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Jonathan Padilla
Professor Dagher
UWRT 1102
16 April 2015
The Bucket List
Like most adventurous teenagers, I have high ambitions and a fearless determination to
experience what the vast world has to offer. To explore the exotic Amazon Rainforest, participate
in Brazilian festivities like Carnival, enjoy a tasty lunch in Frances finest restaurants, soak in the
sun on Californias Sonoma beach, and overlook the horizon from the top of Mt. Everest are just
some of the items on my bucket list. In a 2007 comedy film called The Bucket List, starring
Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, the two disparate characters meet at a hospital where they
are given the diagnosis of terminal illness. During their company with each other, Edward
(Nicholson) stumbles upon Carters (Freeman) bucket list; a list of things to do before death,
where the two then decide to embark on a journey full of adventure to fulfill their dreams. I
learned from this movie, to simply appreciate life and to explore what is open to me in this
beautiful world. Watching The Bucket List, changed my outlook on life and inspired me to create
my very own list; however, a stumping question remains. Can one find happiness through a
bucket list?
Happiness undoubtably can be found through a bucket list. A bucket list in simpler terms
can be defined as a list of significant personal goals to be achieved before death and those
personal goals are surprisingly essential to life itself. In Emmons' Striving for the Sacred:
Personal Goals, Life Meaning, and Religion, he

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believes that our lives revolve around our personal goals and ultimately, are structured based
from these personal goals. Goals bring a sense of purpose, unique to our lives, and upon
accomplishment, yields great personal reward and satisfaction. To Emmons, without goals, life
would lack structure and purpose (Emmons, PERSONAL GOALS, LIFE MEANING, AND
VIRTUE: WELLSPRINGS OF A POSITIVE LIFE). A bucket list, in a way, could be viewed as a
tool to organize these meaningful goals.
According to Emmons, happiness is a measurement of our progress in the pursuit of our
significant personal goal accomplishment, and these goals are unique to each and every
individual. Emmons believes that how we carry ourselves, how we feel, and what we value,
influences our life goals (Emmons, Striving for the Sacred: Personal Goals, Life Meaning, and
Religion). Essentially, what Emmons is saying is that goals reflect our identity, who we are
individually, and what we value as unique individuals. Snyder would also agree because he
firmly believes that goals are the way to fulfilling desires and expressing values. To him, goals
revolve around values, and expressed through action. "If a person values good nutrition, the way
to attain it is to set goals to eat specific types of food in specific amounts at specific times of the
day" (Snyder, Handbook of Positive Psychology).
Discovering that our personal goals are essentially derived from values, made me wonder
how we come to determine our unique values. In Personal Values, Belief and Attitudes, the
general idea revolves around learning about our individual values, beliefs, and attitudes. Here,
the author explores each topic, and goes into detail by defining each, elaborating on how we
individually build our values, beliefs, and attitudes, and how each contributes to our perspective
on the world. Through this source, I

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discovered that pursuing our personal goals is a way of expressing our values and ultimately,
who we are as unique individuals.