How To Create A Relationship Bucket List

Have you ever heard of a relationship bucket list?  It’s something that was totally new to me, but a concept I have fallen in love with.  The idea is to create a list of things you want to accomplish in your relationship with your spouse.  This relationship bucket list gives you common goals to work toward.  What better way to build strength in your marriage?

How To Create A Relationship Bucket List

When I first read about this concept, I thought it would be like any other bucket list.  A simple list of things to do with your spouse.  While it can be, that isn’t what it has to be.  Many couples are taking it to a whole new level by creating real long lasting goals on their relationship bucket list.  Things like the dream home, or retirement plans, but also things like improvements in their local community, or even goals of being able to give to charity.  These are things I can get excited about and really see can build a relationship to a new level.

Decide what type of goals you want to set.  Talking to your spouse about the goals you want to set can be a fun project for a date night. Creating your list doesn’t have to happen all on one day, but can be spread out over a few date nights or weeks so you can really have a clear view of what you want to see within your relationship.  Like I said, relationship bucket list ideas can be as simple as things you want to do like skydiving or floating a river, but the more complex or intimate choices are the ones that tend to build strength in a marriage. Those are the ones that appeal to me.

Related: 16 Things I’ve Learned In 16 Years Of Marriage

Here are some ideas for the type of goals you can set with a relationship bucket list:

• Things to do together that are fun and help you focus on each other without outside stress interfering.
• Health and physical goals that include better eating habits, working out together, or even taking on marathons, longer hikes, or other things to improve your health.
• Intimacy goals to help rekindle the spark of your early years, or to build a more satisfying sexual relationship with your spouse.
• Emotional or communication goals to better deal with and love your spouse.
• Set financial goals to help increase your income, pay off debt, or save for the future.  This could also include retirement financial goals or setting up goals to invest and save for your children.
• Goals for making an impact in your community by organizing a movement for change, running for office, or volunteering to help those in need.

Independently create a goal list.  One great suggestion for building a quality relationship bucket list included making sure you set aside time to reach goals for both parties.  Yes, you need to create a goal for the two of you as a couple, but you also need to make sure both sides are being represented.  So, once you have decided what type of relationship bucket list you want to create from some of the suggestions above, it is time to sit down and have each person write down what comes to mind for the topic you have chosen.

Taking the time to separately write down ideas, thoughts, and things of importance will help you to both be able to look at the other person and see how their brain and heart worked regarding goals.  For one person the goal may be all about the security of better finances, while the other person it may be more about the experience that better finances afford. Seeing each other desires and thoughts on paper can help you each be able to focus better on creating goals that meet both of your needs emotionally and physically.  That is one of the best parts of this exercise. It really helps you to build a great focus on each other – not just the list.

Related: Celebrating 47 Years: Marriage Lessons From My Parents

Compare lists to build the ultimate relationship bucket list.  At this point, you have likely come up with a great list of goals for your relationship.  These could all be fun things to do together or things you want to improve upon, but no matter what you chose to add to your individual lists, it’s time to go over them to create a functional list that meets both of your needs.  As mentioned above, this is all about learning to focus on each other as you move toward common goals.

I love the idea of setting up relationship bucket list ideas to help build a better marriage.  Thinking about how to build a better level of communication and long-term happiness with your spouse is high on my list of priorities.  This simple exercise can be a wonderful way to really revamp your goals and learn more about each other.  In fact, I think it would be great to set up multiple relationship bucket list ideas to work toward as a couple.

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