Life is short, travel bucket lists are long. Here's how to conquer yours

Where would you go if you had six months to live? Fortunately, for most of us, this isn't the case, but deliberating along those lines certainly focuses the mind. "Bucket list" may now be a cliche - and a movie - but a Google search offers 84 million results. That's a lot of people thinking about where to go. Or buckets. Either way, the clock is ticking, so it's time to harness your remaining brain cells and get to it.

You may want to watch an Ashes Test match at Lord's (cricket list), visit Cape Canaveral to see a launch (rocket list), stretch out on powdery pale pink sand in the Seychelles (bucket and spade list), stop and smell the flowers at the Keukenhof Tulip Festival at Lisse in the Netherlands (bouquet list) or dine on Fines de Claire oysters in Bourcefranc-le-Chapus (shuck it list).

Reach for the stars. Or the auroras. Or the cherry blossoms. Or the reserve-curated fine wine list in Bordeaux. Allow yourself to be seduced by wanderlust. (Pro tip: don't Google that, it's not what you expect it to be.)

Check out the penguins in Antarctica, the orang-utans in Borneo, the whale sharks in the Philippines or the silverbacks in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda.

Watch a sunrise over Mount Fuji. Ride a ferry through the Stockholm archipelago. Dance the samba at Rio Carnival. Get high at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Take a river cruise on the Mekong to see Angkor Wat, if that's what floats your boat. This is your bucket list, so nothing is beyond the pail.

Whatever you decide, planning is key. So here is the definitive guide to creating the perfect bucket list.

Not the snow, the "Spend the Kids' Inheritance". If you feel you have to tell them this is how you are funding your trip, do it on Mother's Day or Father's Day, when they are required to like you, and won't know how to react. If you receive pushback, use my wife's "push tactic": "I pushed you out of me, so you actually owe me." There's no comeback for that, especially from daughter(s) who have done the same thing to give you a grandchild. Or from son(s) who are too grossed out to say anything.

This should be easy, especially as we established in Step 1 that it's not the kids. What do you really want to do? Forget about the cost at this stage; you can always work backwards from the ultimate goal. For example, if you love Chinese food, your bucket list might include a feast at the two-Michelin-starred Lung King Heen in the Four Seasons Hotel overlooking Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, although you might feel the need to make another list half an hour later.

This is not a time for playing it safe. If your most daring feat to date has been not declaring the mini-bar Pringles you ate when checking out of a hotel, or leaving your seatbelt unbuckled during minor air turbulence, you might want to dial it up a notch. Maybe you could skydive over the Palm Jumeirah and the Arabian Gulf in Dubai, backwards bungy from the Victoria Falls Bridge straddling Zambia and Zimbabwe, or go nightclubbing with Ben Stokes in Chelsea.

Obviously, this will largely be determined by Step 3. Not much point in planning to see the big five on a safari in Manhattan. (If you aren't aware of this, you probably won't be allowed out of your facility anyway.)

Cool. Now, how long until Mother's Day?