission from their chief in writing. We had to get that permission from their chief, which took a long time. They speak a click language as well. We had to get a translator as if we could speak any African language. The click language is interesting to listen to and to communicate with through our translator. We got to ask them questions. We sat in a big semicircle around a fire and ask questions back and forth. “What do you love most about your tribe?†They would ask questions like, “How many wives do you have?†It was a wild experience.

Is there anything in particular that surprised you the most?

It’s the level at which they were living. It’s hard to explain. Someone doesn’t have shelter and is living under trees. That is their protection from the rain. That is their protection from the sun. They have nothing else. There are healthy babies with the women. You’re realizing they had nothing outside of themselves except for bow and arrows. That’s a wild experience. That was the most surprising thing, seeing how little you need to live. I had no idea that human beings could live happily and contently with nothing except for a bow and arrow. It was mind-boggling to me.

Mine’s not as extreme, but when I started backpacking, I had a similar thing. I was like, “Everything I need is on my back. Why do I have this house with all that stuff?†Backpacking changed how I look at life for that reason that you talk about. Chase, you’ve done 80 of your original 100 on your bucket list. What do you have coming up next? What’s left to do?

Eighty out of 100 are done. There are some things that are not even terribly difficult. For example, I still haven’t been fly-fishing. I haven’t learned how to play guitar. There are some that I can get done within the next few months in my spare time. I’m passionate about those things. I do want to learn and do those things. There are also some things that I will need to take time. On the list is to build a tree house, make my family tree, coach my kids’ team and own a Corvette, which is my favorite car in the world. There are some things that are long-term. It became more than a hobby. This became my almost obsession to cross off my bucket list. When I got to about 75 items, I slowed down. I realized that my cup is full. My life is full. I have done so much. I started wanting to live for helping other people create and cross off their bucket lists. I started to do a lot of meetups. I have my blog, The Bucketlist Lifestyle. I started to write more and focus on other people instead of on my own. I had used this as inspiration for others, but I hadn’t taken an active role in helping people to cross off their bucket list items. I started like, “I can go on these trips with people.†I started to take people on adventures.

You’ve got the Japan Cherry Blossoms and the Penis Festival. That sounds a little interesting. What’s that all about?

I’m partnering with a good friend of mine. His name is Scott Brills. He is an incredible adventurer. He’s been doing trips to Africa and Japan for a long time. He’s a wild man. He’s done the marathon through the Gobi Desert with zero training where he showed up. I can tell story after story of this guy. He and I are partnering together to do pretty much the wildest Japan trip that we could think of. We were like, “What is the funnest and wildest thing? If it was just you and I, what would we do?†We’re doing sumo wrestling, not just watching. We’re dressing up as Mario and Luigi and Princess Peach and Bowser. We have these fast little go-carts. We’re going to go through the streets of Tokyo.

The actual Penis Festival is going on while we’re there, which is where they make these giant papier–mâché and metal penises. They parade them through the street. It’s their fertility festival. It’s fun. It started as more of an ancient fertility festival. Now it’s more of a fun Penis Festival. It’s almost like a bachelorette party. Everyone’s got the little penis straws and things like that. If you haven’t heard of the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival, Google image search it because it is magnificent. It’s all of the locals’ time of year where they love to go to the cherry blossoms, sit underneath them and have picnics. There will be hundreds of people drinking a beer or some wine, eating some strawberries and things like that.

Speaking to parties, you’re also going to Rio for the Carnival?

The Carnival in Rio is one of the top parties on earth. One of the cool things that I’ve been able to do is, as I’ve traveled, I’ve found what the best parties on earth are. I’ve been to every cultural festival on the planet, all the wonders of the world, a lot of the big, traditional places that people like to go. I said, “What are the funnest and craziest things that we can do?†I found the top ten wildest and funnest. It’s not always just wild and fun. We have things like Everest base camp. We have things that are calmer. We have these fun things that I love to do. One of them was Carnival in Rio because I had such a fun time with the Brazilian people. They’re loving and inviting. I had people invite me to their home for dinner. Someone will have an extra beer and they’ll be walking down the street like, “Have a beer.†There’s such a giving and loving community vibe that you get in Brazil.

Carnival is different than I thought it would be. I don’t know exactly what I had in my brain. They’re called Blocos. There are block parties all over Rio de Janeiro, all over Brazil. I was in Rio de Janeiro. They have the tradition where people are dressed up in their super flashy with feathers wild costumes. It’s a parade that happens in a big stadium. You go to the stadium and the parade happens. It’s amazing, insane and ridiculous. You go back to the block parties. Most of it is dressing up like Halloween. People have different costumes. People will be Bumblebee or Superman. You’re dressed up in wild Halloween costumes. You’re drinking, dancing, listening to music and following big floats through the streets. It’s fun. We’re going to a fun gay ball there. In Octoberfest, there is a gay tent. It’s the funnest tent in all of Octoberfest. They have so much more fun in my experience than any of the other tents. When I go to the gay ball, they’re having so much fun. They’re expressing themselves and dancing. I’m not gay, but I do have a lot of gay friends because they’re so fun. I love going. We’re going to go to an actual ball, a dress-up suit and tie and ball gown gay ball in Rio. It’s going to be fun. I’m excited.

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Let’s talk about one last festival. How about the Holi Festival in India?

What I found was there are not a lot of Western tours that are going to India. We’re one of only two that takes people. Both of them are a small group. We only take seven people. This other group only takes six to this place called Vrindavan, which is where it all started. Holi is the festival of the light winning over darkness. It’s where their Krishna battled Holika, their devil, and had won. All this battle happened in Vrindavan, which is a small town near Agra, which is where the Taj Mahal is. We go into this traditional small town and it’s crazy. It’s wild. For those of you who don’t know Holi Festival, imagine where they throw all of the wild colors up in the air. If you haven’t heard of Holi before, it’s where they throw all these different powders and colors in the air. People are covered in powder. They’ll throw it in your face. You’ve got to wear sunglasses because it’s getting your eyes. You never know what powder they’re using in India. The people would pile into these massive temples.

On stages, there would be priests. These priests would have these almost like Hawaiian leis but with Indian flowers around them. It doesn’t make sense exactly, but there were sparkles in the air. I don’t know how that happened. I don’t understand it. It was like dust particles that were all sparkling in the air inside of these temples. You’d walk in and it’d be full of people, like a thousand people in a room that only holds 300. The whole air is full of sparkles. The priests are in the front. You push your way to the front. We ended up having to pay a local to help us get to the front because we’re like, “There’s no way that we’re pushing through.†I had a group of ten people in total with my videographer and stuff. We got to the front and they gave us sweets. They gave us little cookies, a blessing and some flowers, a lei for us. It was fun.

India is a crazy place in the sense that you never know what you’re about to get into. You never know what you’re about to see when you go around the corner. You can get into some wild situations. I did it by myself first, the Holi Festival on my own travels. I’m glad that I take people there. It can get dangerous. India is a place where, especially for women, sometimes they don’t respect the bodies of women as much. They’ll just grab or touch. It’s not okay. Having our own private security guards and stuff was super important. For anyone who goes to Holi, it is one of the most magnificent experiences in the world. During a festival like that, it’s very inexpensive paying a local to be your security guard or to go with a group of people. That’s important.

Tell us a little bit about your company. What is it that you do? Do you do the things we talked about each year? 

I did a lot of festivals and fun things. What I decided to do is I took the top ten most incredible experiences of my life. I started taking people to those ten. We do those ten adventures every single year. It’s a small group. I got annoyed with the tour industry. I don’t like it. I don’t even like calling my company a tour company. We’re an adventure company. With the tour industry, you stuck to the itinerary. I felt almost like cattle going through. You never know who you’re going to be on this trip with. I said, “I’m going to do things a little differently.†It’s an application only. I make sure I talk to each person individually on the phone or on a video chat before, making sure everyone’s positive and they understand the vibe we’re going for. I take those small groups to those fun places. I get to see the look on their face, that awe when they see the Taj Mahal for the first time. I’m seeing someone shake when they are running with the bulls in Spain, having an experience like that. We have our public trips. I do the private ones too, like the one in Africa.

A man and his wife said, “We want to do some wild stuff in Africa. Let’s go.†We went together. It was a super small group, but the private trip was wild. We had a lot of experience. We climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. We have to stay in glamping in the middle of Serengeti with lions around our tent. It was a lot of cool experiences. I’m so lucky to be able to do what I love and to be able to see the look on people’s faces as they get to have the same experiences that I had. I get to create that space for them. At the same time, it was a one-day decision where I was like, “Let’s do this.†I had no idea how to run a business, especially an online business. I’ve taken it step-by-step every single day. I didn’t have a lot of money to start this or anything. I was a caregiver. I had to quit my job as a caregiver to go into The Bucketlist Lifestyle. Although it sounds flashing like I have all my stuff together, that’s not true. I’m trying to follow my passion and to attract people with my love of travel and taking it step-by-step. I fail sometimes. I pick myself back up and try again.

For people who would like to read your blog or find out about your adventures or what you’re up to, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you or find you?

TheBucketlistLifestyle.com is the blog. My name is Chase Boehringer. You can add me on Facebook or The Bucketlist Lifestyle on Instagram. Social media is a great way. We’re posting a bunch of fun stuff that keeps you excited about travel as well. We teach a lot about how to travel inexpensively. Our trips are super affordable because I never had a lot of money growing up and during my travels. I didn’t want to make it super expensive for people. I don’t mind if someone doesn’t travel with me. I just want someone to travel in general. I teach people how to get free flights for free. It’s all in the website, learning how to get free hotels. I want people to travel and to experience life fully, whether through writing a bucket list and crossing them off one by one or from, “I’m going to do this one day. I’m going to sell it all,†or the opposite where it’s like, “I’m going to keep my job and travel once every four months.†That’s great too. As long as people are seeing the world and experiencing their life on their terms, the way they want to, I’m happy. That’s what I want.

If you want to give a main takeaway for people, what do you want them to take home and to chew on?

A lot of it is about the possibility. It’s about looking at maybe my life or someone else on a podcast and saying like, “That’s cool for him, but that’s not my life because A, B and C. I don’t have the money. I wasn’t raised this way,†whatever it is. For you to think about possibilities are truly endless. Imagine me sitting there. I’m 50 pounds overweight. I’m divorced. I’m depressed at 22. I’m contemplating suicide. I’m living in a small town, making not a lot of money at all. Transitioning from that to where I am now is night and day, black and white. Understand that you have no idea what life has in store for you. I’m not saying that your life may be in a dark place. I’m simply saying that it can go from where you are to where you have no idea where it could possibly go. It’s beautiful and incredible. Keep your mind open to possibility and understand that if you do write a bucket list, you’re not writing it for the version of you now. You’re writing it for the version of the person you could become.

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I love this interview with Chase. I hope that this episode opens your eyes to the possibilities of what you can do with your life. We get so caught up in our day–to–day ruts and all that. It’s important to step outside and see what you want to do with your life. I’m a big proponent that adventure travel allows you to lead a bigger life because it pushes you outside of your comfort zones. When you’re outside of your comfort zone is where you find your growth. That’s where you build your self-esteem, get the confidence to tackle all the crazy things that happen in our lives. I hope you got a lot out of this episode. I don’t advocate showing up to some of these places like Chase’s friend did to run across the Gobi Desert. I believe in training and preparation for things such as that. I don’t even advocate doing some of the crazy activities, but if that’s on your bucket list, go for it.

Be smart about it. I hope that this show encourages you to take some time for yourself, to sit down and think of what you want to do with the rest of your life. You can’t say, “Someday, I’m going to do this.†Someday, as I heard somewhere, is not a day of the week. If you were to do something, you have to write it down, commit to it and think about what obstacles are preventing you from doing that. Figure out how to whack away at those obstacles so you can achieve your goals and dreams, whether it’s to climb Kilimanjaro or to jump out of an airplane if that’s what you want to do. That’s not on my bucket list, but I know it’s on a lot of people’s bucket list. I like too that Chase says not everything on the bucket list has to be expensive or time-consuming. It could be getting a dozen roses to his mom for no good reason at all. This was an interesting, thought-provoking interview. I hope you do take some time to chew on it and perhaps read it again. I would encourage you to share this episode in particular with your friends on Facebook, Instagram and across your emails. Sharing and word of mouth is the best way to grow the show. I’ve seen a huge surge of downloads so I can see that you are sharing it and the word is getting out. Thanks for that. It means a lot to me. We’ve got some great things going on here. I look forward to sharing more adventures with you.

Speaking of sharing, how about sharing with me what your bucket list items are? I’d love to hear what your top three are. Reach out to me via email at Kit@ActiveTravelAdventures.com or via social. My social channels are on the website. I’m back from Podfest. I did get a ton out of that conference. I’m looking forward to implementing some of the techniques I learned to make this a better show for you. A special shout out to Kara who first emailed me. We got on the phone and had a nice conversation. She and her girlfriends are going to do the Cotswold Way because of this program. They read it, learned about it and now they’ve set sights on doing the Cotswold Way. I’m hoping to get them on the program to hear how they liked it. It should be a lot of fun. We are going to Canada to Banff National Park, which is stunning. I’ve got a guy coming on the show that’s been there multiple times to give us the insights that we’d need to know in order to plan that trip. Until then, adventure on.

Important Links:

• The Bucketlist Lifestyle
• Chase Boehringer
• Episode 17
• Episode 28
• The Bucketlist Lifestyle – Blog
• TheBucketlistLifestyle.com
• Facebook – Chase Boehringer
• Instagram – The Bucketlist Lifestyle
• Kit@ActiveTravelAdventures.com

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