To-do lists, shopping lists, pro-con lists. There’s something about distilling information down into bitesize, bullet-pointed pieces that we just can’t get enough of – and making a bucket list is such a good example of that. Maybe you’ve never formalized it and it’s just a vague idea of things you’d like to achieve, stored only in your own head. Perhaps it is scribbled down in a notebook somewhere, imagined up after a couple of drinks with friends. For the really organized, they may even be a color-coded Excel sheet featuring realistic deadlines and steps to achieve each one. However you choose to document it, it’s likely you’ve at least thought about creating that list.
Despite its quite morbid-seeming origins – the term comes from the idea of things to do before you ‘kick the bucket’ – these lists can actually inspire a feeling of hope. By promising ourselves we’ll go skydiving, or write that novel, we are planning for the future. Just by adding to your list, you’re suggesting that something good will happen, that there’s still something fun to aim for. To a certain extent, creating the list itself, can be just as fulfilling as completing the activities on it. It’s a new beginning, an opportunity to set fresh goals for yourself and, although we all love that feeling of satisfaction when you do finally cross something off, whether you ever actually tick them off, is for you to decide – half the joy is in the dreaming, after all.
Also, for you to decide is your own deadline. It might feel nice to give yourself the indefinite timeline of ‘at some point in life’, but you can also make it more specific. People compile all kinds of bucket lists: things to do before a milestone birthday, over a specific summer, before the little ones start school. The only rules are the ones you set.