I have a weird relationship with lists. I think of it as my Dos Equis take on lists, as in I don’t always make lists, but when I do they are totally unachievable.  Seriously, there is no way, even if I was Superwoman, that I could ever complete the things on my daily to-do list. I think of them more as a guideline, and do my best to mark as many off as possible, knowing that tomorrow is another day.  I have the same sort of relationship with my yearly bucket list, a term I hate, but have resigned to use.  I make a bucket list for travel every year, but rarely do I complete all the items. Usually, I get about half of them, which is really good odds if you are, say a batter, so that’s good enough for me.

This year, I wanted to make a travel to-do list to keep us inspired, but I wanted to put a new spin on it. My goal this year is to embrace the adage that “travel is a state of mind” or that travel is more about attitude rather than mobility. I’ve noticed that when we travel, we wake up each morning excited about what is going to happen that day and embrace the possibilities with a sense of wonderment. There isn’t any reason why we can’t face every day with that kind of attitude, goshdarnit. Okay, there are lots of reasons why every day doesn’t start with the freshness that accompanies travel, but that’s exactly what I am hoping to change. My goal is to create moments that celebrate the excitement born of travel even in the mundane location of home.  The essence of this year long exercise is to train our souls to stay away from the rut of real life even if we don’t have the luxury of shaking it up with a new location. I want to practice being a world explorer in my own little backyard or even within my own self.

How do I plan to achieve this hippy-dippy path of awesomazingness? Of course, I have a list:

Ten Ways to Explore the World Without Ever Leaving Home

1. Do ordinary things in unusual places.

2. Offer opportunities to be creative with no expectation of the end product.

3. Use something old to create something new.

4. Experience the miracle of life.

5. Look at a familiar place in a novel way.

6. Celebrate simple moments in big ways.

7. Spend time with people from a different walk of life.

8. Go somewhere without a plan.

9. Take a familiar object and use it in an unexpected way.

10. Start a collection.

So, that’s our list. I’m not sure how exactly we will be meeting all these goals, but that’s part of the fun. It’s about the journey, not the destination, or some such cliché. If history serves, we’ll probably fall short of meeting all these goals, but that’s okay too. Whatever we achieve, we’ll be exercising our explorer muscles-a worthy pursuit that will serve us well both near and far.

Print your own World Explorer List and start experimenting with exploration in the everyday!

Checklist for Becoming a World Explorer (without ever leaving home)