Create a Bucket List

Quick Win

Spell out your life goals — big or small — and start going after them. Setting attainable goals may improve mental health and quality of life.

Try This Today

• Let yourself dream. What would you do if you had unlimited time? Are there skills you’ve always wanted to learn? Places you’d like to visit?
• Make a plan. Create your bucket list and pick one goal to start on. Break it down into steps and plot your path to achieving it.
• Get started. Now block off time on your calendar each week to check your progress and cross off steps as you complete them.

Why

Research suggests that you’re more likely to achieve a goal if it’s “self-concordant,” meaning that it aligns with your interests and values rather than being imposed on you. The act of pursuing these types of goals may benefit your well-being. Enter the bucket list! If your bucket-list aspirations are aligned with your sense of purpose, so much the better. Having a higher sense of purpose was linked to a lower risk of dying prematurely in a study of more than 13,000 people over age 50 reported in 2022 in Preventive Medicine.