There was a film released in 2007 starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson about two terminally ill men embarking on a journey to complete a list of things before they die.
In the movie, both men were in a hospital sitting on beds when they talked about things they wanted to do before they “kicked the bucket,” eventually shortening the phrase to “bucket list.”
Since then, bucket list became synonymous with a list of things you want to do before you die. The term was scarcely being used beforehand, but it really took off after the movie.
It became so popular that a survey by Stanford School of Medicine found that over 90% said they have a bucket list, or at least a variation of it.
Naturally, we create our bucket lists when we start thinking of cool things we want to do in our lives. Some can be as simple as watching the sun set near the ocean, and others can be as complex as sneaking into North Korea and staying for at least 12 hours— wouldn’t recommend this unless you know a guy.
But if you want an effective bucket list, there needs to be a balance of things that are easy and hard. When your list is filled with things that are nearly impossible, there isn’t much motivation in accomplishing them. Conversely, if everything on your list is easy to do, then you’ll quickly get bored.
Worse, the allure of a bucket list becomes messy when you delay doing the things you added. It’s easy to write down wanting to see the Northern Lights, but the desire quickly wanes when making the necessary plans.
For some people, just writing it down to get it out of their head is enough; they know it’s a hard thing to do that requires resources to be moved around, so they bide their time.
And that’s okay. Chances are, we’ll never complete everything on our bucket lists.
But if you really want to knock a couple things off your list, then start with small, doable things and gradually work up to the bigger ones.
Even better, find a place on the internet where you can publicly share your bucket list. If your list is out there and readily accessible, then you’re held accountable for getting a few things marked off. If enough people are doing this, it’s possible that you’ll come across someone who has something on their list that’s similar to yours. You might even connect with internet strangers to help you cross things off in a more efficient way.
That’s why I decided making my bucket list public and sharing it with others. It’s now accessible on this website and I’ll keep adding things to it. It’s an experiment to see if it actually increases my desire to cross things off. When I cross something off, I’ll document the experience leading up to it and how I feel about it after it’s completed. I’ll keep adding more things to my list, and it’s likely I’ll never get them all crossed off.
But that’s okay. Now I’m thinking the goal isn’t to get them all done, but to get you to act on them and enjoy the journey.
So, don’t feel bad if you can’t do everything you wanted to do. Just remember to enjoy the moments for what their worth and not focus so much on crossing them off.
Here’s my inspiration for the day.
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