movie review: the bucket list
January 30, 2008
Recently my husband and I saw “The Bucket List” staring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Nicholson plays a corporate billionaire and Freeman a working class mechanic who share the same hospital room. Both have been diagnosed with terminal illness and realize they share the same urgent desire to accomplish unfulfilled dreams until they “kick the bucket”. As they set off on the trip of a lifetime, they build a powerful bond of friendship while learning to “seize the day and live life to the fullest”! As they accomplish each of their goals, they check it off the list. In the process, they find the joy and fulfillment that had thus far eluded them in their lives. Although the plot is somewhat predictable, the message rings true. The absolute joy that can result from setting goals and pursuing them with abandon is supported by much of the research in goal setting. Often, we don’t have a feeling of gratitude for our life, or health until it is threatened. When we are reminded that our time is limited, living our authentic life often takes on a new urgency.
Many people who have had brushes with death have created “life lists”. Marty Seligman suggests writing a Legacy Letter (or Eulogy) that takes a retrospective look back at your life from a future vantage point to encourage “seizing the day” and becoming the architect of your own future. I found this exercise really inspirational and clarifying.
One of the biggest problems facing most of us today is being over-stressed, over-tired and overworked. Taking time to stop, pause and reflect in a state of mindfulness and gratitude helps calibrate our life’s trajectory. Another message from “The Bucket List’ is that relationships with others offer much deeper satisfaction than accumulating wealth. However, living out one dreams and not standing on the sidelines of life is also essential to a life well lived!
I can enthusiastically recommend “The Bucket List”….I am busy composing my list….How about you?