Advertisement
This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.
Close Banner
Advertisement
This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.

Why A Social Scientist Wants You To Make A Reverse Bucket List This Year

Jamie Schneider
Author:
December 30, 2023
Jamie Schneider
Former Senior Beauty & Lifestyle Editor
By Jamie Schneider
Former Senior Beauty & Lifestyle Editor
Jamie Schneider is the former Senior Beauty Editor at mindbodygreen. She has a B.A. in Organizational Studies and English from the University of Michigan, and her work has appeared in Coveteur, The Chill Times, and Wyld Skincare.
Image by Brilli / Contributor
December 30, 2023
We carefully vet all products and services featured on mindbodygreen using our commerce guidelines. Our selections are never influenced by the commissions earned from our links.

'Tis the season for resolutions and vision boards. With a new year on the horizon, it's common to reflect on your goals for the next 12 months—a relationship, a promotion, an adventure—and strategize various ways to follow through. 

Don't get me wrong, making plans and writing lists are great for creating a sense of agency in an otherwise uncertain world, but if it's genuine, long-lasting happiness you're after, social scientist Arthur Brooks, Ph.D., has different marching orders: Create a reverse bucket list.

How to create a reverse bucket list 

It starts out just like a regular bucket list: "Make a list of all your worldly cravings and desires," Brooks explains on the mindbodygreen podcast. "The money you want, the stuff you want, the satisfaction that would come momentarily from the admiration of strangers, the Instagram followers…whatever Mother Nature is telling you would make you the big man on campus."

Write that desire down—then cross it out. "You might get it or you might not," Brooks adds. "The point is that you do not want your limbic system to be governing your ambitions." See, pleasure comes from the limbic system in your brain. It works fast, as it's where you experience dopamine surges, though it doesn't lead to long-lasting enjoyment. Your prefrontal cortex, however, operates much slower and more logically—so that's where you want sources of pleasure to remain, says Brooks. 

"You want your prefrontal cortex to say to you, 'That [desire] might come or it might not, but I will not tie my bliss to getting that particular reward,'" he explains. "Saying that is enormously freeing." And you subconsciously say that when you cross items off your bucket list. 

Essentially, a reverse bucket list is the opposite of manifesting. Rather than visualizing exactly what you want in life and how, exactly, you'll get there, you're deleting the goal from your conscious mind, thus freeing its power over your emotions. 

This doesn't mean you can't have goals; just don't fool yourself into feeling satisfied after you achieve those desires—our brains, after all, are hardwired to want more, more, more. 

"I've crossed out so many of my worldly ambitions, many of which I got after the fact, but I wasn't tied to it," Brooks says. "If you can learn how to want less, your satisfaction is actually going to endure a lot better." A reverse bucket list is just one of the ways to reduce your wants. 

The takeaway 

Take it from a social scientist who specifically studies happiness: If you want to maintain lifelong joy, you might want to reduce your rewards. By crossing out items on your bucket list, you take away their emotional weight—and if you achieve them, anyway, chances are you'll wind up much happier.

Watch Next

Enjoy some of our favorite clips from classes

Watch Next

Enjoy some of our favorite clips from classes

What Is Meditation?

Mindfulness/Spirituality | Light Watkins

Box Breathing

Mindfulness/Spirituality | Gwen Dittmar

What Breathwork Can Address

Mindfulness/Spirituality | Gwen Dittmar

The 8 Limbs of Yoga - What is Asana?

Yoga | Caley Alyssa

Two Standing Postures to Open Up Tight Hips

Yoga | Caley Alyssa

How Plants Can Optimize Athletic Performance

Nutrition | Rich Roll

What to Eat Before a Workout

Nutrition | Rich Roll

How Ayurveda Helps Us Navigate Modern Life

Nutrition | Sahara Rose

Messages About Love & Relationships

Love & Relationships | Esther Perel

Love Languages

Love & Relationships | Esther Perel

Related Videos (10)

What Is Meditation?

Box Breathing

What Breathwork Can Address

The 8 Limbs of Yoga - What is Asana?

Two Standing Postures to Open Up Tight Hips

How Plants Can Optimize Athletic Performance

What to Eat Before a Workout

How Ayurveda Helps Us Navigate Modern Life

Messages About Love & Relationships

Love Languages

Advertisement
This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.

More On This Topic

more Mindfulness
Advertisement
This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.
Advertisement
This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.