Should we have a bucket list? 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning

English. I’m Neil.

And I’m Sam.

Have you always wanted to learn to dance the

tango, do a magic trick, or skydive? If so,

perhaps you need a bucket list – a list

of all the things you want to do before you

die – that’s the topic of our programme.

Bucket lists have been called ‘the greatest

hits of your life’ and have helped some

people overcome anxiety and fear of following

their dreams.

But they’ve also been accused of limiting

the imagination by encouraging people to follow

someone else’s idea of the perfect life.

So, what would be on your bucket list, Neil?

Are you a skydiving kind of person?

Not really! Bungee-jumping maybe - as long

as someone checked the elastic rope!

How about you?

One thing I’ve always wanted to do is swim

with dolphins.

Well, you’re not alone there, Sam, because

swimming with dolphins is one of the most

commonly included personal goals on bucket

lists. But which of the following things do

you think tops the list? That’s my quiz

question for today. Is it:

a) swimming with dolphins,

b) getting a tattoo, or

c) seeing the northern lights

I’ll go for a) swimming with dolphins – one,

because it’s something I really want to

do and two, because I’ve heard so many stories

about how it improves your mental health.

Well, that was certainly true in the case

of blogger Annette White. She listed hundreds

of things she wanted to accomplish - from

learning Spanish to hanging out with penguins

in Antarctica - as a way of improving her

psychological wellbeing. Here she is talking

to Claudia Hammond for BBC Radio 4’s

programme, All in the Mind:

You said that you started all this to try

to help you overcome your anxiety –

has it done that?

It definitely has and I feel that the reason

is because that promise to live my bucket

list really continuously pushes the comfort

zone to its limits and beyond it. So every

time I can have a chance to step out of my

comfort zone, a little piece of that fear

of the unknown is removed and replaced with

a little piece of empowerment, and by continuously

doing that, the size of my fear bubble has

gotten smaller.

Annette feels that choosing adventurous goals

for her bucket list helps her step outside

her comfort zone – the situations where

she feels safe and comfortable but where her

ability and determination are not really being

tested.

Moving out of her comfort zone has helped

Annette replace her feelings of fear with

feelings of empowerment – the process of

becoming stronger and more confident, especially

in controlling her life.

Well, that all sounds pretty good to me.

But not everyone is convinced that bucket lists

can really help people like Annette in the

long run. Here’s clinical psychologist

Linda Blair to explain why:

I’m not really in favour of bucket lists.

There are a couple of reasons. Most of all,

you’re kind of fooling yourself with a bucket

list. We fear death, more than I think we

fear anything else in our existence, because

we can’t predict it, and because we don’t

know what it’s like because nobody comes

back and tells us. And when you create a bucket

list – something to do before you ‘kick

the bucket’, the idea that you’re giving

yourself is that you can somehow control when

and what death is going to be all about.

We only make sense of our lives at the

end of it. A bucket list takes you away

from the chance to be spontaneous and I think it’s

so delicious to be able to say, ‘that’s

an opportunity? – oh, I’ll do that!’

Linda thinks some people use bucket lists

as a coping strategy to try to control something

uncontrollable – death. In this way they

are fooling - or deceiving - themselves - trying

to make themselves believe something they

know is not really true.

And by having a checklist of adventures to

tick off before they die, people might lose

the chance to be spontaneous – to act in

a natural and impulsive way without planning.

Linda also uses an unusual expression which

gave ‘bucket list’ its name in the first

place. A bucket list is all the things you

want to do before you ‘kick the bucket’

– an informal way of saying, ‘die’.

‘Kick the bucket’ is an old English expression

that was even used by Shakespeare. It refers

to kicking the bucket away from under the

feet of a hanging man, leaving him to drop

to his death.

Well, anyway, I hope I don’t kick the bucket

before I’ve had a chance to tell you the

correct answer to today’s quiz.

Remember, I asked you which personal

goal was most often included in bucket lists?

I said, a) swimming with dolphins

But the actual answer was c) seeing the

northern lights

Well, maybe we could combine the two in a

single trip…

And then get a tattoo! That would be spontaneous!

Today, we’ve been discussing bucket lists

– lists of all the things you want to do

before you ‘kick the bucket’ – an informal

way of saying ‘die’.

Bucket lists can be a great way to feel

empowered – stronger and more in

control of your life, because they take you

out of your comfort

zone – comfortable situations which are

safe but not challenging.

But others think you’re fooling – or deceiving

yourself – if you think bucket lists can

really help you control your life. In fact,

they might even make you less spontaneous

– less able to act in natural, sudden and

impulsive ways.

That’s all from us for now. Why not go and

make some plans for all the things you’d

like to do in your life?

And start having adventures before we see

you next time here at 6 Minute English from

BBC Learning English.

Bye.

Goodbye.