第1576期:Do you need a bucket list?

‘Life is for living’, according to the well-used expression: What we choose to do is up to us. That may not be completely true, but there is no harm in dreaming about what we’d like to achieve in our life. Many of us write a list of things we’d like to do before we die – often called a bucket list.

“生活就是为了生活”，这句话用得很好：我们选择做什么取决于我们自己。这可能并不完全正确，但梦想我们想要在生活中实现什么并没有什么坏处。我们中的许多人都会在死前写下我们想做的事情的清单——通常被称为遗愿清单。

Bucket lists have been called ‘the greatest hits of your life’ and have helped some people overcome anxiety which would have stopped them following their dreams.  Some of us may choose to write one to fill our life with exciting and new experiences – from skydiving to swimming with sharks – the list is unlimited.

遗愿清单被称为“你一生中最伟大的打击”，并帮助一些人克服了焦虑，这些焦虑会阻止他们追随自己的梦想。我们中的一些人可能会选择写一篇来让我们的生活充满令人兴奋和新的体验——从跳伞到与鲨鱼一起游泳——这份清单是无限的。

This is something the BBC radio programme All In The Mind has been looking at. It heard from a blogger called Annette White who said she made a promise to live her bucket list which “continuously pushes the comfort zone to its limits and beyond it.” Such a list can be exciting and can indeed help you plan your life and give you focus. When the BBC reporter Helen Fawkes knew she was suffering from incurable ovarian cancer, she took comfort in drawing up a bucket list -although she called it her ‘list for living’ because these were things for making the most of life. Sadly, she was not able to achieve all of her 50 things before she died at the age of 45.

这是 BBC 广播节目 All In The Mind 一直在关注的内容。它是从一位名叫安妮特怀特的博主那里听到的，她说她承诺要遵守她的遗愿清单，“不断将舒适区推向极限并超越它”。这样的清单可能会令人兴奋，并且确实可以帮助您规划生活并让您专注。当 BBC 记者 Helen Fawkes 知道她患有无法治愈的卵巢癌时，她欣慰地制定了一份遗愿清单——尽管她称其为“生活清单”，因为这些是充分利用生活的东西。可悲的是，在她 45 岁去世之前，她未能完成她所有的 50 件事。

Creating a bucket list can certainly give us hope, but some people have argued it can be used as a coping strategy to try to control something uncontrollable – death. Clinical psychologist Linda Blair told the BBC that she was “not really in favour of bucket lists… [they] take you away from the chance to be spontaneous.” It’s probably true that a list can encourage people to follow someone else’s idea of the perfect life. And also, following a fixed list of goals makes you less impulsive - your aims and wishes might change as you approach the day when you finally kick the bucket.

创建一个遗愿清单当然可以给我们带来希望，但有些人认为它可以作为一种应对策略来尝试控制无法控制的事情——死亡。临床心理学家琳达·布莱尔告诉 BBC，她“并不真正支持遗愿清单……[它们] 会让你失去自发的机会。”清单可以鼓励人们追随别人对完美生活的想法，这可能是真的。而且，遵循固定的目标清单会让你不那么冲动——当你接近你最终踢桶的那一天时，你的目标和愿望可能会发生变化。

But why not at least dream of what we would like to do? Why not reach for the stars, even if we only reach the sky? Whether we want to plan it or just see what happens, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so maybe we should live for today.

但为什么不至少梦想我们想做的事呢？即使我们只能到达天空，为什么不伸手去摘星星呢？无论我们是想计划还是只是看看会发生什么，我们都不知道明天会带来什么，所以也许我们应该为今天而活。

词汇表

life is for living 活出精彩
bucket list 人生愿望清单
anxiety 焦虑
experience 经历
skydiving 跳伞运动
comfort zone 舒适区
to its limits 到……最大限度
focus 专注的重点，中心
take comfort 从……中得到安慰
coping strategy 应对策略
uncontrollable 无法控制的
in favour of 支持，赞同
spontaneous 自发的，本能的
goal 目标
impulsive 冲动的
kick the bucket 死亡
reach for the stars 追求难以实现的东西
live for today 活在当下