Arthur C. Brooks argues bucket lists trap you in unhappiness by tying your worth to future achievements. Instead, write down your desires and cross them out, saying "easy come, easy go." Ground yourself in deeper roles like family and faith, not worldly milestones.
The bucket list is an incredibly deleterious way to set up your life because it's basically to say, when I achieve these worldly things, then I will be happy. And this is what I'm going to do this year. And all it does is make you more attached. It's like anti-Buddhism is kind of how it winds up. And so I have a reverse bucket list, which is to name my attachments and my ambitions and cravings and desires, which I'm not ashamed of, but I don't want to be managed by my desires. I want to manage my desires. And so I write them down and cross them out and say, easy come, easy go. This year I want to do this and this and this. Easy come, easy go. I am a human being. I am a child of God. I am a husband to my wife. I'm a grandfather. I'm all these things I really care about. And maybe those worldly things will happen and maybe they won't, and I'm gonna be just fine. No, I'm gonna be better than fine. That's how the reverse bucket list actually works. And it's, I'm free. I'm free for the first time. That's one of the exercises that helps you with your idols.
