Don't Kick the Bucket! [An essay about the origins of the term "Bucket List" and the positive effects produced by setting goals.]
Looking back over the years and reflecting on the things one might have once wanted to accomplish can be quite difficult, if not impossible. All of the frivolous activities that brought joy and enthusiasm by just the thought of fulfilling the act lost to the continuity of time. Most people, if not everybody, set some sort of goals in their lives whether they consciously consider them goals or not. Over time people began to write these goals down, from the mundane to the most exotic activities. Eventually the term “Bucket List” arose as a way to define these life long ambitions.
Source
“A bucket list is, by definition, a list of things that you want to do before you die” (Bell np).
There is no age limit to when a bucket list can be started. Some people have been known to begin their bucket lists at very young ages while others keep them securely in their mind until they've reached an age they find appropriate to write their goals down and work towards them. At the same time there is no limit to the capacity of the items one is able to put down on their bucket list. After some people have completed an item on their bucket list they will leave it on as a trophy. When asked about her achievements, one person said, “I left them on my bucket list as a reminder of my accomplishments” (Coughenour np).
Nobody is quite certain where the term originated, but it became popularized in the 2007 movie “The Bucket List” with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson (Bell np). In this movie the two main actors meet each other in the hospital and are both dying of cancer. They decide to each write down a bucket list and set out to accomplish their goals together. While there is much controversy on the actual origins, there are several possibilities which stand out significantly. Its been said that in the Middle Ages some people when being hung would have a large bucket to stand on. When the hanging was to take place the bucket would be kicked from under them. The next theory that stands out is a reference to the Catholic custom of placing a bucket of holy water at the feet of the recently deceased. Friends and relatives would pay their last respects by sprinkling the water on the body. The final prospect that stands out is an old children's game where participants would kick a ball around buckets, if a bucket were to get kicked they would lose and have to sit out until the game was over (Bell np).
Even the general setting of goals can bring much improvement to one's life.
Goals affect performance through four mechanisms: (a) both cognitively and behaviorally directing attention and effort toward goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities; (b) energizing, with high goals leading to greater effort than low goals; (c) increasing persistence, with demanding goals prolonging effort; and (d) affecting action indirectly by leading to the arousal, discovery, and utilization of task-relevant knowledge and strategies. (Morisano & Shore 251)
By setting goals it is possible to bring focus and action to guide oneself in the necessary direction to actually manifest that which is desired. With more difficult to achieve goals the amount of persistence rises. “It has even been suggested that there is a form of happiness, labeled 'pregoal attainment positive affect,' that arises as an individual anticipates a future positive outcome” (qtd. Morisano & Shore 251).
A study was conducted where participants were asked either to write about their ideal future or to write about their plans just for the day. This was to be done for 20 minutes a day over the course of four days in a row. Three weeks later, it was found that “those who wrote about their ideal [future] scored significantly higher on measures of subjective psychological well-being than those who described short-term plans” (Morisano & Shore 251). Writing down the greatest tasks one wishes to achieve allows for the mind to focus on the right ideas to bring that into being. The mind, having a set goal rather than wandering aimlessly, begins to relax and come to terms with what is necessary to accomplish the tasks.
Large goals are capable of stimulating prolonged determination.
This determination and focus will inevitably become a part of everything one is to set forth in as the mind begins to align all of its actions towards the goal-oriented activities. With this in mind, one of my bucket list goals is to climb through the deadly trails of the Huashan Mountain in China. There are several trails which bring climbers to five summits which each have a religious structure of some sort, such as the tea house on the most southern summit at 7,087 feet (Lina np).
The trails of this climb are absolutely death defying with a level of difficulty Joann of the Arc would have questioned. The trail began as monks, missionaries, and other travelers began to carve it in the side of the cliffs. A significant portion of the trail has been reinforced, but not in such a spectacular way. Many of the areas there are hardly but chains to hold climbers against the side of the mountain thousands of feet in the air with but inches of toe space as climbers edge along.
These lethal trails claim many lives every year
One must be in good mental and physical condition to successfully navigate these ridges. Even though I found this idea through a meme online, I consider this to be an important goal on my bucket list. And while this is something I hold as rather important, there is a very large possibility that I may not be able to accomplish this task before my dying days reach me. I am a disabled veteran of the US Army in which I injured my spine and shoulder, leading to multiple surgeries on my shoulder. Due to the limitations of my physical condition my chances of completing this goal significantly decrease as I grow with age. Even though I know that there is a very large possibility that I may never get the opportunity to achieve one of my greatest life's ambitions, one of the most important items on my bucket list, I do not feel that this has any negative effect on my life. Knowing that I do everything I am monetarily and physically capable of accomplishing allows me to be at peace with any goal that I am unable to reach.
With all of the positive attributes to setting goals, its hard to think that having a bucket list could truly lead to detrimental factors in one's life. Bucket lists may often contain items and activities that are difficult to obtain. As research showed, these heightened levels of difficulty will bring about more competence and endurance in completing the goal and all tasks relevant to the goal. Completing goals and being able to look back on them in a bucket list brings about a sense of accomplishment which would raise self-esteem. Bucket lists are generally positive factors in one's life which bring about the necessary states of mind to focus and accomplish an ordained goal.
Work Cited
Bell, Trav. “What is a Bucket List?” The Bucket List Guy, August 24, 2012. www.thebucketlistguy.com/what-is-a-bucket-list/. Accessed November 16, 2016.
Coughenour, Melody. Personal Interview. November 15, 2016.
D., Lina. “The World's Most Dangerous Hiking Trail.” Bored Panda, 2014. www.boredpanda.com/worlds-most-dangerous-hiking-trail-huashan-mountain-china/. Accessed November 16, 2016.
Morisano, Dominique and Shore, Bruce M. “Can Personal Goal Setting Tap the Potential of the Gifted Underachiever?” Roeper Review, 20120, Vol. 32, Issue 4, pp. 249-258.
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