Since the release of the 2007 film The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, many seniors have been taking stock of their lives and making lists of things they want to do while they still can.
Items on bucket lists such as skydiving, taking elaborate vacations, or writing a book can take a lot of time and resources, so prominent mental health experts have been pushing for people to make “reverse bucket lists” to find gratitude and satisfaction in the life they’ve already lived.
What is a ‘reverse bucket list’?
Instead of making a list of everything you want to do before you kick the proverbial bucket, a reverse bucket list asks you to take stock of your life and list everything you’ve accomplished. It’s a personal list of what matters to you, so it may differ from how a coworker, family member, or friend would rank your achievements.
“When we put our accomplishments into words, we are forced to organize our experiences, retrieve memories, and make meaning of them,” clinical psychologist Anjali Gowda Ferguson, PhD, told Oprah Daily. “This process activates areas in the brain responsible for self-reflection, which helps us more fully integrate those experiences into our identity.”
“Ask yourself: ‘What have I experienced, learned, survived, achieved, and loved?’” Ferguson said. “The goal isn’t to create a list that is impressive to other people, but rather a record of your life lived.”
A reverse bucket list is all about gratitude
When we list everything we’ve accomplished in life, we create a personal narrative of the life we’ve lived, the challenges we’ve overcome, and the things we should be grateful for. Practicing gratitude is a hallmark of finding true happiness, because without it, none of the blessings in our life seem to stick. When we aren’t happy with what we have, we’re more likely to look outside ourselves for satisfaction.
“So many of us have these future forward-facing bucket lists of, ‘Oh, these are all the things I want to do,’ which is great,” Dr. Sue Varma told Today.com. “I love people having goals. But a reverse bucket list says, ‘Look at what I’ve already accomplished in my life.’ What are the things that I’m grateful for? What are the boxes that I’ve already checked off?”
Harvard happiness researcher Arthur Brooks, author of The Meaning of Your Life, uses his reverse bucket list to list everything he DOESN’T want to pursue anymore. “When I write them down, I acknowledge that I have the desire. When I cross them out, I acknowledge that I will not be attached to this goal,” he wrote on X.
The reverse bucket list helps us appreciate how full our lives have been. It can even work as a partner project to making a traditional bucket list. Because how in the world do you decide where to go in the remaining years of your life if you haven’t yet made sense of where you’ve already been?
