Entire travel books have been written around the theme of “must do and see,” and it’s never too early to start planning to accomplish your high ranking choices.

But what if you don’t have one?  Here are a few tips and a short story, to get started on your own travel bucket list:

1. Think local: It’s easy to overlook what’s close to home.  So think about all the things you keep telling yourself you’re going to do over the weekend but never get around to doing.  Those can be the first items on your bucket list.

2. Think family:  Whether it’s your family of origin, or a family acquired, getting back to our roots has been in vogue for years.  Put a family reunion, a trip back to the “old country” or a return to your childhood home, on your list.

3. Think luxury.  Chances are we all have ideas about where we’d like to spend some luxury holidays, so put those ideas on the list.  Whether it’s an over-the-top hotel, a luxurious spa, or some fabulous adventure, these dreams are the stuff that bucket lists are made of.

4. Think Adventure: Your definition of adventure may vary, but this section of your bucket list can contain all sorts of exciting experiences, no matter how you define adventure.

John Haskins, Co-owner of Viking Travel and The Cruise Shop is seen here, at Lexington Memorial Airport in Henrietta, Missouri, accomplishing one of the items on his "Bucket List."  When asked "Why this?" he simply stated, "I wanted to try something different...and skydiving intrigued me and it turned out - this really was more fun than it looks!"

5. Think destinations:  This is where you can lump everything else.  Whether local, exotic, or somewhere in between, start making a list of general places that you want to visit and worry about filling in the specifics later.  Think of it as mind mapping with a real map.

Breaking your list up into sub-lists should make it easy to get started and to organize.  Of course making the list is the easy part. Getting to everything on it is far more difficult.

It never hurts to get an expert opinion. You may wish to discuss your trip ideas with a travel agent, perhaps one of our agents who specializes in senior travel, adventure travel or the area you’d like to visit.

As the Travel Channel’s Andrew Zimmern says, “One man’s weird is another man’s wonderful.” Don’t let someone else dissuade you from making your travel dreams come true.