Reverse Bucket List
I first heard of a Reverse Bucket list from Marelisa Fabrega of Daring to Live Fully. I immediately realized that this would be a great exercise for us recovering perfectionists. We beat ourselves up because we haven’t achieved all of our goals. Even though we think up a new goal every time we cross an existing one off of our list.
Just like how practicing gratitude can remind us of the things in our life that aren’t a complete disaster, a reverse bucket list can focus our attention on all the great things we’ve done instead of everything we have yet to do.
We forget that our everyday lives are what someone else aspires to. That we ourselves aspired to at one point. Marelisa’s reverse bucket list contained 50 things, and I’m turning 50 later this year, so I’ll go for 50 here. Make your own list, and let us know how it goes in the comments.
(Forgive me for starting with things travel-related - I’m getting a bit stir crazy.)
1. Spent a semester in Paris.
2. Visited the Louvre and saw the big 3 (Mona Lisa, Venus deMilo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace) and more on multiple occasions.
3. Took a dinner cruise on the Seine.
4. Went to Monet’s gardens in Giverny.
5. Went to Pere Lachaise cemetery and visited the graves of Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, and Abelard & Heloise.
6. Saw Monet’s Waterlilies at the Orangerie.
7. Visited London.
8. Had scones, jam & clotted cream in London.
9. Attended a concert at St. Martin in the Fields which is kind of a big deal if you’re into classical music.
10. Visited Stonehenge.
11. Visited Oxford and Cambridge.
12. Went to Disney World
13. Went to Colonial Williamsburg
14. Attended a concert in Central Park.
15. Attended a concert at Radio City Music Hall - it was Menudo, so that concert was #squadgoals no matter where it was.
16. Did a cross-country road trip (USA).
17. Traveled for work often enough that it stopped being a big deal. (Once my laundry was done, I could be packed and ready to leave again in 20 minutes.)
18. Stayed at The Boca Raton Resort & Club, which is swanky af. (It was a work thing.)
19. Flew first class.
20. Got a private mini-room on an overnight train.
21. Visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art (featuring the Temple of Dendur and lots of other cool stuff).
22. Visited MoMA (featuring Van Gogh’s Starry Night and a bunch of other paintings I studied in art history, including Munch’s The Scream when it was on loan.)
23. Visited the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island.
24. Saw The Monkees in concert on multiple occasions.
25. Saw many shows on Broadway, some with the original cast.
26. Saw off-broadway shows, including Puppetry of the Penis and Reservoir Bitches (an all-female version of Reservoir Dogs).
27. Sang with the choir at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
28. Participated in a Handel’s Messiah sing-a-long.
29. Belonged to the University Chorus in college, which included singing Bach, which is ridiculously difficult.
30. Was a Volunteer EMT.
31. Performed CPR in an inadvisable location (the center lane of a highway).
32. Married a man I still like many years later.
33. Got a Master’s Degree (even if it was one of the easy ones).
34. Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.
35. Rode in a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park.
36. Since I’m actually from NYC, I’ll lump together going to Bloomingdale’s, Macys Herald Square, Dylan’s Candy Bar, Saks 5th Ave, Rockefeller Center, and all that jazz.
37. Went to a jazz club in Paris.
38. Moved across the country.
39. Ate at famed German restaurant Luchow’s before it closed. (So what if I was too young to appreciate it and barely old enough to remember it?)
40. Took a cruise to Bermuda.
41. Became a professional writer.
42. Sold a personal essay to the New York Times.
43. Saw Patrick Stewart perform on stage multiple times (3, I think).
44. Attended multiple Phish concerts in the same week (it was the 90s, man).
45. Built a technology career despite lack of training or desire.
46. Cooked and ate Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourginon.
47. Ate snake at a Chinese hot pot restaurant. (Yes, it tasted like chicken. No, I didn’t know what it was before I ate. No, I didn’t get upset when I found out.)
48. Founded a company.
49. Attempted to watch the first 6 Star Wars movies in numerical order, and discovered that there is such a thing as too much movie watching.
50. Hosted enough parties that I’m not a nervous wreck anymore.
So what did I gain from this exercise? I feel a lot better about my current goals because now I can see that I’m not starting from zero. I’m a person who has done stuff, which makes doing more stuff seem a lot more do-able.
If this resonates with you, comment below and join the Team Accomplist FB Group.