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The year 2024 has begun and you may have already forgotten your good resolutions. Rather than working like this, a social science expert recommends another approach: the reverse bucket list.
At the beginning of February, few people continue to implement the good resolutions made in January. To avoid self-disappointment, a social science expert recommends writing a reverse bucket list instead.
The bucket list, an oppressive list?
The bucket list is a series of things that we aim to accomplish throughout our lives. The expression comes from the expression “to kick the bucket”, i.e. pass the weapon to the left. The list would therefore express the things we wish to do before dying.
The bucket list is therefore specific to each person and brings together projects that can be carried out in the short or longer term. But visiting this or that country, carrying out this or that activity or buying the house of your dreams are frequent examples of what you can find there. It is even possible to list things that are unachievable or a little crazy, with the aim of motivating yourself and thinking about how to make them a reality. The idea, ultimately, is to check all the boxes on your list.
Good in his body, good in his head!
A reverse bucket list, the way to free yourself from your constraints
If this approach seems motivating, to list your ambitions and try to achieve them, social science expert Anthony Brooks, interviewed by the site MindBodyGreen, recommends going further. For him, once the bucket list is completed, it should be crossed off. For what ? Because this allows us to say “unconsciously”: “this objective will be achieved or not, but I would not define my happiness according to this accomplishment”.
According to him, this would remove this objective from his mind and the emotions linked to it. Because sometimes, achieving a goal also represents a source of stress. No longer seeing it as an imperative sometimes allows you to achieve it sooner than expected. This is actually what happened to him, as he testifies: “I crossed off so many goals, some of which I later accomplished, but I was no longer dependent on them.”. He even encourages you to shorten your wish list, to gain satisfaction. “If you learn how to want less, your satisfaction will be much greater.” he concludes.